painting rims...

[ching_ching]

Hi folks,

Am tutuing with my bike and wanting to change the colour of my rims which are yellow / gold at the mo. Has anybody had anything to do with repainting rims (effort required, cost, etc). Or is it better to go to the wreckers and find some non-yellow / gold ones.

Thoughts please.

the chingster

[vifferman]

Hi folks,

Am tutuing with my bike and wanting to change the colour of my rims which are yellow / gold at the mo. Has anybody had anything to do with repainting rims (effort required, cost, etc).

I've had experience with unpainting the rims, if that helps?
I had white rims on my VFR, and they were chipped (and showed the commuting grime badly), so I stripped 'em with paint stripper (methylene chloride), and polished the rims, leaving the spokes sandcast. It looked great, didn't need cleaning as often, and cost very little.
You could do the same, and then have them resprayed in your choice of colour, or have them sandblasted and sprayed. Some people will tell you to get them powdercoated, but I've heard that the heat treatment used for curing the pigment can weaken alloy rims.
Places like Reflections Motorcycle Refinishers could do them for you (they do fork sliders and other bits), or you could try a wheel specialist who repairs mag and alloy wheels.

[White trash]

Ha ha, that's funny.

Johann borrowed on of my gold wheels a couple of weeks ago and loved it so much he painted his black ones gold.

Any pannel beater can do a good job.

[Shafted]

A mate got his wheels power coated - think it cost something like $100 each -but don't quote me - it would be worth checking it out thats for sure

good luck

[F5 Dave]

There is a question re heat treating them. Ally you need to heat to ~ 200deg to heat treat I believe. Most powers go off at ~180 so it is pretty close. Are you relieving the stresses in them, or weakening them? I think the jury is out & hence I probably won't powder mine.

Again.

Either way you need to remove & hence replace the wheel bearings. My YZF ones were hella expensive even rom a bearing shop with 60% discount

Anodising would be nicer, but you can't anodise cast.

[duckman]

Yea - I've got the dreaded Suzuki white wheels - I was thinking of getting them painted black. I'd like to get them polished but I've heard thats even harder to keep clean!!

[vifferman]

Yea - I've got the dreaded Suzuki white wheels - I was thinking of getting them painted black. I'd like to get them polished but I've heard thats even harder to keep clean!!

Nup. The road grime sticks more to the paint than to the polished metal. It was a prick of a job cleaning the painted wheels, but the polished ones needed little more than a quick wash, and mebbe a polish every few months.

[Motoracer]

What colour you paintin them? It's not white is it?

[ching_ching]

What colour you paintin them? It's not white is it?

Been thinking red or silver and gold rims just don't cut it. As you can probably figure out I'm going through an aesthetic / vanity phase. Mind you, shiny wheels pretty much go with anything... just like tomato sauce.

chingster

[750Y]

about $130 per wheel for mirror polishing the wheel. ..bling bling, ching ching 8-)

[Darryboy]

I was toying with the idea of painting my gold GSX250 wheels white.
So not a good idea?

I've had my bike around 2 months but never washed it for fear (stupid?) of getting the soap somewhere I shouldn't ie chain.
It's an o-ring chain so do I just make sure I oil it after washing?
Also do you just use car detergent or is there special bike stuff?

Looking forward to all the 'god you're a dumbass' comments

[Bleck K6]

Yea - I've got the dreaded Suzuki white wheels - I was thinking of getting them painted black. I'd like to get them polished but I've heard thats even harder to keep clean!!

I had the centres of my old gsxr1100 rims painted matallic silver & polished just the outer lip & you could hardly tell the werent fully polished.when they were fully polished they would stain around the base of the spokes.
DEATH.INc painted them for me

[DEATH_INC.]

Yep,there's nothing trick to it.just the usual prep.The only hassle is getting rid of ALL the old chainlube,then just prime and paint them.I prefer 2k primer/filler and clearcoat,but I've done 'em with 1k stuff pretty successfully too.
You can go to the hassle of stripping them,but if the paint on them is ok,not flaking or got heaps of corrosion,just clean it down real well,give 'em a bit of a scuff with some 180 W&D,prime and paint.

[FROSTY:Me]

there aint anything as sexy looking as polished alloy wheels.

[Velox]

I repainted the inside of my wheels (they're polished on either side with a strip of paint in the middle) but the middle bit and the spokes are such a mongrel to clean because the they're kind of textured (unpolished) and everything sticks to them. I gave them quite a few coats to try and counteract it but that didn't really work. The paint itself is fine though - I didn't strip them properly - just the surface stuff, and then sprayed on a few layers of paint. A year later, they seem to have survived.
Do it yourself I reckon - saves $ and isn't too hard. Just got to get the right paint and wait ages between layers.