I was wondering if any of you guys have taken a shot at painting your own wheels and if so how hard was it and what was the paint used that came closes to the Hyper Silver color. My wheels are flaking real bad and it's hard to find a good set of used stock wheels.
V-1 Wheels Paint
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There is an article in CTS-V FAQ that may be helpful.
http://www.cadillacfaq.com/faq/answers/curbrash/index.html
http://www.cadillacfaq.com/faq/answers/curbrash/index.html
it isn't how hard they are to paint because that isn't hard. Its how often you have to paint them. Paint won't hold up as well as the powder coating, not by a long shot.
Paint process? Clean thoroughly, sand with 180 to even them out, then 360 to slick them up. I always lay the wheel down on the ground, paint side up and use dawn dish washing detergent on the tires to keep the paint from sticking to them. Squeeze it right out of the bottle straight onto the tire so it builds up along the bead of the wheel and rub it around with your hands...takes 2 minutes. Works great.
On beaters or cars I'm flipping, spray paint will do but you'll be painting them once a year to keep them looking good because spray paint and brake dust don't get along so well.
Good Luck.
Paint process? Clean thoroughly, sand with 180 to even them out, then 360 to slick them up. I always lay the wheel down on the ground, paint side up and use dawn dish washing detergent on the tires to keep the paint from sticking to them. Squeeze it right out of the bottle straight onto the tire so it builds up along the bead of the wheel and rub it around with your hands...takes 2 minutes. Works great.
On beaters or cars I'm flipping, spray paint will do but you'll be painting them once a year to keep them looking good because spray paint and brake dust don't get along so well.
Good Luck.
I've seen a number of folks that have done DIY wheel painting with either Duplicolor or Rustoleum wheel spray cans (available at any auto parts chain store) and the stuff lasted just fine - way more than a year. Good prep is key, as is allowing for proper cure time.
Thats all subjective...I drive a lot and after 35 or 40k, sprayed painted wheels start looking tired IMHO. I guess if you took enough time and bought the very best in materials, they'd do a little better but powder coating is just to cheap to spend too much time and effort spray painting wheels.
The trick here is to apply multiple coats because spray paint flows out pretty thin and also buying something that has a gloss to it or spraying clear on it but don't expect miracles with a rattle can.
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