Hey guys, I'm getting a new set of OEM rims this week and I am painting them Metallic Gray. The guy I bought them from is shipping them with crappy tires on them still. I bought a new set of tires but I was wondering: should I just paint the wheels with the old tires on them? Or should I take them to a shop, remove tires, paint and take them back to get the tires put on again?

 

Put the new tires on & then paint.

 

paint them with no rubber on them

 

You have a slight chance of scratching the paint when mounting the rubber...

 

Paint before mounting the tires. The wheels need to be balanced and you do not want to paint over the weights because at some point they will need to be balanced again.

 

Sorry to hijack your thread, though it may help you...

How durable is powder coating? Like if I were to buy rims I like and have them powder coated a different color, would they be just a durable as a rim purchased that color from the factory? And how much does that usually cost per wheel?

Thanks,
Ryan

Again, sorry to jump in on your thread OP

 

powdercoating is way more durable than painting. a local powdercoating place with decent reputation quoted me $300 to powdercoat 4 rims, including 1 hr of sandblasting. i dunno if this is cheap or expensive, but i decided to just paint the rims myself when i get around to it, 'cuz painting is dirt cheap

 

I'd do more research on painting vs. powder coating before making any decision. I personally went with paint.

 

Cool, thanks guys.

Ryan

 

i would suggest having them powder coated. it's more durable and no chance of overspray on the backside of the inner rim... a more uniform process.

 

the factory wheels are painted, just fyi

 

Either way a powder coated rim is going to be much more durable if done correctly.

Unfortunately More Durable == More Expensive

 

Get a powdercoat kit from Eastwood and get a P.O.S. medium/large oven from the classifieds of your local area = powder coat all the parts that will fit in the oven you want.

 

Now this is something I've never even thought of...has this been tried? lol

 

I have a basic powdercoat kit from Eastwood that I used on my race parts back in the day. The parts turned out looking great. Realistically, you likely won't find an oven to fit an 18" rim in there unless it's pretty big though.

 

this is true..

 

I went to get my oem wheels powder coated and I was told that they where powder coated, and had to be sand-blasted. The cost would be $125 a wheel.

 

More durable yes. Usually powder coat costs less. Still there is more involved and the process could hurt the wheel. Paints today are much more durable and the process does not hurt the wheel. Also repairing a scratch or chip is considerably easier with a painted wheel. In addition you do not have to pay to have tires dismounted/mounted and balanced.

 

Well, anything that is coated already such as our rims or a finished product, will have to be sanded down yourself or sand blasted to get to the bare metal. You can't just put powder coat on a finished product and expect it to look top notch, same thing with paint, common sense.

 

While true, the chances of getting a non-surface scratch or chip in a powder coated part is drastically less, that **** is bonded 3x better than any paint job.

 

ok Im just saying that that I was told that the OEM wheels are powder-coated from that factory not painted.
IS that true?

 

TBH, I have no idea.

 

I think I may go with the sanding, primer, and paint like pdxhak said. Thanks everyone for your thoughts

 

dcperilli, Please do not do it because I said so. Check with local painters and research online. You will find arguments on both sides for what is better. It was a really hard choice for me and it came down to not wanting to take the chance o hurting the wheels with the powder coating process.

 

I've been doing research and all and I simply do not have the cash do powder coat so I figured if done right, the painting would be ideal.