Time to paint my Sport Design rims BLACK

[panameras]

Hi All,

This is my first post so I would like to start off with congratulations to everyone for putting together an excellent forum.

My car is an Ocean Blue MY00 Boxster S. It came with factory option 18" Sport Design wheels and I'm considering painting them Black for a change.

There are many different shades of black: Matt, Semi Gloss, Gloss, Metallic and etc. So which black do you think would look good with the color of my car? These are two piece rims, I plan to paint just the spokes leaving the outer rim and studs silver. Work will be done by a professional.

Thanks

Edited May 28, 2007 by panameras

[986Jim]

I'm not so sure I would paint them so much as have them re-finished in black with a powder coating or something like that. Standard paint won't stick to the OE surface very well. You will need to glass bead or sand blast the rims first to their base, then powder coat or paint, then clear if you used paint. If painting you will want an OE wheel specific paint. Powder coating will stand up much better. I had some of my VW rims blasted then coated in gun metal and they turned out great and lasted for years without so much as even a scratch or chip on them...

[Chris_in_NH]

I'm not so sure I would paint them so much as have them re-finished in black with a powder coating or something like that. Standard paint won't stick to the OE surface very well. You will need to glass bead or sand blast the rims first to their base, then powder coat or paint, then clear if you used paint. If painting you will want an OE wheel specific paint. Powder coating will stand up much better. I had some of my VW rims blasted then coated in gun metal and they turned out great and lasted for years without so much as even a scratch or chip on them...

standard OEM wheels ARE painted. as you mentioned, they would need to be sanded/blasted to remove the old paint. but of course paint will stick to them.

i don't have any experience with powder-coated anything, but i would think that the cost would be much more than just 'painting' the wheels.

for Panameras, to each his own, but i've seen black wheels with a silver lip on blue Boxsters and personally, i'm not a fan. i think it looks much better on black cars. blue might be a better alternative for a blue car, but ultimately i like silver the best - gives a nice contrast between the body color/wheels and wheels/black tires.

[stumpjumper]

I'd not powdercoat wheels because it can hide cracks, which in a wheel can be especially dangerous

like Chris said, the wheels are already painted, and can be painted the same way you'd paint anything else, if I were going to do it, instead of black I'd go with a dark metallic grey the way the BBS RS-GT's are, I think those look fantastic on every car

[Loren]

Those are twp piece wheels and the outer rim is not painted - nor are the bolts. To paint it properly the wheel needs to be disassembled, painted and then re-assembled with the proper torque sequence on each bolt (IMHO).

[John V]

Those are twp piece wheels and the outer rim is not painted - nor are the bolts. To paint it properly the wheel needs to be disassembled, painted and then re-assembled with the proper torque sequence on each bolt (IMHO).

Loren is correct. The outer lip is not painted, but it is clearcoated. It would be very difficult to paint those wheels properly with them assembled.

I have painted alloy wheels in the past and had very good results, even using just rattle cans of color and clear.

[djomlas]

i wouldnt powdercoat them, the strength goes down.

and yes, make sure you be careful when disassembling/assembling the wheels, with torquing the bolts, those are meant to be taken off and on, but not the best quality. jsut be careful.

once the centers are take off, i dont see y you would want to take them to professional, its very nice diy kida project, scuff,paint,clear kinda thing

good luck, and post up with your results if u get a chance

[John V]

i wouldnt powdercoat them, the strength goes down.

Oh my goodness. Where in the world did you hear this?

[djomlas]

i wanted to powdercoat 2 sets of wheels, bmw and volvo wheels, and when i said gthat i got over thousand responses saying that.

they said from heating them up some strength is lost...to what degree i dont know, but i would want my wheel strength to stay the same. although they do say that some cracking may occur but that would be the worst case scenario. i talked to the guy that was gonna powdercoat my wheels, and he said that some strength would be lost, but you never to the point where you would experience the change in strength of the wheels.

so its a 50/50, but i would just paint them.

btw, i ended up painting the wheels black.

heres a few quick pics, came out great and held up very nicely, i used the rustolium high temp paint

Edited December 11, 2006 by djomlas

[boggtown]

Nice job, but I would get them rebalanced now. Painting adds weight and it could throw things off a little bit.

[djomlas]

i did, i sold the car tho

[John V]

Powdercoating doesn't affect the strength of the wheel. Not one bit.

