[Jamwong]

Please be aware the lighting was different. I started in the day (5PM) and went up to night then into the garage. (11PM) so the whole thing look like 6 hours of labour alone. I prob spent about $50 in materials.

Note: This was a lot of work and I would appreciate it if you could add some +REP to me if you find this useful.

2 - Cans of Duplicolor Graphite Wheel Coating
1 - Can of Duplicolor Clear Coat Wheel Coating
1 - Can quick dry primper.
2 - Sheets of 100 grit sandpaper
1 - Sheet of 1000 grit sandpaper
2 - Sander inserts (Mesh like sandpaper which is very good cause it's durable)
1 - Pack of Index Cards
1 - Bondo body filler

Simple Green cleaner to clean the wheels.
Water

Let me tell you that 2 cans is more than enough. I had to do so many coats (8) of paint because of that.

Start off with a stock rim.

See how shiny a perfect rim is?

See how water beads up on the clearcoat of a perfect rim?

Here is an old pic with my rim that was curbed slightly...

Start sanding down the rim, wet the rim down so you are wet sanding to minimize dust and stuff. It'll start getting pasty.

Sand down your rim but you just mostly want to scratch the clearcoat really really well. Sand down the curbed area really well. You can see most of the scratches went away.

Put some bondo or body filler on the curbed area. You should mask off the tire.

Wait about 30 minutes for it to dry. Sand down the bondo with 700 grit.

Sand with 1000 Grit sandpaper.

 

[Jamwong]

Finished sanding

Other rims need to be sanded down. Prepare for the primer!

Spray primer on the rim. It was masked off with index cards.

Wait 30 minutes for the primer to dry. Now spray the rim with your paint. I used Duplicolor Wheel Coating. The color I used was HWP102 Graphite.

Here are the rims after 2 coats of paint. Spray evenly and about 20-30cm away from the rim. Wait about 20 minutes between each coat of paint.

3 coats of paint

5th coat of paint

Closeup of the look

Here is the 8th coat of paint

First layer of clearcoat

 

[Jamwong]

After the 3rd layer of clearcoat. Here is a pic of the curbed area... Sand with 100 grit sand paper so it's smooth now.

Looks very nice...

Closeup of the paint after 5 layer of clearcoat

I'll post pics of the finished product after drying today and maybe pics of them on the car.

 

[2K3NighthawkRSX]

Wow great job, especially on the scratch repair. I like the color choice alot.

 

[krnb0iek]

nice...lets see some pics of them on the car

 

[joriz RSX]

looks great man, excellent write up

pics of the wheels on the car soon

 

[rbeetz]

Awesome bro.. Pics on car, Pics on car! ! !

:snap:

 

[boix]

here for more pics


GOOD JOB too. like this DIY

 

[simon]

that's awesome. Did you have to do any sanding in between coats of paint or sand the final coat of clear to make it smooth?

 

[sodaks2k]

I really like that color! Nice write up as well. I can hardly wait to see them on the car!

 

[Jamwong]

that's awesome. Did you have to do any sanding in between coats of paint or sand the final coat of clear to make it smooth?

I never sanded in between coats of paint. There is no orange peel finishing at all with them. THey look very smooth as you can see in the close up pics.

 

[Jamwong]

Here they are on the car. Ignore the dust from the gloves when I installed them.

It was getting dark so they look very dark here. The sun was going down which does not show off how nice the rims look.

UPDATE: Pics of the wheels in the sun. They sparkle more than this but the camera captures it poorly.

The inside of the spokes is how it looks. If you want super sparkle I would suggest skipping the clear coat! When I need to repaint the wheels I will skip the clear coat next time.

This pic is the TRUE color of the wheel.

This pic is the TRUE gloss of the wheel with clear coat. (Remember it takes quite a bit of the sparkle in the paint away)

Last pic of TRUE color

 

[suiteddc5]

that was a hell of a job! Nice DIY great job

 

[iluvSquirrel]

nice,very good writeup. Looks great :thumbsup:

 

[OlieCan]

nice writeup dude. I might have to do this on my SSM... Maybe a slightly different color.. I don't know.

 

[AcuraRacesRSX]

what you might want to think about is take a small flat head. and scrape out the paint on the A to expose the black. Might not make it look as painted. I did it to mine when i painted em bronze. than gunmetal. than just bought new rims. BUt its easy to do and just be patient. its like cleaning teeth. just a thought. take it or leave it. otherwise u did great.

 

[suiteddc5]

they look way darker in the last two pix's

 

[inmydream316]

holy moly..u did really GJ on this....rep + (yeah..it's gone now...lol)

 

[dFunk]

nice job, take some pics in the sunlight!

 

[KBtypeS]

did u sand and do everything to the inside of the rim also?