Yesterday since the weather was predicted to be nice for two days, I finally started painting the set of stock rims I bought. All went reasonably well, except that on one of the rims I got spots where the paint sort of bubbled, like it wasn't sticking. Today I sanded it down and cleaned it, then tried again. Same thing. Next I tried cleaning it with brake cleaner (which removes rim paint awesomely well BTW), gave it some time to evaporate and tried the paint again. Still getting the spots. Anyone have any ideas on this? From my model painting days I think there is some contamination, but I would have thought the sanding and then degreasing would have taken care of it. I am using Duplicolor's rim paint, it has worked well on the other three rims. Thanks.

Oh and Matty, I know your opinion on painting wheels, this is my budget for now.

 

Okay, without any input I have decided to strip the rims and start over. For anyone considering painting their rims, this Duplicolor paint seems to stick very well. I am using a brass wire wheel in my drill to remove the paint, and it is tough. Once I get down to bare metal on all the rims I will sand them, use some degreaser on the one giving me problems and then spray again. I'll post here with what happens.

 

missed the origonal.
What you need to do is paint when its realyl hot out. Anything under 70* is gonna have the paint wrinkiling up. The hotter it is outside the better the final product will be.

I recomned washing them really well with dawn. THen giveing them a good once over with a "prep all" from duplicolor. This really cleans things up. When done and happy be sure to clear coat.

 

I ended up stripping the things all the way down again, then repainting. Unfortunately there is no way I can wait for the temperature to be in the 70s. Duplicolor says 60 and above. They came out okay the second time around, except for some minor imperfections due to the conditions I have to work under. I will just have to suppress my **** tendencies and live with them for now (probably not noticeable by 98%). Now I am just waiting to let the paint cure a little before getting some tires mounted. Tire places are insane, I found some Toyo Proxes 4 cheap on line, but the one local place I called (of a national chain) won't mount tires not purchased from them, and they want $200 more than what it will cost me for the tires alone! I'm working on finding a place that can mount the tires without damaging the rims...no hack jobs for me!

 

No ones gonna mount them with out at the least a small pice of paint gone on the edge. Just toutch up the one spot when its all over.

I payed some 20 for the set mounted and ballenced. But I know the mechanic. Most places will charge 30 per wheel.