Painting beat up aluminum rims
 

I have a set of pitted, stained looking rims. In my attempt to clean them up I gave up. Took me a hour of scrubbing and it still only looks fair.

So I decided I wanted to paint them. I was going to have them powder coated but I really don't want to take the tires off so im painting them black.

Anyone have any tips on painting aluminum black? Should I sand the aluminum down? If so what grit? Last time I tried painting aluminum its was smearing and puddled up.

Eh if you want to return the aluminum to decent shape go grab a bag full of steel wool, rough and fine, start with rough after a good wash. Throw it on your hand with a glove or on a bolt in a drill chuck your choice, then be prepared for a few hours worth of shoulder numbing pain.

Switch to the fine steel wool once you get smooth the big pits out, finish with 600grit or 400 grit then buffing compound, then paint.

Its a trail toy so im not going that extreme lol

Pressure washer\sand blaster, wipe with towel dry\dust free paint done.

lol that sounds good.:sly:

if you can strip them I think powercoating would only run $50 a wheel.

I can do it cheap, I just dont want to take the tires off...its a pita

If its a trail truck just wipe them off and rattle bedliner them lol. The texture of the bedliner will hide blemishes better than normal paint, so it'll look better and be easy to do

i painted my classic 2's black and wish i woulda just powdercoated them. lol but i put 2 coats of self etching primer, 2 coats of paint, and 2 coats of clear. Cleaning te rims is a major part to it though

Powder Coating will follow any imperfections in the surface…

You need to determine what you want them to look like, the quality of the finish.
The if it is just an off roader/DD sand them really good to clean up the surface oxidation , spray on some DuPont Etching Primer and then some DuPont Paint in the color and gloss you want.
if you want a good looking wheel you will need to rework the surface to smooth it out, not sure what is available anymore but there used to be a plastic putty that could be powder coated or painted without special prep.
AND if they are DD and you want them to just look OK, cleaned up, then sand, etch and paint.

The etching and keeping to the same manufacturer’s products is important for retention of the paint on the wheel.

luck