Painted My Wheel Center Graphite. Provide comments Please
01-25-2009, 08:32 PM
#1
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Location: Queens, NY
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My Ride: A Car
I couldnt stand the Hyperblack "Chromeness." So I decided to paint the centers graphite. Here's a lil DIY. Please provide some comments. I only did one wheel so if you guys think it didnt look good, I only have to redo one wheel instead of 4 wheels. 
Time: 4 hours and LOTs of patience (Painting took 1 hour. Sand, wash, and prime took 3 hours)
Difficulty: Medium
Materials: Masking Tape, 320 Grit Sandpaper, Duplicolor Primer, Duplicolor Performance Wheel Base Coat, Duplicolor Performance Wheel Clear Coat, Respirator, Alcohol or Prep Wipes, Lint-Free Cloth, Gloves, Dishwashing Liquid, Wax
Step 1: Wash the wheels with dish washing detergent. You can wash just the area u paint but I decided to wash the whole wheel anyway including the tires so my hands, clothes, etc wouldn't be dirty. My wheels and tires have less than 500 miles on it.
Step 2: Sand the area you want to be sanded with 320 grit. Wash again and then wait for dry.
Step 3: Wipe it down with a Duplicolor prep wipe or be cheap like me and use alcohol and then wipe with a lint-free cloth or tack cloth.
Step 4: Take the center cap off, mask the tire, the valve stem, the areas you wouldnt want the paint to be in. Also remember to stick some masking tape into the lug holes just in case there's too much paint there and the lug bolts do not fit.
Step 5: Make sure there's no dust. Now spray a light coat of primer and then a medium coat of primer. Wait 10 minutes in between each coat. Remember all coats have to be on the wheel within about an hour.
Step 6: Then 3 coats of base coat. One light, medium, then heavy.
Step 7: Then 3 coats of clear coat. One light, medium, then heavy. Let dry for 1 hour to the touch and 3 hours to handle.
Step 8: Unmask after it dries and clean off the masking tape adhesive. Wax the wheels and you're done!
Step 9: Wait for it to dry for 7 days. Since the bottle says wait 7 days before adding more coats of paint, I am waiting it to dry for 7 days. It doesnt matter since there's a lot of time until summer and I am spending about a week per wheel.
Snapshot of a few of the materials:
Time: 4 hours and LOTs of patience (Painting took 1 hour. Sand, wash, and prime took 3 hours)
Difficulty: Medium
Materials: Masking Tape, 320 Grit Sandpaper, Duplicolor Primer, Duplicolor Performance Wheel Base Coat, Duplicolor Performance Wheel Clear Coat, Respirator, Alcohol or Prep Wipes, Lint-Free Cloth, Gloves, Dishwashing Liquid, Wax
Step 1: Wash the wheels with dish washing detergent. You can wash just the area u paint but I decided to wash the whole wheel anyway including the tires so my hands, clothes, etc wouldn't be dirty. My wheels and tires have less than 500 miles on it.
Step 2: Sand the area you want to be sanded with 320 grit. Wash again and then wait for dry.
Step 3: Wipe it down with a Duplicolor prep wipe or be cheap like me and use alcohol and then wipe with a lint-free cloth or tack cloth.
Step 4: Take the center cap off, mask the tire, the valve stem, the areas you wouldnt want the paint to be in. Also remember to stick some masking tape into the lug holes just in case there's too much paint there and the lug bolts do not fit.
Step 5: Make sure there's no dust. Now spray a light coat of primer and then a medium coat of primer. Wait 10 minutes in between each coat. Remember all coats have to be on the wheel within about an hour.
Step 6: Then 3 coats of base coat. One light, medium, then heavy.
Step 7: Then 3 coats of clear coat. One light, medium, then heavy. Let dry for 1 hour to the touch and 3 hours to handle.
Step 8: Unmask after it dries and clean off the masking tape adhesive. Wax the wheels and you're done!
Step 9: Wait for it to dry for 7 days. Since the bottle says wait 7 days before adding more coats of paint, I am waiting it to dry for 7 days. It doesnt matter since there's a lot of time until summer and I am spending about a week per wheel.
Snapshot of a few of the materials:
01-25-2009, 09:28 PM
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Location: Thousand Oaks, California
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My Ride: 2008 550i Jet Black on Black Leather, SAT with Paddles, Logic 7, Comfort Seats, NAV, Sport Package, PDC, Xenons, Sirius, Trinity 12W LED Angel Eyes, RPi GT Exhaust, M rear spoiler, ACS Roof Spoiler, Tinted Tail Lights, Bimmian Carbon Fiber Pillar Trim, Bimmian Shadow 550i emblem, RPi Scoop, E60 Forum Cling, Mtec bulbs in fog lights, Mtec 2W LED for License Plate Light Bulbs, K&N Filter, Bimmian LED Smoked Side Markers, Blackout roundels, Carbon Fiber Kidney Grills.
Retired Rides - 1989 325i convertible, 1995 M3, 2002 X5, 2005 545i, 2008 X5 (Lemon)
Great work you did there! 
