Steamboat L. Salter asked:




Paint your own Rims? Who would have thought something previously done by professionals could be done in your own home.

While, the concept of painting your own rims has been around a few years now, many questions pop up of how to do it and I thought I would share my own experiences with painting my Integra stock rims. I have read up many examples of how to do this, but my first time trying was this year when I chose to refinish my winter rims. I was quite please with the outcome.

First, what the hell do you need to paint your rims? Paint of course This is where Duplicolor comes in with their wheel paint. They offer paint colors to match your style coming in white, gunmetal, classic silver and bronze as well. I chose to do mine in gunmetal leaving my lip the stock polished style look. So here are your options:

So you chose your color, bought your paint and are semi-ready. First, you need to sand down your rims. Why? This gives the surface a rough texture so the paint has something to adhere to. Reference the article to polish your rims on how sanding of the rims works. The only difference with this is how far you want to go. In my case, being winter rims painted I chose not to go through the process of stripping the paint on the rims completely. I simply sanded down the surface with 300 grit sandpaper ensuring to make everything sanded equally. This gives the rough surface required for the paint to adhere, and as long as your rims had no damage it should be good enough.

Your rims are sanded; you have your paint and now are ready. First, make sure you clean all sanding dust off the rims and ensure a totally clean surface so the paint will stick and not flake off after your first drive out with your newly painted rims!!! Here are my rims washed and ready to completely dry before painting:

My rims are masked off with newspaper and masking tape. Of course you want to do this so you don’t turn your tires into the color you are painting. I don’t want gunmetal painted tires. Also if you look close enough, you will know that the lip has been masked off as well. So I carefully applied the masking tape on the lip to protect it from being painted as well. Also, you know the little thing you pump your air into, mask that off as well unless you want that to have a color change as well

The rims are dry, you have masked off what you don’t want painted and now you are ready. Put some newspaper on the ground and place the rim on top of the newspaper. You don’t want to paint the concrete underneath the rim so keep it clean with the newspaper.

Now apply your first coat of paint. Let the paint dry well and next day admire your handiwork and results.

David C. Atkin asked:




How To Paint Your Classic Car Like A Pro After the finish body work is done, and your primer has been sanded to 600 grit wet, you can mask your classic car, and get ready for paint, if your lucky you can rent a paint booth for a day to paint the car, if renting a paint booth is the plan, you should wait to mask your car, until you get there.

I always suggest that you rent a booth, unless you have a garage that you can clean, blow out, and hose down until it’s absolutely dust free, if there is any dust around your car, it will be in the paint in the end, where if you rent a paint booth, they are usually kept clean, all you have to do is water the floors.

Now that you ready to paint your car, no matter where you have chosen to do the work, you need to be sure that you have all of the supplies that you need, because once you start to paint, you can’t just stop and make a run to the paint supply store, below I’ll add a list of the supplies you need. Supply List

1) Paint 2) sealer 3) reducer 4) Catalyst 5) Tack Cloths, preferably designed for clear coat 6) Measuring Cups 7) Stir Sticks Measuring Stick 9) Strainers 10) Respirator in working order 11) Paint Prep Cleaner

The list above is a list of the supplies that you’ll need to paint your classic car, you cannot skimp on this list to save money, you will need every item on it, so be ready to spend some money on it, on average your supplies will cost between $600.00 and $2,000.00 depending on what you use to paint your car.

Now that we know that the car is masked, we’ll prep clean it, this will clean any contaminants off of the surface of the primer, after you have done this you can tack cloth the car, this is done to remove small dust particles from the surface of the car.

Now I will give you a few things to think about, when painting with metallic paints then you must pay allot attention to the settings on your paint gun.

Metallic paints will tend to get lighter if the pressure goes up and darker if it goes down, your fluid flow and fan on your gun will also effect this.

Now I will give you a basic mixing chart, most paints will follow this chart. Instructions

1) get your paint ready to pour.

2) make sure that your mixing cup is clean.

3) Get your strainer and sticks.

4) Put a strainer in the top of the measuring cup.

5) Now pay close attention to the level of paint in the cup. Paint Mixing Table.

Always be sure to read and follow the paint manufactures mixing guide lines.

These mixing ratios are just a basic idea of what to do, things will change with different manufactures.

Recommended Air Pressure At Gun Head.

Paint Mix Ratios.

Paint Product.25-40 PSI Mix 4:1:1

Base Coat 25-40 PSI Mix 4:1:1

Sealer 25-40 PSI Mix 4:1:1

Clear Coat 25-40 PSI Mix 2:1:1

Primer Coat When using a spray gun, you try to achieve a certain spray pattern of spray coming out of the gun, this is done by adjusting the air pressure at the tip of the spray gun, also the fan of the paint, and fluid flow of the paint, all of these factors will make, or break your paint work.

What your looking for in a perfect spray pattern is very simple, it will consist of a fan 4-6 inches wide, that has no dry spot in the middle, or heavy spot on either end of the spray fan, once you achieve this type of spray coming from the gun, your ready to go.

Remember do not test you spray pattern on the paint booth wall, or on your car, take a piece of masking paper, and hang it on the wall of the booth, and use that to test your spray gun, if you rented my booth, and sprayed on the wall of it, I would charge you to remove the paint from the wall.

You should always follow the manufactures recommended paint mixes, and spray pressure, the manufacture know more about their product then anybody else does, if you follow what they sat to the letter, your paint should look great.