Tips for painting alloy wheels?

Hello all.  I searched the forum a bit and found one thread somewhat pertaining to this topic.  I just got a used Burley trailer for my kid.  Its in good condition, but I like to spruce things up and make them my own.  I decided to start with the wheels.  I think black would look kick-ass with the white reflectors.  Anyhow.  I had some automotive header paint.  Its meant to withstand high heat.  Clearly its its not meant for alloy wheels. lol.  I painted the wheels and found the paint immediately cracking and peeling. 

Anyone ever paint their own wheels?  I have read its best to sand them down and apply a primer.  Then paint with color.  Any thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 21, 2012 at 4:32pm

The High-Heat paint works well on alloy but you need to get any coating off of the rims first.  Xylene would work OK I would think and maybe a little bit of a green scratchy pad to rough it up.

The reason your paint probably bubbled up was because of oils or a coating on the rims.

To make High-heat paint really durable you really need to heat it up and "cook" it.  I'm not sure what you could do other than hit it with a heat gun (not too hot) to warm it up and harden the paint.

On smaller stuff I have had really good luck with simply placing the painted part in an oven and cooking it at at least 150-200 degrees below what the paint is rated at.  For the 600-degree paint you should not cook it a any higher than 400 degrees.  I painted a fork that came all chrome and cooked it for 4-1/2 to 5 hours at 400 degrees and it is just as hard as factory bike paint and has yet to chip or scratch after about 400 miles of riding on it.  


I don't think it would be very easy to find an oven large enough to fit in a pair of rims unless they were 20" wheels.  And cooking a whole wheel would not be a good idea as all the grease would come running out of it and make a mess.  You'd have to delace the spokes first or at least take the axle, bearings & all the grease out first.  For an alloy rim I'd not want to cook it at over 200 degrees.  Any more than that might damage the  alloy and maybe mess it up -especially if you had the wheel still laced up.  But I don't think 200 would hurt it at all other than the grease in the hub wanting to melt out.

I have had good luck with this high-heat paint.

Permalink Reply by Jimmy Jam on April 21, 2012 at 4:45pm

I think I'll try stripping the current paint and using some brake clean to get the oils of, then try painting again with a different type of paint.  They are 20"ers but I(my wife) do(es) not want them in my oven.  I will start a new thread with progress with pics included.

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