DIY painting wheels/new wheels for $55.99

[slim724]

I wanted to change the look of my steel wheels with dogdish hubcaps. I found the chrome center caps with new lugs and black plastic retaining lugs on eBay for $40.00+shipping. I had to do some slight modifications to make them fit, basically you just remove the seating prongs on the backside of the center caps that are on each backside of the lug holes so that it will seat flush against the wheel. It needed to be more recessed so that the black plastic retaining lugs will screw into the steel lugs. I used Repli-color graphite #102 to paint the wheels, I bought 2 cans of spraypaint and 1 can of clearcoat at $5.99 a piece. It only took approx 3/4 can to paint 2 coats on all 4 wheels, I decided not to use the clearcoat since it looked good without it, and for any nicks or scratches I can just touch it up with a quick spray and I won't have worry about it matching. I painted the wheels with them still on the van, used steel wool to scuff and clean the wheels, then blasted everything clean with brake cleaner and wiped clean for final prep before paint. I used blue painters tape to mask off the valve stem and lug nuts. I then made an overspray shield out of three 3x5 index cards taped together in a semicircle matching the curve of the rim, and just ran it around the underside lip of the rim as I sprayed to minimise getting paint on the tires. I did get a little paint on the tires but it was easily rubbed off with a dry cotton towel. Sorry I wasn't able to take more pics of the prepping but I had to get it done 2.5hrs. Anybody can do this it's cheap, quick and easy, I did it in my dirty, dusty driveway with lots of wind in a minimal amount of time and it came out pretty good. A lift and new tires are next.

Here is the paint I used


Before


After


Before


After


Before


After

[LaGrasta]

Whoa! That's great, very nicely done.

[rlsllc]

I like the color, but liked your other caps better. I've always liked dog dish hub caps.

[Smiliesafari]

Nice...........add a set of beauty rings. I have close to the same thing. My wheels are "soft eights" and black but with the same center caps (GMC logo) and trim rings.

[mdmead]

Nice...........add a set of beauty rings. I have close to the same thing. My wheels are "soft eights" and black but with the same center caps (GMC logo) and trim rings.

I agree; add the chrome trim rings and it will really pop!

[crash]

nice.. the darker shade of grey makes them look deeper.

[slim724]

Nice...........add a set of beauty rings. I have close to the same thing. My wheels are "soft eights" and black but with the same center caps (GMC logo) and trim rings.

any pics of the wheels? I thought about putting rings on but the best price I could find for new ones was $75, so maybe at a later date. I would love to see what yours look like though.

I really wanted Caprice police rims, and use the center caps, but I couldn't find a set for a decent price

[slim724]

I like the color, but liked your other caps better. I've always liked dog dish hub caps.

I like the dog dish too, but I was trying to go for a deeper looking rim with my centercap/color combo, waaaay too hard to do with those dog dishes!

[snapple]

I like the color, but liked your other caps better. I've always liked dog dish hub caps.

Looks great!
Speaking of dogs.I hope yours wasn't getting ideas cozying up to your nice new paint job!

[slim724]

He's always cozying up to the van, Cooper loves the van, he knows he's going to have fun everytime he gets in it, if I open the slider he'll just kick back in there and use it as a dog house!

[GnarliSafari]

my dad has an 99 S-10 hi-ride or whatever they are called, and his beauty rings spin a little and managed to cut one of his valve stems clean off. luckily he wasnt on a highway or going fast but anyways if you do put beauty rings on i would strongly suggest investing in some metal valve stems. they look better anyways!

[snapple]

Glad Cooper knows he doesn't need to "mark" his territory! My neighbors dog likes to "mark my tires"!

[astrozam]

Looks good

[ihatemybike]

Nice work, but to me those rims and caps just don't blend well.

I painted a set of the 1985-1995 wagon wheels for Grumpy, just mounted w/bead balancing (no rim weights) last Thursday.



I love being able to mount and balance tires myself.

[slim724]

They'll probably look a little better with trim rings, but for the price, I think it looks better than stock, it's pretty hard to make the stock steelies look any different than what they are. I played around with possibly doing the outer rim edge in a light metallic silver or black and keeping the center graphite, but decided against it mainly because of the extra time involved. They'll do for now until I find a set of nice alloys in a pattern I like