Need help painting polished wheels....

[CrateCruncher]

OK, I'm elbow deep in this Hiro Testa Rossa and it has the most gorgeous polished aluminum rims and stainless steel photo-etch wheels. Just one problem: the TR I'm doing has silver painted wheels. Ugh! I plan to scuff and paint the parts before assembly but not sure what primer and paint I should use. Hep me! hep me!

[koksik]

Alclad polishing aluminium paint

[935k3]

You can prep the wheels and scuff them by using a toothbrush and some SoftScrub cleaner(a mild abrasive), sold in the kitchen cleaning section of supermarket. Then get some Duplicolor Self-Etching Primer, sold at most auto part stores. Then apply regular primer over that.

[360spider]

Tamiya Metal primer, or any other etching primer.
These primers contain a fair amount of acid that etches into metal (you can't really see it, it is smooth), and gives primer a tooth to hold on to metal.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tam/tam87061.htm

[CrateCruncher]

Thanks guys. The Duplicolor should be easy to locate around here. I'll give that a try first and report how it goes.

[Didymus]

Next to polished white metal, my favorite aluminum these days is Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver. Compared to glossy aluminum, it's a thinner coating with less of a dipped-in-paint appearance. It looks lighter and more in scale. To my eyes, it's just right for aluminum wheels and suspension parts.

Ddms

[CrateCruncher]

Thanks for that info on AS-12 Didymus. I did a test with TS-17 gloss aluminum and it's too shiney. I'm looking for a matte silver grey with no discernable flake. I'm also really concerned about paint buildup and not being able to assemble my wheels so thin is GOOD.

I also thought about X-11 airbrushed really thin but haven't tried it. It needs to be fairly durable too. Wheels do get scraped and knocked about when transporting.

[360spider]

Put the wheels together, then paint.

[CrateCruncher]

Well that would be a lot easier for sure. My concern with painting after wheel assembly is getting adequate coverage toward the interior of the wheel through all the spokes (6 layers!) without laying on too much material on the outer layers. I tried painting a 2.5" 1/8 Pocher Alfa wheel after assembly and had that problem a few years ago. My airbrush isn't great (kinda matched to the operator) so I don't want to set myself up for that again! Theres probably a compromise between the two extremes by simply painting the interior parts before assembly.

[BVC500]

Doesn't allclad make a matt aluminum finish?

[CrateCruncher]

I guess I should have posted a picture of what I want to achieve in the original post. Sorry.

It's not a great picture but it's clearly dull silver paint. The wheels in the kit are machined, then polished, aluminum and they look beautiful but unfortunately their all wrong for my car. So I'm doing the unthinkable: painting polished aluminum wheels with matte silver paint (yes, I've lost it!). BTW, I found some Tamiya Metal Primer at my LHS today. I never noticed it before today.

[360spider]

I've done it before (painting the wheels after assembly) and it wasn't a problem.

[CrateCruncher]

I'll give it a go then. Thanks Alex!