Success with Painting Aluminum Rims?

[A_Bartle]

I need your opinions...

I know there is a lot of sharp individuals here with experience that I would find to be helpful. I just purchased a new (used) daily driver. It's a '95 Buick LeSabre with 80,000 miles on it. I want to restore it and make it a decent looking car, which will require a new paint job. The rims on the car look horrible, and I have been struggling with what to do. They were polished aluminum with clear applied to them (the spokes were painted, which held up pretty well). The clear coating obviously failed, and I have seen many LeSabre's with these rims that look terrible as well. New aftermarket alumn. rims will cost over $300, and used factory alumn. rims will cost about the same. I'm sure I would like either of those two choices, but I also wonder if I can save the $300 (which would be nice, as finances will be tight for a while). Has anyone had much luck sanding and rattle can painting a set of aluminum rims? Dupi-Color has a web page devoted to just that (see link below). My concern isn't the work involved, but I don't want to go through all the effort, only to have them look nice for a short period. I'm worried that the paint will easily chip or begin to peel over time. I don't have the dollars to set up a powder coat system, and to have to rims sent out and re-finished is also way too much money.

What's your thoughts, will the rattle can paint adhere well, is there a special primer I need to use? Will the paint last or does it easily chip? Would I be better off getting different rims altogether?

Thanks for your help!


http://www.dupli-color.com/projects/howto_wheel.html

[Moppie]

You have to clean them up properly, and having done it I can tell you its a LOT of work.

However, once the surface is properly prepped they are generally easy to paint (I just greased the tyres to stop the paint sticking to them) and the results can be worth it.
Just make sure you keep them clean and look after them after you have painted them.

[curtis73]

It can be done if you pay attention to prep work. Paint doesn't like to stick to aluminum so you have to give it something to bite to. Auto body parts stores carry aluminum etching products to help get paint to stick to aluminum. Its typically a weak acid and you can't see any change in the metal (other than maybe a little color change) when its done, but it helps alot. Another thing you can do is mechanically give it some tooth with sandpaper, light media blasting like baking soda (no sand, too aggressive) or other means of roughing up the surface will help. It might take an extra coat or two of paint to give you a mirror-finish depending on how aggressive your sanding goes and the quality of the paint.

Paint choices are multiple. If you don't mind very limited color choices, the Rust Oleum brand's "professional" metal paint line is very good for a rattle can. I've only ever seen industrial type colors like orange, yellow, black, and grey.

It wouldn't hurt to do a two-part epoxy or urethane paint either. Its more trouble since it requires a paint gun and compressor but it will be much more durable than any rattle can could ever hope to be.

The ultimate (and actually not too expensive if you shop around) would be powdercoating. Its durable stuff and comes in darn near any color.