Storx Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 I am looking for opinions and ideas on painting my wheels, i should have thought about this back when i replaced the tires after buying the bike.. but it was the last thing on my mind and instead of pulling the brand new tires back off and having the rims painted, i was thinking of painting them another color possibly to see if i like the look... i have plasti-dipped stuff in the past with huge success, so i figured why not try it out again on wheels to see if i like different colors on the bike before spending a bunch of money and making the color perm....the bike came from NY, so there is a lot of pitting on the wheels and some of the metal surfaces from the salt on the roads.. so the wheels are in pretty bad shape and actually look better when they are dirty, because i gave them a good cleaning the other day and the clear coat on the wheels is cloudy in a lot of areas i didnt see when they were dirty.. lol here is my old truck i had that i plasti-dipped.. the centers on the wheels are plasti-dipped with white base coat and glossifier, i actually redid them shortly after because i tried to use a chemical to clean them one day i picked up at the autoparts store and it destroyed the plasti-dip... so i redid the wheels and instead of using glossifier the 2nd time, i used a product called Neverwet, which i picked up to try to use on some white shoes i had and had 3/4 full can left over.. so i sprayed it over the white base coat and the finish went from a glossy finish to a more matt white, but cleaning the wheels was 1000x easier after that.. because the neverwet is hydrophobic, i would just take the hose and spray the wheels down with just water if i was not looking to wash the entire truck and the properties of the stuff made the brake dust and crap would just run off like water... so they always looked pretty much clean in the white sections of the wheels... Anyways here is a picture of the bike, i was thinking of either going white on the wheels or a gold color maybe.. seen a red car at a car show with plasti-dipped gold metalizer wheels and it looked really good contrasted with the red... I was thinking of either going white on the wheels or a gold color maybe.. seen a red car at a car show with plasti-dipped gold metalizer wheels and it looked really good contrasted with the red... but then while doing some searching on dipped motorcycle wheels i came across this dudes bike, he used the new product vintage gold plasti-dip color on his oem silver wheels and i think it looks absolutely beautiful..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer VFRbeliever Posted May 13, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted May 13, 2016 Yes. I just dipped my wheels about a month ago. I did my truck wheels last summer and they have held up beautifully through a New England winter, though we didn't have much of a winter here this year. I chose Anthracite Gray and love the way they came out. I had the wheels off the bike to put new tires on anyway, so I just removed the rotors, masked the tires and other parts I didn't want sprayed and went at it. I did 3-4 coats plus 1-2 coats of glossifier. The guys at dipyourcar.com are great to work with if you have any questions and there are many tutorials on their website. The colors are almost limitless. It's a lot less expensive than powder coating. And if you don't like it...just peel it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storx Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 i am doing my rear today, i was gonna take the time to sand down the entire wheel to do a good prep of the surface after degreasing them, but the pitting in the oem powdercoating is pretty bad to the point i would think i would need primer added in some areas to make up for the difference in height, so i went down to lowes today and picked up a can of the vintage gold, im going to try it out just a few coats to see the color and put it on the bike to see if i like it.. waiting for the wheels to dry now after washing them really good.. if i like the color im gonna just wetsand the plastidip smooth after its dried and cured on the wheel for a few days.. dipyourcar has a repair for rockchip damage plastidip on wheels and the way he repaired the areas was he poured on the plasti-dip tell the paint was literally running to fill in the dip in the area from peeling, then after letting it cure for 24hrs, he sanded using water and sandpaper to sand the surface smooth and even, then lay on a few coat over the entire wheel to blend the new with the old to prevent color changes from uv of the sun.. just seemed like a much easier way of going about it in my case as im not sure if i want the gold or the white or another color, figured i lay an entire can on the rear wheel today of the gold to see if i like it, if i dont i can just spray the white over the gold and the more layers just makes it that much easier to peel it off later on.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storx Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 This is the state of my wheels now on why i am exploring colors to repaint them.. they are terrible after giving them a good washing lol, the dirt and brake dust on them made them look so much nicer before lol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storx Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 Well guys, after starting to spray i realized the can i picked up was not actually vintage gold, it was the metalizer gold... seriously didn't pay that much attention to it.. just seen the gold top and thought it was the one i needed.. it was the only gold one they had on the shelf.. so its not like i had an option... oh well im trying it out.. i had some black left over in a can from before doing something else.. put 2 coat of black on the wheels, now im doing the gold.. i just finished coat 2... this is what it looks like already.. way better than the pitted look before.. kinda looks like a crinkled valve cover type of look in a way.. I think the metallic sparkles is breaking up the pitted surface from the naked eye.. you really dont see it all that easy anymore, but you can surely feel it in the surface... I am going to put like 1 or 2 more coats on it and call it a night, i have maybe an hour of work into this painting project so far... not doing the front yet tell im sold on the color... here is a crinkled valve cover if your curious what i was talking about previously... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storx Posted May 14, 2016 Author Share Posted May 14, 2016 well it came out ok, i had an issue getting the overspray off the tire.. because i only did 2 coats black and 3 coats gold... the overspray was very thin and wouldn't peel off in one peace, so i had a lot of issues getting it off, in the past when i did wheels the overspray was thick enough it came off in easy... but it turned out ok.. will have to take more pictures and see how i feel with it for a few days.. may try doing the gold over a silver base or another lighter color..... the color is a bit to dark now that i think about it over the black base... I found someone who painted their cars wheels vintage gold, thought it was to dull.. so they did the gold metalizer over the vintage gold and i think it turned out perfect.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer VFRbeliever Posted May 18, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted May 18, 2016 Those look nice! The base color of the wheels you are dipping makes a huge difference in the final outcome. Also how many coats you put on. I've found plasti-dip to be very forgiving, especially when the surface is beat up like yours. It goes on so thick that it masks a lot of the imperfections. I've dipped my truck wheels, my bike wheels, and the hood, cowl, and skid plate of my snowmobile. I've been very happy with the results of all three. I really like the gold tint you achieved on your VFR wheels. Unique. The over spray will wear off over time. I used a wire brush under running water to get some of the over spray off of the truck tires. I spent more time masking the VFR wheels so nothing got on the rubber this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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