awptickes

I picked up some RSX wheels for $225 off craigslist. They were painted black, and the seller said there was no curb damage at all, and the paint job was really good. I picked them up (an adventure in itself) and discovered that they'd been painted with what appeared to be brush-on outdoor house paint. No biggie, I'd just strip the paint off, prime, paint, then clear. Oh no. The last three wheels weren't in such good shape. One wheel had some SERIOUS curb damage that had been repainted with black tempura paint to cover up the aluminum... I figured that it shouldn't cost more than $75 in supplies to fix all of them, and I'd still have a set of lighter than stock, wider than stock, Honda wheels for less than a set of König wheels.

So far I've just got three of them stripped, the previous owner used some neon green engine enamel on them, then some hunter green krylon, followed by black krylon, and then to finish it off, some black house paint. The black house paint was brushed on, while everything else was probably rattle-canned.

Aircraft stripper ftmfw. So easy to work with, just stay the fuck away from its fumes. First stripping session, I used the spray-can stuff, which took off the first three layers of paint. I then hosed it off with a high pressure washer at a car wash. Good times. After stripping the first very badly curbed wheel, I realized that the previous owner had repainted them (a different colour) every time he/she curbed a wheel. There was evidence of two touchups of the engine enamel, and a dozen touch ups of black house paint. Ugh. It took three stripping sessions to get the paint off, just because there was so god damned much of it. The aircraft stripper just doesn't seem to be able to penetrate deep enough through all fifty-bazillon layers of paint.

So far I've just gotten the curbage fixed on one wheel, and have the repaired areas primed. I used Bondo Plastic Metal to fill the damage. I then used a file and a sanding block to smooth it out, then primed it.

So far, here's what it looks like:

and in some different light:


Unfortunately I've got two more severely curb damaged wheels to go.

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92stoccord

Going on the CRZ?

awptickes

Yep. I'll wind up with this color, but with probably 10 coats of wet sanded clear:


That's essentially what it'll look like. EDIT: Just on a CR-Z

92stoccord

Mmm... think I like that combination. You gonna get Madd Tyte JDM center caps for them?

awptickes

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for center caps yet. I've got the stock Acura center caps still, and I might either just stick with those, or try to find some embossed center caps on eBay like I did with my Fit's wheels.

Taco15

Nice.

Did you smoke the headlights yourself too?

awptickes

No, that's not my pic, they're going on a CR-Z.

INJEN78

not bad,where did you pick them up from? theres a guy with an rsx here that did lime green on his wheels.

awptickes

I bought them in southern Baltimore, it was some kind of wrecking yard where they bought up totalled cars and repaired to roadworthy status. So who knows where they actually came from. The lime green was a good paint job, even after I stripped the million layers on top off of it.

Today the girlfriend is stripping the last wheel and then going to strip the brake dust/paint mixture that's inside the wheels. Hopefully I'll have them repaired and prepped for paint wednesday, and have them primed that night. Paint on Thursday or Friday. Then the week after that I'll have the tires on.

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awptickes

Mostly stripped, except for the center bore and lug holes. Gonna get that cleaned up tonight or tomorrow, then hopefully get them primed tomorrow, painted a day earlier too.

Tonight I'll fix the damage on the other curbed wheel. There turned out to only be two curb damaged wheels. :P

Taco15

nice man.

i wanna see what they'll look like on the CRZ. I'm curious.

awptickes

Gonna prime them tomorrow afternoon when it gets warm out.

Friday I'll put probably the first three coats of paint on them.

awptickes

First coat of primer: complete.
Second coat of primer: complete.

Now just running some 000 steel wool over the primer to get the grit off, then I'll wipe it down and maybe get a few wheels coated with paint.

awptickes

Repaired, primed, and smoothed out with steel wool. Due to other activities, re: girlfriend, going to be painting them sometime next week.

Ichigo1174

Looks really nice, I'm actually in the process of stripping, repairing, sanding and then later repainting a set of Motegi MR7 17's.
Looks really nice.

awptickes

Laid the first coat of paint tonight on all of them... Learned that this wheel paint wants to be laid on thicker than feels natural. Once I got it on thick enough it wasn't gritty.





The paint actually laid a lot lighter than I expected... I'm surprised about that, I was expecting it to be rather dark, but with all the metallic flecks, it reflects a lot of light.

Jeef

Looks good. How well will hold up to the guys putting tires on the wheels.

awptickes

I dunno about that. I'll probably take them to either the local firestone (have a good relationship with 'em), a local RIMZ shop, or a place that deals with a lot of luxury cars.

I've read about people using this paint, and not many folks have issues. Worst case I just do it myself.

Jeef

If you can give it a few days or weeks for the paint to cure so its not soft.

awptickes

Yeah, I plan on letting it cure for at least three days in my apt. Best part is that the natural gas cost is included in rent, so it'll be 75F all day long for a week to help the paint cure.

double0Si

Did you use duplicolors wheel paint? I like it lighter. That darker color had me wondering if it would lol right.

awptickes

It's not bad. It should lighten up as I get more on it, this stuff is highly metallic and reflective.

double0Si

Oh no, I like where its at now. The pic of the RSX's wheels is the one I wasn't high on.

TurboMirage

looks same color as my mitsu

awptickes

Yeah, close in color if not the same color. It actually looks really similar.


For some reason this paint wants to be laid on thicker than normal rattle-can. It doesn't self-smooth unless you lay it on thick. Oh well. I'll keep coating them until I get bored with that, then move on to clear. Two cans of paint down, two more to go.