Painting Wheels

George Iowa

George Iowa

Senior Member
I am going to paint my wheels with a spray gun. What is the best way to paint them.

1. Make a rope loop around the wheel and hang them from the ceiling?
2. String the rope through the hole and make a knot, then hang them from the ceiling?

I am looking for ideas!
I don't have an old hub to mount them on. And I want to spray the entire wheel.

Thanks George
 

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George, Hi there, I usually do them in two stages. I`ll paint the backside in the evening on a piece of plywood sat on saw horses. In the mornig following I turn them over and do the pretty showy side. Thats one of the ways I`ve done that job. Monte
 
This is what I found to be the best approach. I mounted a spindle and drum on my engine stand. Since you do not have a hub, put a length of large ABS pipe in the stand that will pass thru the wheel center. Now you can spin the wheel. Start with the rear side of the wheel. Spray the backside of the long spokes, then the backside of the short spokes. Then paint the inside half of the rim. Go then to the outside of the rim. Then the front of all the spokes followed by the center section. This pattern will avoid any overspray that may diminish any gloss. JMHO, and worked very well for me.
 
I made a hook to hang from the ceiling and go through the center of the wheel. It works good, but is a pain to spin the wheels around. I ususally lay them on a pair of 3/4 inch pipes that are on two saw horses, and paint the back side two coats, then flip them and paint the front side. I can paint all 5 at once.
 
I used a broken spindle from my table saw and scraps of steel to make a "spinner" for the wheels. Once mounted, the wheel will spin (by hand) for a long time while I spray the wheels using a small gun. I found that, with a narrowed fan, painting the spokes first worked the best for me. What is nice is that, with the wheel turning, the paint doesn't know which way to run so I can lay it on much heavier that what would be normal. You will quickly figure out a pattern on how to spray them. I have though about attaching a power drive but the spinner works very well as is. Gar Williams
 

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I would not use a rope or anything that allows the parts to move so easy. You will find it wants to move too much and you will end up with uneven paint. I did that once and cursed myself as I spent quite a while fixing the problems it generated. You want the wheels solidly mounted to something!!!

The best thing I did was get a powder coat set up and make an oven big enough to cook them. I put an extension box out the back of the oven I picked out of the trash. I then made up some jigs to let me PC the wheel and then stick it on a rack and bake it.

When I asked the question the suggestion on how to paint a long while ago the answer I liked best was a motorized rotation device.

This will let the wheel rotate as you spray. You start from the inside middle and work your way to the front outer. You need to think about keeping the wet line moving or you will get overspray in areas you have sprayed and partially dried.
The motor will keep the wheel moving so that any runs you have will keep moving too.

One guy set up to have 4 wheels rotating at once.

The best way to paint the wheels is just not possible today. Dip painting. You have a large tray with water and paint on top, just like the factory paint.

In any case, painting wheels is very time consuming and easy to screw up if you miss a step. Take your time and do not try to rush them.

You need to be very careful about paint build up on the 2 main areas the wheel contacts the drum. Unlike modern wheels, the A wheel become part of the structure of the drum. If you have an uneven build up of paint at the 2 contact rings of the wheel then you will get a distorted drum. One wheel had enough PC to cause the drum to distort .011" and went back to 0 when I sanded the 2 rings. I recommend that you sand the 2 rings on the wheel down to metal as they will wear off over time anyway and leave you with loose wheels.
 
Mine were done in a much simpler way. We simply ran a pipe across two saw-horses with the pipe going through the center of the wheel. They could be spun, as needed.
MIKE :)
 
This is the fixture I used for my wheels. They could roll along between the boards so I could hit from different angles and both sides. It also allowed me to shoot 2 at a time which helped with dry time between coats. However I shot bead side of the outer rim on a pedestal before putting it in between the beams so the paper wouldn't stick.

846504217_rQTCA-M.jpg
 
I paint the insides of the centers one day,then slide all 5 onto an iron rod hanging between a couple of bulldozers.With a 20 foot rod you still have to be careful about not bumping them with your shoulders.You can spin them round and round,and if you do scar the paint inside the center,you can squirt some up in there at the end.I have a spinner setup,but I can't see it being of any use to me.I can't take the time or materials to mix enough etching primer to do one wheel at a time,then repeat with epoxy primer,then repeat with color.I could spend 10 or 15 days painting a set of wheels.I have a few sets of wheels I painted in the late 70's and early 80's with Centari,or at least some kind of acrylic enamel with a hardener.The ones here that were powdercoated at the same time are not holding up near as well.The painted ones are just faded,and I can just repaint them.On the powdercoated ones the coating appears to be shrinking and cracking,and they have to be stripped as you can't paint over the plastic coating.Working on old motorcycles has me falling out of love with powdercoating.Then again,the powder was 30 year old technology,and to expect something to last 30 years is a bit much.It may be better now,although when fresh it looks the same.
 
Simple - I didn't use any of the intricate rolling/turning devices.

I just finished painting my wheels about two weeks ago. I clamped two 2x4's x 8 ft together (you can nail them if you wish) then clamped them on edge on two saw horses. You'll find that the wheel will fit snuggly on top of the 3" wide 2 by's and stand up by themselves but allow you to roll them.

I sprayed all of the wheel, inside/outside but left the inside part of the rim (where the tube fits) to the last so I could roll the rim on the 2 by's without getting paint everywhere. I finished the inside rim last. I let the paint get a bit tacky and gripped the wheel by the inside of the rim and placed them right side up on three soda pop cans to final dry. The cans fit on the inside part of the wheel center under the lug holes.

I wound up with a beautiful paint job (Tacoma Cream) no overspray or haze.
 
Many, many years ago at usn base, newport RI. 1932 four door sedan, 2 people, two brushes, one can of red paint, 5 wheels, 1+ cases cold beer, part of a saturday morning. Came out good
Paul in CT
 
Great suggestions on the painting setups. I will be using a few of them. I have a question What ways are there to remove the rust and old paint in the tight areas in preparing for the new paint? Thanks in advance.
 
I sandblasted everything. If your crossed spokes touch, and the blasting cant get it, you can use a chemical stripper, or a blade to scrape it out in those areas.
 
What I have found is putting wheels in an electrolytic rust removal tank before blasting can reduce the time it takes to blast the wheels.

I have done my blasting in my sandblast cabinet so I have been using less aggressive media. I find I can cut the time blasting in half on a wheel.

Keep in mind that the electrolytic rust removal will also remove some most paints too.
It is cheap and environmentally friendly to use as you only need some washing soda.
 
Thank You to all that answered my question.
I used the electrolytic rust removal method over the past weekend on the running boards and it works great. I have been giving a lot of thought to trying this on the wheels with some fancy electrode manipulation to get the "blind" areas due to the line of sight limitations.
 
I agree with Kevin on the electrolytic rust removal. I did a very rusty Cub Cadet wheel (rust due to calcium cloride for wheel weight) and it cut the sandblast time to a few minutes.

I won't be using it on my 21" wheels though due to the roller lip holding water, and I really don't care to drill a hole in the rim of a nice wheel to make sure it's all out of there.
 
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