There are a couple concerns with powdercoating that could maybe lead someone to that conclusion, though. First, you have to be careful to remove any powdercoat that gets in the lug bolt seating areas and the hub mating surface. Second, powdercoat can mask cracks that form in wheels, which ultimately could lead to a failure. But honestly, how many of you check your wheels for cracks?

It's weird how incorrect information seems to permeate the internet. :rolleyes:

[986Jim]

Powder coating will not weaken them, thats bunk. It heated up between 149 and 204°C and cure times range from 30 seconds to 5 minutes depending on how thick the application is. In the case of the rim, it was about 3 mins. This is not much different than sitting in the sun or all the heat that the brakes generate which is then translated into the rim through conduction. We could pick them up with our bare hands about 1 minute after they came out as in only 3 minutes just the surface of the rim was warm so the heat didn't stay very long.

When you powder coat wheels you blast them first, inspect them for cracks at that time, then coat after they are ok. Coating is around .10 to .19 mm thick, so it's not going to hide any cracks, nor will it add any significant weight.

2 piece wheels should be disassembled. Mark the center section in relation to the outter so it goes back exactly the same way plus mark all the screws so they all go back in the same hole. They are generally torqued about 30 or so ft/lbs depending on the rim. If you do this right, then you won't need to re-balance the wheels afterwards.

If you do it right, you can pull it appart, mark it all so it goes back together exactly the same way, powder coat it and it will last forever. Powder coating is 10,000 times more durable than paint could ever be. We use a PPG on our import traction bars which hang under race and street cars and take a whole heep of abuse, they are pounded by everything you can think of and NEVER chip. They only lose the coating when the bars acctually touch the ground on really lowered cars. We can smash the bars off a curb the metal dents and the coating doesn't chip or break. Paint will never do that ever.

Powder coating is absolutly the answer, if you can't afford it then the home paint job will do the trick. VHT and Duplicolor make some trick paints for exactly that application. I had a pair of wheels painted like shown above and they eventually chiped and looked pretty crappy. Thats why I had them powder coated afterwards and they lasted forever. Because of the paint chipping off they had to sand blast them to smooth them out from the paint chips all over the place. The wheels weighed exactly the same afterwards, so it didn't add any weight vs. paint.

Here are my rims I did. They were blasted right to the bare metal then coated gun metal metalic. They were on my car for 2 years almost 25,000km and never had a chip or mark on them. I didn't have to remove the coating from the lug holes or anything, there is more than enough clearance for that. The lug nuts never even marked the powder coating never mind stripped it off. Also a pic of my buddies rim we did in Gloss Black powder coating. And a quick pic of the car they went on.... Didn't exactly go on a wimpy car either.. Thats a 150hp direct port setup incase you don't know what your looking at. The car ran almost 12's flat on that setup on pump gas (with slicks). Those rims saw a lot of street use and abuse it would spin the tires on the highway so I'm sure the rear wheels took some rocks flying off the front.

Edited December 12, 2006 by 986Jim

[Chris_in_NH]

very nice!

sounds like you did it yourself. what would the approximate cost be to have someone powder-coat them?

i would buy the powder-coating equipment, but my oven still won't fit a 17" wheel. :lol:

[986Jim]

very nice!

sounds like you did it yourself. what would the approximate cost be to have someone powder-coat them?

i would buy the powder-coating equipment, but my oven still won't fit a 17" wheel. :lol:

No, you can't do that yourself, it was my buddies business, I just went there and he showed me how to do it and I snapped some pics on the way.

It was about $50 a wheel here Canadian. So I'm sure you could find somebody local to do all 4 for around 150 or so ish US$...

[Chris_in_NH]

No, you can't do that yourself, it was my buddies business, I just went there and he showed me how to do it and I snapped some pics on the way.

It was about $50 a wheel here Canadian. So I'm sure you could find somebody local to do all 4 for around 150 or so ish US$...

at $150 for the set, that's not bad at all.

[stumpjumper]

that gunmetal color is wonderful

makes me want to redo my wheels :)

[panameras]

thanks for all your replies. at this stage, im going to go with painting instead of power coating as i had painted wheels on my last car. they looked fantastic. the gloss lasted for 2 years until i sold the car. but i have say jim's powdercoated wheels does look very fine.

