I will be getting some new aftermarket wheels later this year so my stock lobster claws will be designated for track duty soon. I like the appearance of satin black wheels with the gray exterior so I thought I might paint my stock wheels. Has anyone tried this themselves? I know that I should get the tires removed and have the wheels blasted to get the best results, but I am feeling lazy and want to leave the tires mounted (masking them obviously). I was just thinking of hand sanding the painted surfaces to give the paint some bite and spraying with rattle can satin black from Lowes. Anyone have tips/suggestions/recommendations?

TIA

Boober

 

I did this to my lobaster claws.

1. Take wheel off car
2. Sand with 300+ grit sanding pad or paper
3. Clean off all dust and use a tack cloth
4. Tape off all parts of the rim that you dont want painted (depends on you, but i left lip silver)
5. Use a self etching primer made for painting wheels (kragen or pep boys) (Duracolor i think)
6. I did 2 coats of primer
7. 2 coats of matte black wheel paint (needs to be heat resistant)
8. i coat of clear coat or acrylic
9. Remount tires

Or you can pay $300 to get them powder coated... thats what i did for my street set

 

 

Looks great mobonic! I thought I might paint the whole wheel black but the silver lips look very nice!

BTW thanks for the tips!

 

Paint them all black

You dont have to paint and dont have to worry about getting bad paint lines

just use index cards and put in between tire and rim and spray!

 

I painted my lobster wheels in flat black and it came out great. I followed similar procedure to mobonic except clear coat. I also painted all of it including insides black. I think it looks great. I'll take some pictures and post them. Too bad I got a flat rear tire after couple of days after mounting them. I had to put other wheels on in the mean time.

 

Here is mine - flat black ----they were blasted first and painted by a wheel specialist

 

paid 200 to sand and paint at a local shop

 

I was thinking about that for mine -looks cool on Arctic. How much did that run you?

 

Looks very nice! What suspension work have you done?

 

I had it done at RUF auto in Dallas for 150.00 a wheel - that included rebalance and mounting.

Thanks Boober - I have H& R springs. It sits right at the GT3 height.

 

You might consider a gunmetal powdercoat. I find that matte black hides the sculptural lines of a wheel. The high gloss of gunmetal allow you to see some highlights while still having the darker contrast. I'm about to convert to gunmetal the wheels on my Arctic Silver C2S.

 

Right, or even some lightly metalic powdercoat. Like a RAC wheel. I really like the Classics, not sure I would buy aftermarket wheels for the car. So refinishing is a great option that would set the car apart and would be low cost too.

 

mobonic,
I really like the way you left the entire rim silver. That's very interesting and a bit different from my lobsters, which are all black except for the lip edge.

 

I working on painting my lobsters too. I was going to go gloss black with just the outermost lip silver.
I def. don't want to go all black.

Mobonic, I like how yours are done. Is the entire inside of the wheel silver still? How do the paint lines look? Can you post/ or send me some close ups?

Thanks,