Paint my steelies white? :D

[chriswf]

Hey guys, I ended up getting a Yaris. The car is amazing so far.

I bought a Fit, it seemed slow when I test drove it with me, my wife, and the heavier salesman guy... But I bought it anyway, used, 90,000 miles. Well, 1 day of driving it, -even alone- , it got REALLY SLOW. And bogged horribly.
Honda? Really?

Took it back and got the Yaris with less than half the miles, cleaner exterior, better on gas, and accelerates decently. Same price.

The ONLY problem with my Yaris, is they put chrome hubcaps on it. I don't like it, but I don't necessarily want to get anything bazaar or special either.
I was thinking about taking off the Yaris wheels, and painting them white to match my white Yaris 2d '10 hatchback's paint.

I thought it'd still look decent, here's some other white cars with white steelies.








What do you guys think? Got any photos of Yaris' like this?

[CTScott]

I painted the steelies on my new project Yaris white, when I pulled the super cheesy aftermarket hubcaps off:

[yarisugi]

Do it like that first pic you posted - black with white trim.

[chriswf]

Wow that is a VERY red yaris... I don't think I've seen any red ones where I live. Only black, silver, white, and a few different blue shades.

I do like the wheels though.


If I do just a white ring, should I paint the center black or are they black enough without paint?

[yarisugi]

not black enough. Steelies will rust so why not add a little more protection.

[chriswf]

Any specific brand? Just like Kyrlon or Duplicolor? Lol.

[b20vteg]

white steelies are sex!

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by chriswf

Any specific brand? Just like Kyrlon or Duplicolor? Lol.

I use Krylon. My experience is that it goes on better and tends to last better than Duplicolor or Rustoleum. Just do a couple of coats of clear over the white to protect it and make it easier to clean them.

[chriswf]

Should I scuff the wheels? Like with a scotch bright pad? Or 180 grit? Or 320 grit?

OR is that not necessary?
I used to work in a body shop but I never painted a single wheel - at least not on purpose lol.

And I really don't know how well aerosol paints stick to smooth surfaces.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by chriswf

Should I scuff the wheels? Like with a scotch bright pad? Or 180 grit? Or 320 grit?

OR is that not necessary?
I used to work in a body shop but I never painted a single wheel - at least not on purpose lol.

And I really don't know how well aerosol paints stick to smooth surfaces.

Definitely, scuff them up. Use 80 or 100 girt sandpaper or one of the coarse scotch pads. Also, use the Krylon primer before the paint. Because of the depth of the indented area, you will get a lot of texture (since the overspray kind of hangs there and gets picked up by the paint). That means that you will need to do some sanding between coats (I usually use a fine scotch pad for that part).

[cali yaris]

^ With wheels, definitely prep, primer, then paint, or it won't last.

[chriswf]

For wheels, if I primer them, do I wet sand them with like 500 or 320 like a car?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by chriswf

For wheels, if I primer them, do I wet sand them with like 500 or 320 like a car?

Depends on how perfect you want them to be, although wet sanding between primer and paint is probably overkill on the steelies, which are pretty crude.