I'm not so sure I would paint them so much as have them re-finished in black with a powder coating or something like that. Standard paint won't stick to the OE surface very well. You will need to glass bead or sand blast the rims first to their base, then powder coat or paint, then clear if you used paint. If painting you will want an OE wheel specific paint. Powder coating will stand up much better. I had some of my VW rims blasted then coated in gun metal and they turned out great and lasted for years without so much as even a scratch or chip on them...

standard OEM wheels ARE painted. as you mentioned, they would need to be sanded/blasted to remove the old paint. but of course paint will stick to them.

i don't have any experience with powder-coated anything, but i would think that the cost would be much more than just 'painting' the wheels.

for Panameras, to each his own, but i've seen black wheels with a silver lip on blue Boxsters and personally, i'm not a fan. i think it looks much better on black cars. blue might be a better alternative for a blue car, but ultimately i like silver the best - gives a nice contrast between the body color/wheels and wheels/black tires.

chris, i agree silver always look good with any color car. but i wanted the something different for a change. color of my car is actually quite a deep/dark blue so i think black will not look out of place as opposed to a light blue car. plus i have got a very dark black window tint to complement the black wheels.

Edited May 12, 2007 by panameras

[panameras]

thanks stumperjumper, dark metallic grey is an option i might consider. would you happen to have a picture of the BBS RSGT's? and would a grey color base "hide dust" better than black?

I'd not powdercoat wheels because it can hide cracks, which in a wheel can be especially dangerous

like Chris said, the wheels are already painted, and can be painted the same way you'd paint anything else, if I were going to do it, instead of black I'd go with a dark metallic grey the way the BBS RS-GT's are, I think those look fantastic on every car

Edited May 12, 2007 by panameras

[panameras]

Those are twp piece wheels and the outer rim is not painted - nor are the bolts. To paint it properly the wheel needs to be disassembled, painted and then re-assembled with the proper torque sequence on each bolt (IMHO).

thanks Loren, i am aware of that the wheels need to be disassembled prior painting.. but how important is " torque sequence" on bolts? or does porsche wheels need particular care in that area? is that something an experienced wheel painter should know?

[stumpjumper]

I'd not powdercoat wheels because it can hide cracks, which in a wheel can be especially dangerous

like Chris said, the wheels are already painted, and can be painted the same way you'd paint anything else, if I were going to do it, instead of black I'd go with a dark metallic grey the way the BBS RS-GT's are, I think those look fantastic on every car

thanks stumperjumper, dark metallic grey is an option i might consider. would you happen to have a picture of the BBS RSGT's? and would a grey color base "hide dust" better than black?

I don't know about hiding dust, but I do know these are my favorites :)

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelCloseU...heelModel=RS-GT

[986Jim]

Those are twp piece wheels and the outer rim is not painted - nor are the bolts. To paint it properly the wheel needs to be disassembled, painted and then re-assembled with the proper torque sequence on each bolt (IMHO).

thanks Loren, i am aware of that the wheels need to be disassembled prior painting.. but how important is " torque sequence" on bolts? or does porsche wheels need particular care in that area? is that something an experienced wheel painter should know?

I covered much of this in my previous post. I have taken wheels appart a lot of times, just follow my sequence and you will be fine.

[ddb]

I went with powdercoat on my 17" Boxster S one piece wheels. It wasn't inexpensive, but they look incredible, and so far have been perfect in regard to durability. My wheels were coated with a multi-step, multi-color process that looks black in certain light and dark grey or charcoal in others. Until I saw the work that the shop was turning out, I had no idea that powdercoat could looks this way.

ddb

[986Jim]

I went with powdercoat on my 17" Boxster S one piece wheels. It wasn't inexpensive, but they look incredible, and so far have been perfect in regard to durability. My wheels were coated with a multi-step, multi-color process that looks black in certain light and dark grey or charcoal in others. Until I saw the work that the shop was turning out, I had no idea that powdercoat could looks this way.

ddb

The multi step process looks awesome but takes a lot more time, so costs more money. I'd love to see those in person. Thats like the candy colors but in gun metal, I'll bet that looks crazy.. Not cheap for sure, but you pay for what you get.

The only think about dark colored wheels is you MUST always have tire shine on your tires or they look brown. So just more reasons to clean the car more often.

Edited December 15, 2006 by 986Jim

[ddb]

The multi step process looks awesome but takes a lot more time, so costs more money. I'd love to see those in person. Thats like the candy colors but in gun metal, I'll bet that looks crazy.. Not cheap for sure, but you pay for what you get.

The only think about dark colored wheels is you MUST always have tire shine on your tires or they look brown. So just more reasons to clean the car more often.

986Jim,

You're absolutely right. In the sun the wheels really pop with detail. At other times, they look black or dark gray. I've tried many times, but have been unable to capture the sparkle detail in pictures. You do have to see them in person to really appreciate the work.

ddb