Wheel Idea, 2nd Gen Stealth Wheels

Ok, some will love it some will hate it, but it's a lot cheaper than buying new wheels.
It's a lot of work and figure about 2 hours per wheel. Most of it masking and clean up,
but if you have wheels that are peeling somewhat and have to get them rechromed it
is a welcome change for a while til you get it done. You might even like it so much you
go on to re-chroming and powder coating to last a longer time. Painted wheels are nothing
new so how long this will last I have no idea. I like it, see if you do.

First clean the wheel thoroughly with laquer thinner, toulene, xzylene, anything that doesn't
leave a residue preferably as you want to remove any waxes or grease. Next as in the photo
below, using a sanding flap wheel on a drill motor sand the raised portion of the area we
are concerned with so it looks evenly like brushed stainless as shown below. Yeah, I know,
I didn't thoroughly clean the wheel first, but found out later it works better for masking tape
adhesion to cut down on touch up from overspray runs under the tape.

Now comes the masking. No matter how good you mask, there is going to be some runs under the tape.
A razor blade, stanley knife and some thinner on a paper towel will clean that up because the runs
are on chrome, not prepared chrome and don't adhere as well.
Here is what the wheel looks like after all rasied portions are sanded and the wheel masking complete.
Since we are going to spray inward toward the center of the wheel, masking the tire is not necessary in
this case since I am using a Blue Anodized Top Coat paint that even if it gets on the tire it will not show.
If you are using a solid color other than black you might want to cover the tire so you don't get overspray.
This masking is probably the longest part of this process. A thin masking tape would have worked better
like about 1/2" wide and another roll of wider for fill. I tore off narrow strips to cover the curved areas which
took longer for me.

Ok, now a painted shot after about 5 light coats

And the finished wheel after touch up. Believe it or not I used Metal polish to polish the chrome and
some got on this paint that I had to rub pretty hard to get off and the paint was not even affected.
Not that it won't scratch easy, but it sure won't come off easy. When you are ready to re-chrome
it will not be a problem removing it and will surely come off a lot easier than the old chrome will.
Next to the unpainted one gives a good idea of the difference. Almost a chromed Blue using the
anodized paint that I used.

Someone had asked in 3SI what they would look like Black, so I included this photo shopped
version converted to black

I like that too,,,,,,,,, have fun 
 

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