K so im going to paint my stock 03 rims black/gunmetal like nismotion’s rims and i need to find a place that will remove my tires from the rim for cheap. i know how to do it if someone has the machine or knows someone with the machine. this is what im hoping to get as a result…
i need to sand off the clear coat and then just paint them with a can of duplicolor of my choice.hope it turns out good.
thanks to nismotion for the sweet idea. 
I painted my wheels with duplicolor last spring. I didnt take the tires off and they turned out OK. I just taped off the rubber really well. If any paint does get on the rubber, it pretty much comes right off anyway.
Make sure you sand really really well. I didn’t and I think that is part of the reason they have chipped to shit. After one season the paint looked like crap up close. Many little chips from rocks. I also got little chips from the rachet when I was taking the wheels on/off. That’s avoidable but you have to be very careful.
I’m going to sand the wheels down and try again this spring. Hopefully they will hold up better this year.
Painting is certainly an option, and I might even try that first to save some cash. But IMO, powder-coating is a better choice… that way you can get a rock hard finish that isn’t going to be as vulnerable to rock chips.
To take off the rubber, well any place that installs tires can do this for you. Of course finding one that won’t mess up your wheels is another story. If you lived in calgary you could go to TKs Tire. I go to get my slicks mounted all the time on my Bogart wheels - which are forged and polished - and those guys are great - never a scratch.
I would just get them powdercoated like silverboost mentioned. You will get a better finish and it will last more then one season.
my high school had the mounting machine. and aslong as you put the same tire back on the same rim, i shouldnt have to rebalance my tires. also the only reason i wanted to take the tires off is bc, i dont want to have a small line of silver showing thats right beside the tire so i was going to paint into the middle of the rim a bit. but yah that works too.
is it noticable when the clear coat is off? like how do i know if i have sanded enough? before painting
well… you could decide to not balance them… but that would be unwise.
your changing the weight of the tire/rims and the location of said weight. If you have access to one, I’d get them balanced. Nothing worse than nice vibration to go with you nice rims.
If you need them done, let me know…
I was able to paint right up to the edge of the wheel without having to remove the tires, but we obviously have different wheels. Like I said, don’t worry about getting paint on the tires. Clean the tires with a tire spray first and no paint will stick to them. You can use your fingernail to get it off.
I just used scotch brite on mine so there was a lot of clearcoat left on the wheels.
Yes powdercoating is a much better option. But I think it was ~$60 a wheel and that doesn’t include dismounting/mounting/balancing. I bought two cans of paint and two cans of clear at about $8 a can. I only ended up using 1.5 cans of paint and 1 of clear I think. Make sure to buy the Duplicolor clear as well.
Are you going to buy the flat/matte black?
u work at nissan dont u? how much do they charge to balance them and take off and put back on my tires?
and no, i want like a glossy finish. i was thinking not flat black but like black/gunmetal color, and a can of clear coat if needed.
No he doesn’t work at Nissan. But if you’re looking to get them off and balanced I know Speedy is a great place for getting that stuff done… (or they used to be) As for taking them of and putting them back on without balancing them I think is a stupid idea. You’re balancing the tire and rim not just the rim. I doesn’t matter if tire came from the same rim or not.
Agreed - if your tires are slightly out of round and are balanced on the wheels right now, if you put them back on the weight won’t be in the correct place to correct for the vibration.
Wheel mounts and balancing is like $20/tire, which is not a fortune if the tires are in decent shape.
sweet, well they are perfectly balanced right now. so i might just tape around the tire or just put tire cleaner on it so the paint doesnt stick. 80$ can go towards the springs for my car. i just paid 900$ for books and another 3000$ tuition to get me through this sem and my work exp. so another 80 is alot right now(im almost broke) + i want springs REALLY bad.
thanks for the tips, ill post pics as i do it.
I wanted a gloss black but Duplicolor only has “satin black” (I believe its called flat or matte in Canada) But if you load on the clear it is somewhat glossy. Its not totally dull like your average spray can flat black.
nismotions, is got a really nice gloss to it, and i asked him if he used clear coat, and aparently the color he picked up turned out like that. no clear coat. so i guess ill have to experiment.
Thats duplicolor?
this is exactially what he used. its all posted on his cardomain page.
Ahh I used the Wheel Coating, which is specifically for wheels. That’s technically touch-up paint. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll give that a shot if it works for you. I like the gloss a lot.
he said, that its sticking awesome… no chips or anything and its not comming off. im going to take my time sanding since i got all winter and yah, ill let u know how it goes.
Are you doing it in the near future?
yah im going to Canadian tire tom. to get the sand paper reflective tape and some paint, and im going to lay they out in my garage and work on them when i get time after doing homework. will probably spread it out over a week or so depending on my work load. but they will defiantly be done before winter is over so i can put them on my car when spring comes.
so heres the new idea for painting my rims… i did some more research and apparently i dont have to sand off the clear coat… another guy just applied some Dupli-Color Adhesion Promotor ontop of the clear coat and then just painted over that with some Dupli-Colorpaint… and he said its sticking awesome and it still looks like brand new after a few months so far. so im going to try that instead.