Decent DIY Wheel Painting

With the cost of everything, I’m reaching my breaking point on trying to customize my wheels myself versus buy. I’m planning on trying to achieve a combination machined surface and satin black look.
Problem is, there are so many videos of “influencers” who are very energetic but obviously working beyond their competence level.
Is there anything on here or out there from some experts? I anticipate having to remove tires, sandblast, pay Eastwood some bucks and apply elbow grease, then clear them when I’m done; I’d just like to see a “bumper-to-bumper” write up or video before I make my decision to buy or diy.

 

I have done a few sets of wheels from when I was driving and restoring muscle cars. You are spot on, no need to make it more complicated than it is. Just labor mainly. Sand or sandblast, clean very well. Prime and paint, then a few coats of clear. Then, and this may be the hardest part.....let them sit a while 3 days to a week. Let the finishes cure.

Paint on wheels can require touch ups here and there. Wheels take a lot of abuse. And with the labor involved in doing it right, many powerdercoat vs paint. It last longer and is harder finish.

 

Great info, thanks @frichco228 - I had forgotten about curing time too. I was contemplating powder coating, I’m just envisioning that then they may as well clear them too, then they’ll want $200 per wheel, blah blah blah, and… I’m pivoting back to just buying new ones.
The market may have reached the point where you just do so-so work on them and freshen them up every year or two.

 

Or just swap out your wheels at that price of $200...I bet you can find some other rims for those prices..

 

I've done a few sets over the years with rattle cans.
short version:
It can look really good and still not be expensive (easily less than $100 total for paint to do 4-5 wheels)
Removing tape can be tricky when you want 2-tone look. I'd suggest it might be worth $10-$20 to get a can of color and a can of clear. The Rustoleum Ultimate is my favorite. It has lots of colors as well as matching clears. Tape off some shapes on piece of scrap metal if you can and try it out. Just know that appliances sometimes use a coating that your spray paint won't bond to correctly if you plan on test spraying an old washer/dryer.

longer version:
I even bought cosmetic blemished Ray10 wheels in silver at a discount and painted them darker with Rustoleum spray cans.
They will all eventually need touchups unless you choose to just live with dings. Especially if you offroad it at all. Been 4 years since I touched the Ray10s. Got some trail rash but still looks good enough. From more than 10 feet away or if they're dirty, can't tell the paint has any damage.

These have been my steps. I've done it with tires mounted and without. It's going to get scratched when tires are mounted but it's cheap to touchup when needed.

1. Clean thoroughly.
2. Scuff the shine off using medium Scotchbrite pads.
3. Blow out debris/dust from the scuffing and clean thoroughly again.
4. Wipe down really well with rubbing alcohol a few times until positive it's clean and no residues. (including no greasy finger prints).
4b. Cover and tape the tires if leaving them on. Then wipe wheels with alcohol again to confirm no fingerprints or tape residue.
5. Spray 2 "light" coats of paint and then a light/medium. More light/medium coats as needed to get good uniform appearance. You just don't want to cause any runs.
6. Minimum 2 coats of gloss clear. More as needed to get uniform look. Again, very careful to get good coverage but not cause runs. Always use same brand and type for clear as the color paint you used. That'll avoid odd chemical reactions (usually).
7. Allow to cure for a minimum 3 full days. Longer if your paint recommends longer.

If doing 2 tone. Take your time taping and make sure it's pressed down firmly. Use quality paint tape, not cheap crap. Make sure surface is clean with no tape residue before you paint on it. Let the 1st color cure for 48hr bare minimum before taping over it to do the 2nd color. Then do the clear on all of it at once in the end.

I usually tape off the logo on center caps or use a brush to repaint logo a contrasting color.

On a set of OEM Tacoma wheels, I used Duplicolor automotive body paints from auto parts store. General black metallic with a Toyota red metallic for accents. Gloss clear.
On a set of OEM Scion/Subrau wheels, I used Duplicolor wheel paint.
On the Ray10s, I used Rustoleum Universal Premium spray in Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic for the main section and a dark gray metallic for the outer ring.

Generally not a fan of modern Krylon paints but Duplicolor and Rustoleum have been good for me.
I usually do some test sprays on scrap metal or something to see how it lays and how heavy I can go without runs before I go spraying on the wheels.

Follow manufacturer instructions for whichever paint you use. If it says recoat "within 1 hour or after 48 hours", do it that way, do not recoat 3 hours after the first coat. The chemistry needs to do its thing.
After the final coat of clear, I usually let them sit a few days before bolting to the vehicle if they already have tires on them or at least a week before letting a shop mount tires if I painted them without tires already on them.

 

Been thinking about this option, thanks!

 

Thanks so much for the extensive write-up and detailing how you got your system down. I I’m trying to see if there is a way of getting a brushed or polished look on the silver portions of the wheel. To do this, I’ll have to strip the coating off the wheels. Any experience achieving that look?

 

If your wheels aren't starting out as polished/shiney/reflective already then it's more work to get to polished or brushed look.

In industrial work, when we have high shine polished stainless coming from electropolishing process, we use a fiber wheel spinning at speed on a bench grinder motor to reduce the shine of polished stainless steel down to a "brushed" look. I suppose maybe if you used a corded drill at high rpm, you could use a fiber wheel on that to "brush" your wheels. Then clean it and clear coat.
Never tried it on wheels so go at your own risk. Size of the disc will limit ability to reach corners so think about that too. Direction you hold tool will affect how the brushed lines looks.

I don't know if polished look is possible to create by hand. Usually polished/reflective/shiny look means surface is very smooth. Best guess is maybe wet sand repeatedly using progressively finer grain and then switch to fine rubbing compound on mechanical buffer wheel could polish bare metal to a high shine but again, never tried that so may not work.

Unless someone offers better method, i suspect trying to create brushed or polished look from scratch risks damage that you don't want to deal with.