I am not sure if I still have the can. Let me check my apt and my parent's house after work and see if I can get a pic for ya.


I will post some pics of my wheel today, so you can see how well it is still holding up..

When I take my 4Runner in for a rotate and balance, I always take my center caps off.

 

In terms of enamel or lacquer what kind of silver and clear paint did you guys use? I had an experience once with lacquers and enamels one time and it didn't come out pretty... Which one can be layered over what?

 

All the paint I used was Acrylic Lacquer, both the base color and the clear coat.

 

I am finally painting my center caps and I found Krylon "Short Cuts" hobby enamel in CHROME pretty closely mimics the alloys nicely especially one the clear coat was applied. Still pretty much looks like the silver but figured I just give another color option.

 

Hey Dub. If you shoot lacquer over enamel, it will 'lift'. Enamel can be shot over lacquer. Lacquer dreis fast and can be built up in coats. Enamel is slow to dry, but more durable. For a center cap, either silver lacquer with clear lacquer or silver/chrome Krylon with clear Krylon is fine.

 

Mine came out looking great but my non car friends think I'm a nerd who can't leave anything just stock and they are right and that little bit of individuality (ok,maybe a small group) cost only about $5.
I just hope they hold up decent to the wear and tear of winter driving but it won't be a big deal if I have to redo them every couple of years.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

Did the project this past weekend. It went fast, was painless and the caps look great.

Used 400-grit paper wrapped around a foam sanding block to blend edges where paint was peeling and to rough up the good remaining paint. Did not go totally crazy on making sure everything was down to raw plastic, just got them cleaned up a bit and edges smoothed.

On Saturday, I used:

Dupli-Color primer (not the primer/filler). Small can. Three coats, applied at a rate of 20 minutes between coats.

Dupli-Color Silver Metallic. Small can. Three coats, applied two hours after primer and 20 minutes between coats.

And on Sunday, I used:

Dupli-Color Clear Coat. Big can. Six coats, applied ~20 minutes between coats.

Did this on 60- degree days in the sun, no wind. Paint is toxic as hell and off-gasses bad-for-you fumes for hours and hours after application (so don't paint indoors).

I let them set for 48 hours in my garden shed and put them on the truck. They match the OEM wheel paint *perfectly*.

Hope this is useful.
Matt

 

Matt, thanks for the detailed post. Any chance you can post a pic? I have the 01 5-spoke wheels and even from the factory the center caps on these wheels do not quite match.

I used the exact process and same materials you described on my Supra. The results were excellent, but the color is somewhat different from the 01 5-spokes.

BEFORE

AFTER

 

Will do my best to get a pic and post it up here for ya (though I'm slammed on holidays and work at present). Give me a few days. FYI - I also have the '01 5-spoke wheels.

 

Matt,
Sounds encouraging. I need to do mine - the silver is wearing off from exposure alone. I've always hand-washed the truck since new, so the paint on these must be the bare minimum to give color at the factory.

Did you paint right over the "T" emblem?

Andreas

 

This is something that im certain has come up! What if I wanted to paint the toyota logo red or black and wanted to paint the rest of the cap silver. I have tried and failed every method I could think of. I sanded them meticulously taped off the logo and shot it then waited shot it again then taped off the cap and same with silver,, results were ˟˟˟˟ I even went as far as to hand paint ehm with a touch up brush then clearcoat but couldnt keep the brush strokes inside the lines at all time. This I found to be a waste of time and thought maybe I should keep them all the same color, unless someone else has a trick that I didnt think of?


Aaron

 

maybe try a q-tip instead of a brush

 

Man, those are some clean rims!

 

I painted the T by hand after the initial silver had entirely dried and then I wiped my "mistakes" with a tissue mildly moistened with paint thinner and it worked great and then I finished it all off with a few coats of clear.

 

Yess.... see i knew you guys would come up with something thanks... Ill have to try it.


Aaron