wheel paint

[KA]

I bought trailer wheels from Six Robblees in Tacoma, Washington for my teardrop. They are grey (these wheels were suggested if I wanted to use hubcaps). I want the wheels to be a very dark red with chrome baby moon hubcaps. So, I read Madjacks post about the etching primer and went looking for some. I went to a local auto painting shop and told them my story. The owner told me that the wheels I have are coated in a hard plastic and that if I want to use the etching primer, I need to remove all of the coating on my wheels before priming in order for it to work well. He said this would be a very long process since the existing grey coating is meant to be tough. So, as an alternative for my wheels he suggested the following technique...Wash the wheels in soap and water. Rinse and dry. Wipe the wheels down with bug and tar remover. Fill a small bucket of water with a couple drops of dishwashing soap and put several small (1/6th sheet) pieces of P400 wed/dry sandpaper in the water to soak for 15 minutes. This sandpaper is black. Then I'm to sand my wheels til the shine is gone. Then I'm supposed to dry the wheels again and wipe down again with the bug and tar cleaner. Then he says I can prime the wheels using several thin coats. After priming, I'm to let the wheels dry overnight and then wet sand again. Then, I'm to clean off the dust and paint using several light coats of my chosen paint. I'm putting a dark red paint over black primer. He said that I will have to repaint the wheels every now and then. So, guess I'll try this technique and see how it works. At least this process gives me a little more stalling time on ordering that axle. Has anyone used this technique? I'm also to use the same brand of primer and top coat for best results. He recommended Dupli-Color.
Kris

[madjack]

...sounds like really good advice from a seasoned professional to achieve excellent results .............

[KA]

Hi Madjack,
Phew. Thanks for the thumbs up on trying this technique. I respect your opinion a lot.
Kris the Brave

[Melvin]

Sounds like a swack load of work to me.

It sounds like the rims were powder coated. I'd just take them down and have them bead/sand blasted.

Or you could try to chemical strip them.

[KA]

Thanks Melvin,
If I can't get the finish dull in my short attention time span, I'll try your ideas.
Kris

[madjack]

...sounds like really good advice from a seasoned professional to achieve excellent results .............

..there are lots of ways to doit I am sure...having not seen the wheels first hand, all I could do is offer general advice about the procedure or I can refer you to the above quote...
madjack

[Melvin]

No worry. I have no doubt it'll work, I'm just lazy

[madjack]

No worry. I have no doubt it'll work, I'm just lazy

...me too, I would probably just sand/scuff, clean, prime and paint but who am I to argue with a professional who has actually seen them.........
madjack

[KA]

If my paint job doesn't work, I can always weld the wheels to the salvaged aluminum windows that I messed up and make some sort of a teardrop garden sculpture.
Kris

[dacrazyrn]

If I can get the rims I got for free to fit (haven't tried to mount them yet), I may go this route...Plasti-Dip.
They do have red and black...that makes dark red. And available at most bigbox stores.

[KA]

Thanks Tracy,
It will be interesting to hear how that works for wheels where you have a large surface. Also, I don't know how it would work when you try to cover all the recesses in the wheel...if it can go on thin enough. Good luck and let us know how it works out. You might be on to something. Also, I bet that stuff will have some other good uses for a teardrop manufacture, too. Hmmmm?
Kris

[dacrazyrn]

They make it in a spray also. I used it to line the areas where my lights recessed into the roof, in case a wire comes loose, and they felt real hot when I tested them. Looking to replace with LED anyway. But what the hey.

[Chip]

One thing is for sure,,, you can sand, wipe, polish and paint and get your rims to perfection,,,, then take them to your local tire shop and let them scrape, scratch and ding the rim putting the new tire on,,,

course ya could always just prime and squirt it and then touch up when it gets scratched,,,, just depends on whether ya building a show trailer or one ya can beat down the road and not worry about,,

just my opinion,,,

chipper

[KA]

Hi Chipper,
You are definitey right. I plan to use my trailer on bumpy gravel roads. I just want the paint to stick to the rims. I'm sure they will get chipped after a couple of bumps and I figured I'd have to retouch them after I got back from the tire shop just from having the tires put on. I just don't want the paint to bubble up and peel off on the first warm day so I'm going to follow the suggested process from the automotive paint guy and hope for the best. Then maybe I'll have just some retouching to do instead of scraping it all off and starting over.
Thanks.
Kris

[Chip]

,, I re read my post and I wasnt trying to sound smart azzed sorry if it came across like that,,, sounds like ya got a good idea about keeping it easy and yet workable without spending a huge amount of time with rims,,

chipper