Sunday, September 27, 2009

Repainted Winter Wheels, or, Salvaged Silver Steelies


I have a set of 14" steel wheels with studded winter tires left over from our old 1998 Civic (we replaced it with our 2009 Suzuki SX4 AWD). Until last week, the black steel wheels were pretty ugly and dirty. The tires, although mis-matched brands, are the same size, have plenty of tread, and most of the studs remain. These tires proved invaluable last year when we were marooned under 16" of snow last December. Sine they fit, I figured these wheels/tires be a great asset to my Yaris come winter, but they needed a bit of a makeover. See, if I'm going to run steelies without hubcaps, I want them silver.

Before painting, I gave the steel wheels a good scrub down with soap (I used Palmolive dish soap) and water. I dried them thoroughly, and tried to get any residual gunk off of them with a rag. Next, I used a copy of the latest Crate and Barrel catalog from our recycling bin and some ubiquitous blue painter's tape to mask off the tires. Afterward, I gave the steelies a coat of white primer using some left-over primer I had lying around our shed. After it dried, I shot them with a couple of coats of silver Rustoelum paint.

VoilĂ —better looking silver steel wheels for about $6.00. Bring it on Old Man Winter!

9 comments:

xBeerd said...

Another tip... rather than using blue tape, if you insert playing cars in the space between the rim and the tire it'll mask it off pretty good. that's how i did my RatedR's on my xB, sure i may have destroyed a good set of cards, but it was easier than trying to tape off the wheel, and cards are cheaper than a roll of blue tape! ;)

I'm going to do this to the wheels on my 92 Loyale but with white wheel paint and probably a million clear coats

Andy Lilienthal said...

Good tip. I was actually hoping I had some leftover index cards, but didn't have any. If and when I do this again, I'll try the playing card idea.

Anonymous said...

Nice job......very clean looking.

nlpnt said...

I gotta do this and find some small center caps; the plastic wheelcovers got beat up soon after I bought the car and I'm too cheap to buy rims :)

Andy Lilienthal said...

I have to say, I was pretty impressed with how they turned out, actually. I think a key step is getting a good primer coat, and applying nice, smooth layers.

Unknown said...

What about the TPMS light? Are you just going to ignore it during the winter (that's what I'd do)?

Andy Lilienthal said...

There's no TPMS on my 2007 Yaris. The 2008 is a different story ...

sleeksilver said...

Nice job, Andy!

Anonymous said...

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