(Rattlecan) Wheel painting

In a perfect world, I'd just take the tires off and do the standard prep and paint.
However, here in the REAL world......dont wanna take tires off. Hadda CUT the old ones off, and dont wanna booger these up.........so who's got a goof-proof, tried and true method of masking off the tires?? Just masking tape and newspaper?? Or anybody have better system? I want to reshoot the black areas on the "mag" wheels, leaving the rim edges and "centers" of the mag "spokes" polished aluminum. Tips appreciated........
Thanks.

I painted mine last year and heres how-take off the rotors, get a bunch of liquid soap and put it in a bowl, paint it on the tire with a brush and let it dry. Go crazy with the paint because the over spray will wash right off. I painted mine gold and it came off no problamo.

Personally, I'd use 3M masking tape and lots of time. 3M makes a bright green masking tape that's pressure-sensitive. You can lay it down lightly to get it into place, then when you're happy with positioning give it a good press to make sure it sticks.

Normal masking tape is more of an all-or-nothing thing. You have to pull it off hard if you want to reposition, which means that you end up moving it more than you wanted. The 3M stuff is really nice to work with, and if you don't mind taking time to mask it off you can mask off just about anything.

Ask your friendly neighborhood auto paint shop for some pressure-sensitive masking tape.

Liquid soap, huh??? Now THATS a good idea.
Masking tape I've used almost NEVE wants to stick to tire rubber.....the 3M Green will??

And thanks.

indykaw77 wrote:

Liquid soap, huh??? Now THATS a good idea.
Masking tape I've used almost NEVE wants to stick to tire rubber.....the 3M Green will??

And thanks.

Should... it's actually made for painting cars IIRC...

Listen to Don...His bike looks sweet! I SOOOOO wish I would have done this on my A4. I spent TOO much time masking the tires when I could've been spraying paint on the rims.

BTW: Dish soap is CHEAP! 3M stuff, while awesome, is WAY too expensive for shit like this (unless you're lookin' for show quality!).......just my .02!

Oz

Post edited by: kawozaki, at: 2005/12/02 23:26

It depends on how clean your tires are, for proper adhesion. 3M green (it's technically called 233+) is around $3 a roll for 3/4" or $5.50 a roll for 2".

If you are just repainting the black sections, you don't need to mask to the edge anyhow. The outside rim of the wheel is polished anyhow, mask along those lines. the dish soap trick works good, in fact, they make a product for doing specifically what you are talking about. It's called Slime or something. 3M makes a similar product, called masking liquid (technically reffered to as 6847).
that stuff is $26 a gallon though. It definitely works well against overspray.

If you are looking for a more permanent solution, get a set of rim maskers. They work up to a 22 inch rim, and come as a set of 4 for doing cars and truck wheels. You can continually use them for the rest of your life, and never have to mask off another wheel again as long as you live... all 4 for $21.
www.autobodytoolmart.com item number 8089. (I just happen to be leafing through the catalog ordering some stuff right now)

What I did on my rims was to mask the outer part close to the edger of the black with cheep tape (you dont have to get the tape exact, just close) and then paint the mag spokes. I then used 0000 steel wool dampened with lacquer thinner to clean up the edges. If you do it this way, just dampen the steel wool (dont saturate it, as the thinner will drip over the freshly painted spoke part and ruin the work you have done)
Daniel

del

Good tips....much obliged!

I plan on repainting my rims this winter also. Only the black part of the mags. It will be rattlecan paint. Most liely the auto touch up paint cans. Is the original finish a flat, gloss, or semi-gloss ?

Thanks

One option, I worked for a few years in a body shop and the best thing I foud was take a piece of card board lay it over half of the wheel take a rubber hammer of piece if wood and tap the area of the cardboard where it meets the edge of the rim this will make a pattern in the cardboard, cut along the line getting rid of the part over the rim. Then the piece that covered the tire can be moved along as you paint the wheel, if you get any over-spray take some gas on a rag and it will wipe off without discoloring the tire like thinner.