First you're going to want to gather all of your paint, scouring pads, masking tape, etc. ahead of time. Make sure that the weather is going to cooperate with you too because rain would not be a good thing.

Here are some pics we snapped of the stuff we were using. We used 1 commercial grade scouring pad, about 3 cans of the Duplicolor Black Wheel Paint, and 1 can of the Duplicolor Clear Paint.





After getting everything organized you're going to want to tape off whatever part of your wheels you don't want paint on. In this case we were painting the wheels black so it didn't have to be perfect. Might be easier to have the tires off for painting if you're going with anything else but black to keep your tires in an attractive state.

Once you've taped off your wheels you're going to want to start scouring the beautiful polished finish of your wheels. Don't be afraid to put a little elbow grease on in this part of the application. Here is where you'll make or break your finish. Too little sanding and the paint won't stick so make sure you get every part of the wheel that you want to paint. Here I'm demonstrating for you guys.

Once you're doine scrouring the wheels should have a nice brushed finished.


Now you're ready to start applying the paint. We did 3 solid coats on mine since they're just auto-xing wheels and were nothing too fancy. If I were going for a real serious look I probably would've gone a few more. Here's a few shots of the wheels after just one coat. You can see how the paint is really adhearing to the scuffed surface of the wheels.




Since this is a pretty fast drying paint we didn't have to wait more than 20 min. between coats.

Once you're satisfied with the quality of the paint you've applied on your wheels it's time to clear coat them. We chose to put on 2 layers of clear because again these wheels wern't intended for show and will be punished on a regular basis. You'll want to apply your clear in several thinner coats to prevent globbing of the paint. It will turn a white milky color in spots where it collects but don't be scared. It will dry clear in no time flat. Here are a few pics of the wheels after the first layer of clear coat. The shine is starting to come through.




Once you're finished with your clear coat you can rest easy. You're finished!. Your wheels went from this...

to this...

All that's left now is to remove the tape and allow some drying time. Since I'm terribly inpatient I only gave the wheels about a half hour of drying time after the last layer of clear. Only thing left to do after that was to take some pictures.

Very good write up. I Need to grab some extra rims and do this for my Summer wheels

Good post man. I'm definatly going to do this. Looks real hot, love the contrast of silver on black.

Thanks guys. I was a little concerned going into this but like I said, they're only spare wheels. I'm glad that they turned out so well.

looking good ..... i wonder what they would have looked like if you would have done the reverse of what i did ........

Did you paint the inside of the wheel??? I am assuming you didn't wet the scouring pad???

looks good, what wheels are you do normally have on when not autoXing

We actually decided at the last min. to paint the inside of the wheels. Since the insides weren't polished like the faces were we didn't even bother scouring at all. The paint seems to be holding up fine in there either. But only time will tell. And for your second question, we did not wet the scouring pad. After we were done scrubbing over the entire wheel we cleaned all of the dust off real well. Just used a clean shop rag and a bucket of hose water.

I have another set of stock wheels that I bought off of somebody on the forums. Paid $350 for brand new tires mounted and balanced on a set of stock rims.

awesome wright up! the center caps had to come off, i wouldve painted over those LOL. Looks like I know what Im gonna do soon!

I actually don't have an extra set of center caps. When I purchased the wheels the guy gave me 4 caps off of a Cobalt SS but I just threw them away last week when I was cleaning out my shed. Oh well though.