painting wheels

[agentpineapple]

any suggestions on what the best method is.
i fancy having a go myself, the wheel has been blasted and rubbed down, its also had 3 coats of primer and been rubbed down after each coat, so its ready for paint, but whats best, a good friend suggested spray hammerite as the best option. i was wondering if a normal rattle can paint using many layer maybe 4 or 5 and then several layers of clear laquer would stand upto the job?
normally it would go to the powder coaters. but i want to give it a go myself, all advice welcomed although not always agreed with

[lloydie]

Don't use halfords paint it's crap
Go to a local paint shop (not b&Q)
And it will be about a £10 a can you would only need two cans and a can of clear

[tony.mon]

Leave paint to harden off for a few days before having tyres reinstalled, to avoid having chips with that.

[agentpineapple]

so no worries with normal paint other than avoid halfords?
i want to try something other than black, but i'm only doing the spare rear wheel i bought last week, i have a spare front but i need to get it blasted, whats the correct term, is it bead blasted/shot blasted or something different?

[sirch345]

Marty, I painted mine with rattle cans after having to replace both (but that's another story). I used car paint made by Hycote (new technology means it covers very well) purchased locally around £3 a can. I don't know what colour you're thinking about doing your wheels, but I used the same vauxhall paint as advertised here:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vauxhall-DIAM ... 519cbcc848

I didn't lacquer mine, but on hind site I wish I had. I just wanted to get the bike back on the road asap to make sure my replacement wheels were all good.



Chris.

[Wicky]

What primer did you use? Etch-primer?

[simo]

Yes I would agree using lacquer with Hycote. Make sure you either mask off or clean the surface of paint where the Discs mate up other wise they'll come loose.

[Stratman]

I'm toying with doing mine myself too, but don't really have the space to do them without covering everything else with a fine dusting of paint. I had been told that powder coating was a bit too brittle for wheels and it could chip, so am going for wet painting. I think I will get them done by a paintshop though as it's the first time they've been repainted in 14 years so £55 a wheel/14 isn't a great deal; they'll do the bellypan too.

[agentpineapple]

i started with a couple of coats of halfords primer/filler and then a coat of plastikote grey primer, the plastikote primer seems alot tougher than halfords primer...

[sirch345]

What primer did you use? Etch-primer?

No, I didn't go for acid etched primer Wicky, I used Hycote grey double acrylic primer, the same as here:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HYCOTE-GREY-P ... 2311115bc0
As I was painting the whole of the wheel I didn't want any possible damage to the bead area of the wheel meaning it may not seal properly if I used acid etched primer. It may of been fine, but an expensive way to find out if it wasn't.

I'm toying with doing mine myself too, but don't really have the space to do them without covering everything else with a fine dusting of paint. I had been told that powder coating was a bit too brittle for wheels and it could chip, so am going for wet painting. I think I will get them done by a paintshop though as it's the first time they've been repainted in 14 years so £55 a wheel/14 isn't a great deal; they'll do the bellypan too.

Paul, I also considered having the wheels powder coated before painting them myself, like so many have had done with no problems. What put me off was the P/C process of having to bake the wheels at a fairly high temperature. I'm not 100% convinced that this is a good thing for alloy wheels.

Chris.

[Stratman]

I think I will get the wheels done professionally - they will wet spray and several coats of lacquer before low baking to harden it off - they say that I don't need to remove the bearings but I am replacing these anyway as part of the Storm's "birthday" - the fronts are at 47,000 miles now and perfectly OK but whilst I'm at it, £15 or so is worth spending I thought.

I'll spray the bellypan myself though because if I make a complete bog up of it (I'm usually OK tho tbh) I can cover blemishes with strategically placed stickers and decals!

[marravtr]

painting wheels is a piece of pish! ive always used spraycans from wilco's, enamel paint lasts ages, very hard wearing! pic of my old blade i fightered with wilco painted wheels

[steeveeo]

Hi BSM

I have always painted wheels ,as plastic coating is difficult to repair if it gets chipped,
also plastic is a pig to remove from ya wheels/frame without paying for it to be blasted off,

Use smooth hamerite if ya go down that route .good finish ,but it drys bloody quickly if using cans,
and it only has limited colours to choose from.

to keep a good quality finish on ya paint,wear some of those paper painters overalls,use those plastic dust sheets to cover walls/tools etc in ya garage,wet the floor with water,it helps keep the crap of the paint/laquer .
ya can get these from those poundland type shops

get the paint on , a couple of dust coats,then 1or2 wet coats.same with laquer if using it
leave the area in between coats. until that coat drys .

good luck

[agentpineapple]

cheers gents, i won't be doing anything until the weekend, still unsure weither to use smooth black hammerite or get adventures with a bit of colour, the wheel isn't perfect, it's approx 18yrs old, but it's pretty good so watch this space, i'll be updating it this weekend....

[Stratman]

At 99p for two plastic dustsheets from Screwfix I think I'll give it a try myself - worst that happens is I have to take them to the paintshop later if I'm not happy with them!