Steel Wheels - Paint Removal - Re Painting

Hi All,

I feel like a change of my silver painted steel wheels to a black, i have a couple questions.

How can i remove all the old paint from my wheels ?

What black paint would be best to repaint them with?

Are they at all rusty or completely rust free?

If any sign of rust, have them sandblasted, treated with a good rust inhibitor like bilt hamber then prime & overpaint. My choice would be rustoleum for a DIY paintjob.

Unless they're really rusty you don't need to remove the paint, if you do find somebody that does sand blasting locally

If you leave them so they can run them in they'll give them a blast for a few quid, a guy in Wigan did my mates for £5 a wheel

If not it's just sand paper and a lot of rubbing, hammerite smooth black is durable paint in an aerosol

Arc and wack61 There is a little bit of rust on them. I might message the local sand blaster and see how much he will sand blast them for and if its cheap get him to do it, then they are done.

Not sure weather to go gloss black or matt black? Seen a 90 with mat black wheels the other day looks quite smart.

Local guy quoted £100 for all four wheels, think i will just sand down myself

CameronW1996 said:

Local guy quoted £100 for all four wheels, think i will just sand down myself

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You can buy paint stripper from a car paint shop. It should be about £20 for a 5l can. Brush it on, let it work for a while, scrape paint off. It doesn't work on powder coatings (or it doesn't work well). If you don't use paint stripper and you need the wheels clear of all the paint, you'll have to sand/grind off all the paint. Which is hard work.

How are you getting the tyres off?

Paint stripper sounds good!

Wasnt planing taking them off, was just going to tape plastic over them

CameronW1996 said:

Paint stripper sounds good!

Wasnt planing taking them off, was just going to tape plastic over them

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I'm leaning towards the same. But I'll probably only scuff the paint on mine and spray rattle-can primer on them followed by some Halfords colour, potentially with clear coat on top.

TheJoker said:

I'm leaning towards the same. But I'll probably only scuff the paint on mine and spray rattle-can primer on them followed by some Halfords colour, potentially with clear coat on top.

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Yeah I think I will do the same. What colour you thinking you will paint yours ?

I rubbed mine down, all rust removed and original paint was taken down till it was smooth.

I then primed them and sprayed them with 2 pack. Good tough stuff, been on for about a month now and very pleased with them.

A good idea is to fill the seam round the inside part of the wheel where it meets the outer with some auto body sealant (over paintable would be a good idea if you are doing them silver) Sikaflex or similar.

CameronW1996 said:

Local guy quoted £100 for all four wheels, think i will just sand down myself

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£100 where do you live, Knightsbridge , what a ripoff, it's only 20 minutes work

If they're only lightly rusted paint stripper is a bit overkill, it's messy, caustic and it means you'll be starting from scratch with bare metal


Hammerite smooth aerosols give a decent finish but don't lacquer over it because it reacts and you have to spend 4 hours with a can of thinners getting it off to end up back where you started

Not that anything like that happened to me, no sir, not me

CameronW1996 said:

Yeah I think I will do the same. What colour you thinking you will paint yours ?

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I'm thinking some dark grey, antracite, gunmetal, some such.

TheJoker said:

I'm thinking some dark grey, antracite, gunmetal, some such.

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Good choice for wheels

Paddocks have black modulars for £29 + vat I think

Westwood8055 said:

Paddocks have black modulars for £29 + vat I think

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Yeah. 6705165BKMO | 16x7 Black Modular 16x7 black modular £29 ex vat. Annoying as I have nice white ones, and being a wannabe tree hugger I don't like the buy-and-throw-away mentality. However, I think that a few rattle cans would still be cheaper than the £140ish it would cost to buy new rims, even if I swapped them over myself.

Hey guys! Those steel wheels say +8mm offset! what does that mean?

As for painting wheels, take all the loose paint off and sand rust prime bare metal and top coat!
Have you considered Dipping them (plasticoat) in did my alloys on my fiat with 3 can from a 4 can set! Frost Liquid Wrap Matt GUN METAL GREY Rubber Coating Dip Aerosol - 4 Wheels Pack | Frost Auto Restoration Techniques

oh no good if you going off road! ive had mine on a month now and still look great! and if you want to change them again it just peels off! i just cleaned wheel, panel wiped and sprayed, about 6 coats each wheel, 10 mins between; very light coats.

mine are matte black not gun metal gray

I'm actually considering plastidipping the whole car (sating black). But I would like the wheels a nice metallic gunmetal / antracite colour. Something that's not very easily done with plastidip. And, I'm worried about durability when being muddy/dirty.

yeah im not sure about off roading with plasticoat but they do metalic now and gloss! No point doing your wheels nice if go off road all the time. Something cheap so if you scratch them you can just over paint!

Oh and my wheels get flithy at work! i work on the docks so they are always covered in crap and salt! still look good! I just hose them off!