Due to budget restraints (My wife) I am stuck riding around on the stock base model V6 wheels until my tires are worn out. At the rate I am going that will be another 2-3 years.

I have a Kona Blue Mustang, which means that everything on the exterior of the car is either blue or black, except the silver wheels. They don't fit the car. Since I can't get new wheels for a while I've decided to paint the ones I have until I can.

The question is, how to paint them. And I don't mean the technical painting part, I mean, how should they look when they are done? I have come down to one of two options that I think would look good.


First option is to mimic the Rousch painted OEM rims.


The difference is that instead of the gray I would go with a gloss black, but otherwise mirror that design. The major drawback to this would be the masking. With no sharp corners to work with on the taping I would have to make stencils, then broadly tape off the silver areas, and then use the stencils and a modeling knife to cut the tape down to the right pattern.

This is not beyond my abilities, but realistically I estimate 3-4 hours per wheel to mask everything off and get it all perfect before painting. I'm not sure if the finished product would be worth the effort.



The second option would be to just paint them solid gloss black, which would end up looking something like this...


The advantage to this is obviously time. It would only take me about 5 minutes to mask off each wheel instead of 3-4 hours per wheel. And I actually think the finished product would look very good.


So, what do you guys think? Should I put in the extra effort to end up with something that looks a little more flashy, or should I stick with solid black rims and sit back with a beer to admire my work a few hours earlier?

 

Burnouts are your friend

 

I've been with my wife for nearly 20 years. She knows all of my tricks. If I try to cheat she will make my life hell before I can get new wheels.




As it is I consider myself lucky that she gave in to a stereo upgrade so willingly. Got her trapped in the car for 2 hours listening to that base model radio. By the time we were done she was like

 

HAHAHAHAHA is the base radio that bad?

I honestly like the Gloss black idea, it stands out a bit more than a flat black and the Kona gloss black is a nice looking combo. If you put tape over the polished steel part and painted the rest of it Gloss Black you can have similar looking wheels to the Boss 302 which look sick on Kona

 

There is no polished steel. It's a painted rim from the factory, it's painted a metallic silver. The problem with trying to just tape off the outer part of the rim is that the tops of the spokes are flush with the outer edge. If I'm going to do the outer ring then I would have to do the spokes too or it just wouldn't look right.

As for the color, I also prefer the gloss to the flat black. Maybe it's my age showing, but whenever I see flat I think "primer". I put a lot of effort into keeping my car with a mirror shine, high gloss wheels just seems to match the look better.



And in regards to the base radio, let me just say that I LOVE the retro styling of the body, I could definitely live without the retro sound system. I went to Best Buy just to listen to some speakers, and they had these little 4" Sony door speakers on sale for $19.99, and they sounded better. My wife has an early 1990s jam box that to this day sounds better.

Imagine taking a Shaker, turning the bass and trebble to their lowest position, disable the subwoofers entirely, and then putting throw pillows in front of the speakers, played at nothing higher than half volume or it distorts.

 

Oh ok I see now, well that kind of sucks :/. You and me both, I think that flat black just looks unfinished

That's what I was afraid of ... I currently have a Shaker 500 in my 09 and I love plugging in the Ipod and listening to the music and watching the side view mirrors shake from the Bass. I guess that is one thing I will have to do as well

Thanks for the review!!

 

Well, little did I know that if I had bothered to read the thread right below this I would have had pictures of both styles I was thinking about installed on a Mustang. Pretty much told me exactly what I wanted to know.





Now that I see what they both look like installed on a car the choice is much easier. Solid black it is.

 

No problem.

FYI, if you check the Audio mod section you'll find a LOT of people upgrading the speakers on the Shaker systems. Personally I would rather upgrade the base than pay for a Shaker. I can do much better for less money.

