couple of pictures of my Runner
 

Very sweet rims, I like the color! :mrt:

like the painted rims

love that colour for your wheels. thinkin of painting mine as well. what did you do to remove the original finish of the wheels? did you blast em or just sand it down?

Awesome color!
 

I want to do this as my factory finish is starting to flake.

Did you use a chemical paint stripper to take the OEM finish off? Did you take the tires off, or simply mask them?

Where did you get the paint?

uberhahn

Love the color!!!!


Aaron

i like it!

[COLOR=DarkOrange][SIZE=3]I actually had the tires off. I was trying on my brother in law's wheels at the time, so fortunately i had the wheels tireless. I found out his wheels were bent so I decided to touch up my wheels. So, to remove the factory finish, I used one of these on an air grinder,


http://img173.imageshack.us/img173/5...bserverru4.jpg


this made it easy, but watch out for the flying pieces of aluminum. Once I finished that, I cleaned the wheels thoroughly. After they dried, I then used a self etching primer.

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/3...p008io7.th.jpg

I decided to use about 3 coats each. Occassionaly sanding down any rough spots. After the primer was done, I used 4 coats of the duplicolor paint. Just follow the instructions on the back of the can. my paint cure for about 3 days before i had tires installed. I bought all my supplies at Kragen. You'll need 2 cans of each.
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/7...p007cj4.th.jpgCOLOR]

Do me a favor and for your next mod straighten out your front license plate.. A little pet peeve of mine.. people have a good looking rig and then have a mangled plate, one with the dealership frame all broken around it, or one that is hanging off one screw or zip tied on. Cool wheels!!

^^^thats the right of prepping it, use self-etch primer. i use those primer on a HVLP gun to paint my chrome bumpers.

nice job

I know, the previous owner didn't do much protect the plates, I just haven't gotten around to fixing despite all the time i get caught on it, but definately on my to do list.

I would love to do that with mine. I don't know if I would ever have the time. Heh, I can't even lift my tires.

Looks REALLY good though. Beats buying new ones. ^-^

Thanks, I actually I got the idea awhile back when I read Christian's post. Thanks Christian.

looks great, i have been thinking about doing this mod for a long time, but the only thing that keeps me from doing it is how well the paint stands up to off road use, will it flake of if the wheel is submerged in mud?

According to the can, it's highly resistant to chipping and solvents, etc. I am new to 4runners and I am not experienced in the off-road world YET. It has survived high tempatures here in CA, and i would assume high heat would be worse than mud. Just a guess. I would recommend it. I am actually considering doing my factory wheels on my 04 Armada.

looks great. definetly let us know how they hold up over the next couple of weeks. Id love to do this to mine but dont have the balls to. Id hate for mine to come out like ÅÅÅÅ. [thread highjack on] If only i could find someone with a set of factory STEEL wheels for sale that i could buy and take my time to do them right!! [thread highjack off]. by the way ur wheels look great and so does ur 4runner. Do you plan on keeping it a street vehicle or do the usual lift and big tires deal?

Just think man....if you would have sent those wheels to me to powder coat....I could put you a fresh coat of this

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...2/edb7a77c.jpg

on them.....talk about "standing out!" :hillbill:

Well I definately plan on a lift. as for the bigger tires, I'm not so sure just yet. I'm not wanting to deal with the off calibration of MPH and MPG. They have held up quit well for the last 3 months for the exception of center caps. We've already had a run of 100+ degree weather and the paint is surviving.

I'm not so sure I would do well driving around CA with those reflective colors, but definately a creative touch. But my way only cost me roughlt $30-$40.

nice, i might do that to my wheels, they are starting to look old and beat up, how does it conceal marks?

Yeh but how long will that $30-$40 hold up? Not knockin your job...its great for wet painting...but I've found that wet paint doesn't hold up well in the long run with abuse.

I understand your point, however if the powercoat manages to get chipped, you have to redo the whole wheel. On the other hand, with the wet paint I just need to do is a little sanding and then respray. But I wanted to give it a try and think it should hold up for a while. The real test will be if it survives winter. I'll definately update after then.

That Duplicolor wheel paint has a nice high build rate and seems to be well suited for wheels. I've painted my share of wheels and this is the first product I've tried that I think will stand a chance.

X 2 on ease of touch up too.

I pretreat mine before shooting powder....chipping? Ask cootees since he has wheeled his quite a few times...examples:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...7/ee8dc290.jpg

My self test:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...f/efd1040d.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...9/efd10401.jpg

Then theres the architectural line of coatings which you have to get certified for to spray...much more durable than that. Give us the update after winter time!
touchup.....with a paint pen...and I have tried blasting the powder off of a sample chip that i done one day and it barely knocked off the first layer of powder after staying in the same spot for 5 minutes....at 100psi.

sorry for the highjack once again, but what type of rims does cootees have. they look really good.

Shot ya a pm Kyle...sorry guys for the hijack.

Please don't take it to heart....alot of people misconceive the right way of powder coating man....alot of people blast and powder. Once ya pretreat that stuff and ya hit it...it doesn't chip off like regular paint does. It merely dents in with the surface. But you did a good job....and I use to wet paint cars for a living when I was younger (god I sound old now). when I entered in the world of powder coating....I had a whole new respect for it. One of these days I will be able to powder coat a whole vehicle.... :rockon: Sorry...didn't mean to come on too strong there on ya work man.

Oh no, it's all good. If I had the skills I definately be using it. However, on a budget I do what I can. When I learn the trade of wheeling, I'll be looking into other avenues. I appreciate all the input I can get.

Well man if ya ever wanna learn the process then pick my brain...I know how it is to be on a budget and I can point ya in some very informative directions. And to beat it all...its actually easier than wet paint when applying! Hard to run it or get metallic clouding.

when i did my wheels over last summer i used duplicolor clear coat for wheels and i gotta say i was pretty disappointed. i followed the directions and did all the proper prepping required, let everything set up for about a week before mounting back on my truck. it looked nice until the temp dipped below about 55 here in iowa and then it cracked like crazy. then the first time i washed it the clear flaked off which also took some of the paint with it. :cry: hope it holds up for you. maybe there's something on the can that i missed that says "not intended to be used in locations that dip below 60 degrees" or something. maybe it's intended for more tropical locations and not Iowa, hehe.
patrick

I *think* you'd stand out in a different way... like people thinking that you're batting for the other team :xmas12:

I was just playing around with this post...

Wheels look great!
I've gotta do that to mine, the clearcoat is flaking off.


I do have new straight plates however.. :dunno: