Painting Rivieras

[Paul]

How hard is it to clean and paint wheels? How much does the paint cost and how hard is it to do at home? I have a set of Rivieras with really dull half gone paint job on them.

Thanx,
Paul

[Ascaris]

I am in the process of repainting my wheels right now. It isn't very hard if you have access to a sandblaster, just takes some time.

I figure blasting takes about 30 minutes per wheel (only doing the face and any rust spots elsewhere). Be sure to use a metal etch on the bare metal before you prime it. There is special wheel paint available for the faces and I am using black for the backs and interior rims where there were rust spots.

Steps are:

1. Clean then blast
2. Metal etch with water wash afterwards
3. Primer coat
4. Silver coat
5. Clear coat

One can each of primer, color, and clear coat has been just right to finish 5 wheels for me.

[Paul]

What exactly did you use when sandblasting? sand? I tried a small section with sand and it seemed to remove the paint a little too well and almost dig into the aluminum. I was using around 60psi is there better results at 40psi?

[Ascaris]

I was using sand since I am redoing stock steel wheels. If you are redoing aftermarket aluminum wheels, you have a whole different problem. Not sure if you would paint aluminum wheels or polish. I know I have never had much luck polishing the alumnimum heads on my motorcycles.