When I go back home for Christmas, one of my projects is going to be repainting the wheels on my truck while I'm in the process of switching tires.

I'd like some advice on the masking and painting. I've got 8 lug western wheel turbines, and I'm planning on doing paint like this



Once I get my old tires off, I'll pressure wash and then sandblast them. What I would like opinions on, is how I should go about the polished aluminum parts. When I did a similar paint job on the 2 front wheels of my baja bug, I just painted everything black first, and then sanded the aluminum with increasing grit paper (120, 200, 400, 800, 1200) by hand, used mag/aluminum polish, then clear coated everything. Difference there was I had a lot less area to sand. As it was, each wheel took me about 3 hours of sanding. I'd really like to avoid it on the turbines since there are 15 spokes plus the lip...


Any tips on how I should go about doing this?


Thanks
Jameson

 

Go red IMO....lol Instead of hand sanding, what about a wire wheel, or a thin cut off wheel at a angle (used very carefully) to knock off the top fin lip paint?

Or a fine grain flap wheel, again used very carefully? Dremel wire wheel? I have never tackled the job, but I have a set of rims like that, and that was what I was thinking.

So let me know what works our for you.

 

Lay masking tape on all of the edges that need to not be painted. Then use a aluminum rod to rub the edge and cut the tape. All of the edges on my cummins were done this way.

 

The red does look badass, but I'm going black to match my truck

co425: Looks great! What is the aluminum rod for though? Can't figure that one out

 

The aluminum rod is used as a burnishing tool to 'cut' the tape crisply along the edges.

 

you can buy masking tape in different width's to fit the "Fin" of your wheel, any place that sells auto body supplies should carry it.

 

Bingo!!!!!

 

Ah ok that makes sense. I was wondering how to cut them so crisply


-Jameson