DIY Bling Your Wheels - part 1 - metal flake

**OzSir2** · 20-09-2007 12:28 AM

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

Aim: I've seen these Advanti wheels on anything from Skylines to Accents...so they're like bums...everyone has them...so I decided to make mine different from the rest by putting on metal flake.

Required: Air compressor, spray gun, thinners for the gun (lower quality than that used for the paint), 2 pac solid colour, 2 pac clear, thinners and hardener for the 2 pac, 600 or 800 grit wet dry sandpaper, metal flake, containers in which to mix paint.

Steps:
Wet the wheel and wet the sandpaper and lightly rub the area that you want painted. I only rubbed the surface about 5 times before the paint wore through to the white undercoat...suggesting the factory paint is poor quality. This is why I had to get black solid paint...otherwise I would have just applied the clear with metal flake on.

Mask the area you don't want painted. As the saying goes, preparation is 90%of the work. Do this carefully. I used masking tape as well as signwriting vinyl for the finer details. Masking tape will leave a little bit of a jagged line in the paint when you remove it so I left this for the more coarse areas.

Mix the paint according to instructions. I think it was about one part of hardener to two or three parts paint with about 10% of thinner. I sprayed the solid colour first to make the base of the wheel black. You only add some thinner to the paint...do not put hardener...hardener is for clear only. I put about 2 or 3 coats on. This point is very important...the paint should look wet and glossy...if it is matt then it that's how it will look when it dries. If it is matt you have not applied enough or the gun pressure is too high. However make sure you don't apply so much that the paint runs...that is the fine art to spray painting. The solid colour was left to dry over night.

Next I mixed the clear with hardener and thinners and added metal flake. It is better to add too little than too much flake so you can add more later to the mix if desired. I put about 3 coats on.

I had been advised by a spraypainter that at this stage that I should sand the surface to remove the bumps of the metal flake poking up though the paint and to make the surface smooth. However I chose not to do this because I found doing so removed the reflective properties of the metal flake.

I mixed clear and hardener and thinners without flake and applied a final 2 coats and left to dry.

Then depending on how rough the surface is, you may want to sand the surface or go straight into cutting (redish compound) or buffing (white compound) to get the finish you want.

This is the finished product. The problem with metal flake is you only get the full effect in direct sunlight. This pic does not do it justice and also in the shade the flake looks like white dots.

Other comments:
I'd like to thank fellow Ozhonda member Claymore for his helpful advice througout this process and my brother John for the use of his spray gun.

So after all this my advice is to practice a lot on your spray painting technique before attempting the real project. Go through all steps from preparation, painting and sanding to make sure you know what things should look like and so you are not just guessing that things will turn out ok.
Also check your compressor pressure...apparently is should be about 2 bar? If it is too high you'll get powder, not paint from the gun.
Use good quality masking materials. It is better to avoid overspray rather than take the time in cleaning it up.

Stay tuned for part 2 of Bling Your Wheels with anti-spinning wheel caps.