mkv_martinez
Go Kart Champion
Last year I was lucky enough to score a killer deal on 4 steelies with winter tires still having about 75% life remaining. Only paid around $200 for these just before the first snowfall last year.
They were in mediocre shape last season, so I ran them as they came. I knew when I pulled them out from storage this year they would require a new coat of paint to stop any rust and keep them looking alright on the car.
Here are some pics of what they looked like when I pulled them out of storage:
Here is a pic of the supplies I used; some of this I had laying around already, but all of it can be found at any Home Depot.
Overall, the steps I performed are as follows:
I let the CitriStrip sit on the surface of the face/barrel of the wheels for between 30-60 minutes, and then followed up by scrubbing with a coarse 3m scuff pad
After rinsng off the stripping gel, this is what I was left with
I then hit the wheels with the wire-wheels and 60 grit sand paper to get the flaky paint off and attack any rust to ensure none of the areas are too bad to paint over. I was not going for perfection, but do hope to get a few years out of this paint job before any touch ups are needed. I ended up scuffing lots more paint off with the 60grit sand paper after this pic was taken.
For the last steps before paint, I gave the wheels 2 thorough washes with a de-greaser hitting the inside and out as well as tires to ensure everything was totally clean. After this, a wipe-down with Paint Stripper just to get every last bit of dust & loose paint off.
Finally comes the fun part.
Anyone who has not ever painted before may not know this, but 75% of the work is preparation. Spraying the paint is easy, and for the most part spray-paint is pretty dummy proof these days.
As long as the surface is prepared, the odds of things going wrong are greatly reduced.
I always do 1 light coat that barely has any coverage, after 2-3 minutes I'll go in with a much heavier coat and look to get nearly full coverage, after another ~2.5 mins or so I'll go back and fill in any areas that looked like low-spots. I did that for both the primer + color coats. After the last color coat, I waited another 3-5 minutes before the first full-coverage clear-coat, and another 2 minutes before a last light coat of clear. No need to rush and get complete coverage with any one coat as thats how you get runs in the paint.
Additionally, I was painting in the cold, so I had the extra steps of needing to warm the rim up with a heater before applying paint.
From here I hit the inside & out of all wheels with a good 3 coats of primer to ensure I had good coverage.
Once the primer dried, I used a very light 3m scuff pad to just level things out and get the surface ready for the actual paint + clear coat.
After a bit of dry time, here are the results:
Not sure when I plan on putting them on the car, but I know just ~70 miles away they got the first light snow of the season the other day; so figured it was time to get moving on these and ensure they are cured and ready to be mounted by first snow-fall near me.
I will be sure to follow up with a pic of them on the car once they are on. I'll also get a before + after pic to compare the new gloss black vs the old flat black stuff that was on there last year.
They were in mediocre shape last season, so I ran them as they came. I knew when I pulled them out from storage this year they would require a new coat of paint to stop any rust and keep them looking alright on the car.
Here are some pics of what they looked like when I pulled them out of storage:
Here is a pic of the supplies I used; some of this I had laying around already, but all of it can be found at any Home Depot.
I let the CitriStrip sit on the surface of the face/barrel of the wheels for between 30-60 minutes, and then followed up by scrubbing with a coarse 3m scuff pad
After rinsng off the stripping gel, this is what I was left with
I then hit the wheels with the wire-wheels and 60 grit sand paper to get the flaky paint off and attack any rust to ensure none of the areas are too bad to paint over. I was not going for perfection, but do hope to get a few years out of this paint job before any touch ups are needed. I ended up scuffing lots more paint off with the 60grit sand paper after this pic was taken.
Anyone who has not ever painted before may not know this, but 75% of the work is preparation. Spraying the paint is easy, and for the most part spray-paint is pretty dummy proof these days.
As long as the surface is prepared, the odds of things going wrong are greatly reduced.
I always do 1 light coat that barely has any coverage, after 2-3 minutes I'll go in with a much heavier coat and look to get nearly full coverage, after another ~2.5 mins or so I'll go back and fill in any areas that looked like low-spots. I did that for both the primer + color coats. After the last color coat, I waited another 3-5 minutes before the first full-coverage clear-coat, and another 2 minutes before a last light coat of clear. No need to rush and get complete coverage with any one coat as thats how you get runs in the paint.
Additionally, I was painting in the cold, so I had the extra steps of needing to warm the rim up with a heater before applying paint.
From here I hit the inside & out of all wheels with a good 3 coats of primer to ensure I had good coverage.
After a bit of dry time, here are the results:
I will be sure to follow up with a pic of them on the car once they are on. I'll also get a before + after pic to compare the new gloss black vs the old flat black stuff that was on there last year.
