I've had some wheels professionally refinished, most recently some G35 forged 19s, and they were painted, not pc'd. I think both will hold up well.

Before I even had my truck I started photochopping the stock wheels in black too, I guess we're thinking along similar lines, my logos are painted black too! You are right about the PITA, I though about doing them one at a time and running the spare. In the end I've decided to use the stock 20's for my winter tires although I may still go black with them, then 26's in the spring.

 

I've coated a couple things in truck bed spray and nothing imbedded in them at all. I did a set of snowmobile front shock springs and the stuff held up just fine. A friend coated his tunnel(foot area) and it held up amazingly well. I'm thinking about doing my wheels with this stuff this week. I'll post some pics if I do. I did just coat my new hitch in the stuff to protect it from the elements and I'll bolt that on this week too.

 

Are you having to unmount / remount the tires from the rims? I wouldnt think it would be too soft either. I chunk crap in my bed all the time and I have one scar but it was from a generator being run in the bed and the metal foot took a chunk off from all the vibration.

Yes, please post some pics when you get them done. I am very interested...and how much it ran you if you dont mind.

 

Sorry I didn't get time to check locally. I should have more time tomorrow. Sounds like we may be on the right track.

 

The one thing I am concerned about is afterward when the tires are installed. Hopefully the tech will be careful and not scrape the surface. However, like I said, these are winter wheels so if I gotta touch them up after... don't really care. There is a lot of salt/sand used on the roads in the winter here so it's hard to keep the truck looking very good in winter anyhow, especially a black one like mine.

The bed liner I use is available at auto parts stores and comes in a spray can, just like paint. I think it's about ten bucks for a large spray can. You can buy it in gallons for spray guns too, I think... either way, prep is key, same as painting.

 

I would think that after painting with the LinX/Rhino, you would want to get them rebalanced to make up for thick/thin coating on different areas of the wheel.

 

Got a response from my Local LineX today and they said they couldnt do them because it would interfere with the tire seals.

 

But that really wouldnt make sense to me if you were just doing the face of the wheel...? Hope some others have better answers

 

Your right. As long as they mask off the bead of the wheel where the tire mounts, then there wouldn't be any problems.

I'd call someone else, and there is no way it'd cost $100 a rim.

How do you plan on doing it.... just the face, or the back side also?

 

Yea I would think it wouldnt be an issue either. I only want to do the face...that is if I ever get around to doing it...maybe a winter project.

 

I talked to both LineX and Rhinoliner people today and the Rhino guy actually recommended LineX. At first the LineX lady said no and then she said that it should work if the wheels were sand blasted first.

 

Hitch:




Wheels:







Before:



They are just the crappy winter wheels but you get the idea. You don't even have to mask them to spray, just lay them down flat and spray from above being careful to always spray toward the outside edge. I used a heavy carriage bolt with a rubber floor protector(for chairs) to cover the hole for the valve stem. There is a quarter sized spot around the hole with no coating so the stem can seal. I did both sides and there should be no reason why they can't be balanced. I used 3 cans at $10 bucks each for the wheels and one full can for hitch. The tires get mounted today and hopefully that will work out... we'll see.

 

Just paint them, honestly it'll be the fastest and easiest way. Your factory rims are already painted with basic urethane basecoat and clearcoat. There are some body shop supply companies that sell wheel masking bands than wrap around your wheel and keep you from overspraying your tires. I'm sure you could make something acceptable yourself. You can't 'blister' clearcoat after it's already set up for 2 weeks. Take your time, use a grey scotchbrite pad to scuff all the surfaces and get some BULLDOG adhesion promoter from a body shop supply store. It comes in aerosol. Spray a couple medium coats of that stuff, wait 5 minutes and then nicely lay down some paint. Just follow the paint manufacturer's recommendations and there should be no problem . You can easily get finished with them for less than 100$ total. Even with GREAT paint, like SEM. (google it)

 

This is what I like about this site. Eventually we get some really great opinions, often backed up with photos, from people who are willing to think outside the box (I guess that's a bit of a pun). Clearly the boxliner finish idea does work, it's just a matter of how long it will stay on, whether there will be balance issues and what happens around the bolt holes when the nuts are tightened (ie. will they stay tight). These will get resolved only over time. Those wheels surely do look pretty darn nice to me.

The other alternative is painting using other than conventional techniques. There are paints out there that are clearly superior for painting wheels. Another paint was suggested to me yesterday by the LineX shop I talked to. It is esentially an industrial finish paint (such as might be used on the deck of a battleship) which is stinky and hard to spray but will give an almost indestructable finish. I can easily get the exact name if anyone is interested.

I do have the name of a wheel guru here in Saskatoon. The LineX body shop people were very kind and gave me his name saying, "this is the guy who we send aluminum wheels to for repair". I didn't have a clue that anyone would even attempt to repair an aluminum wheel. I will try to talk to him in the next couple of days.

 

There was no issue with balancing. This stuff does not go on real thick, relatively. You have to build up the thickness. I didn't put on enough to protect a truck bed... that would be overkill! We'll see how it holds up over the winter. I won't be putting them on until the snow comes and stays(which, I hope is sooner rather than later). Best part is, it's flat so scratches won't show like a shiny surface. If I didn't do it thick enough, I'll just put more on before next winter. Here they are:





I have the chrome package so I was thinking about getting some chrome lug nuts to hold them on... should stand out. Whenever I put these on the truck I'll post pics. I think this idea would be even better on a nicer set of wheels.