 

Hey Moustang! I am in the same boat but am using the time to save up to buy the AMR wheels and tires about a year or so down the pike I have a sterling grey car and hated the stock silver wheels but did not want to go black either. I did not want to do all the work to sand, prep and paint them and went with plasti-dip Very easy stuff to use! I wanted to have a metalic finish so after putting four coats of plasti-dip, I did two more coats with Dupli-Color Graphite. The results is I have the color wheels I want and if I change my mind, I can peel the off or, shoot over in another color anytime for under $50. I tried the two tone but it is a pain to mask but think the single color came out pretty good! Just let you imagination run wild, you can always change your mind with plasti-dip! I may try a lighter color on my wheels but so far they are holding up great after 4 months

 

Here is a picture of our wheels someone shot in black plasti-dip. They do make a "Glossifier" or, you can shoot over it with clear automotive lacquer but, keep in mind that if it has any runs, anything that puts a gloss coat will magnify the defect while flats hide them

 

I'd leave them silver and not waste the time or $$$ to paint them black because unless you can do a real pro job on them with a clear top coat or three, the paint won't last.

Just start putting the bucks away to get a right set of wheels and tires.

 

Consider power coating. It's much tougher than paint, and you can get any color your want, and in your choice of matte, satin, or gloss. You can even get multiple colors at the same time, but that will cost more. Shouldn't cost more than $150 or so to have them coated.

Believe me, you'll thank yourself later.

 

I second this

 

I can do a real pro job. Not an issue. My only question was the time investment vs the results. Seeing the solid black rims on a car, I find that I prefer that anyways.





Considered it. Once I got to the part where I had to remove the tires from the wheels, remounting and rebalancing, borrow or rent a truck to take the wheels to a shop, the time I would have to take off work to get everything done, and the 1-2 days during the work week when I would be without a car, spending a day or two painting them in my garage seems a MUCH better choice.

And I'm only planning on keeping them another 2-3 years and then replacing them anyways.





As for the Plastidip suggestions.... thanks, but no thanks. When I'm done I want the rims to look like they came that way from the factory.

 

Must have missed something in the title of the thread "Poor man's wheel mod".

 

Honestly, I wished sometimes my wife was firm on her stance. Cause Id be pretty comfortable with "saved funds" that I just burned thru in the last 10 years of marriage
Looking forward to what you come up with. I never hesitated to murder out my harley parts with rattle cans provided you spend the proper prep time. Its part of the fun with bikes though and much different than car rims I suppose. I have done my work truck rims with John Deere Blitz black paint. Proper prep time of sanding and priming helps. Lasts a long time provided you dont curb them, yet again its a work truck. I never dismounted the tires, just use the playing cards trick, and wedge them between the rims and tires for overspray. As for your car, take your time and have fun with them. Like you said they will be replaced in a few.

 

I would be happier if the "saved funds" were actally saved for me rather than used by my wife for the things she wants.

Funny story....

I checked this thread this morning and left it open on my computer. My wife read the part about me "cheating" and suddenly I had some explaining to do...


Once I explained to her that the whole thread is about wheels, and by "cheating" I meant doing burnouts until my tires were worn out so I could replace them sooner, she felt a lot better.

And then warned me not to do burnouts or she would be furious.


Once apon a time I thought I wanted to be a professional artist for a living. Times and dreams have changed, but I did get the benefit of a couple of years in professional art school, so I have plenty of experience in prep and painting of almost any surface and with almost any paint.


After the wheels my next little project is to paint the insets on the plastic door sill a nice "Anodized Blue". The door sills themselves will still be black, but the horizontal lines and "Mustang" will be a nice shiny metallic blue which should really make it pop out. That will hold me over until I can scrape together $200 for lighted door sills.

 

thats funny man, yeah I found her lil stash under her sink..jewelry fund is what I call it LOL. I threw her off by adding $20 into it.. I swear she must of counted it 5 friggin times. I was laughing my *** off around the corner. Actually the laugh is on me, there is actually a bigger stash somewhere else and that one under the sink is just a ploy. ****z/giggles man is healthy.
Anyways, yeah my first mod was painting my coil covers "Old Ford Blue" Duplicolor. Sure I couldve bought a set for $80 but whats the fun in that. 6 pack of my favorite beverage, several hours/coats on the deck flipping burgers at the same time. Im thinking of popping out the gills on my hood if possible and painting them satin black or something.

 

Question.....

If I am painting the wheels solid black, and it's going on a Kona Blue Mustang, would it be tacky to paint the small raised ring around the Ford logo an Anodized Blue?

What about anodized blue lug nuts with black rims?



Too much?

 

Yes, no, yes.