Freshly Painted, now to the wheels...

[sccrbrandon4788]

So after several years of having a half-assed paint job from some low-life I paid to paint my car, I have painted it and looks better than ever. Just to fill you in, it was factory red, I wanted it metallic black, got crap black, and now its back to a metallic red (Kembase Red Hot Metallic).

Spent the last few weeks sanding and prepping it for paint, then sprayed it all in one day.

Now that I have a respectable paint job, I want to move on to the wheels. They are Enkei CDR9's 17", originally silver, sprayed matte black a year ago. One wheel has curb damage so I figured I'd repair and respray the wheels again.

I know how to fix the damage, just curious to see what your opinions are on wheel color. I was thinking a charcoal metallic would look nice, with a high gloss.

Ideas?

 

[Bud92gsx]

Wheels and wheel gap..HA ha ha

 

[JmacDaPlaya]

Good work on the paint, your car looks way better than that black you had going! I like your thoughts on the charcoal color, that would look really good. I think a nice metallic black would look pretty sweet too!

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

Wheels and wheel gap..HA ha ha

Believe me, I know! Hahaha. That'll be down the road some, hopefully next year though.

Good work on the paint, your car looks way better than that black you had going! I like your thoughts on the charcoal color, that would look really good. I think a nice metallic black would look pretty sweet too!

Thanks! I thought about doing black too, but haven't considered metallic. That would look pretty good, better than the matte black they are now. Something to consider.

 

[Rikolas]

Huge improvement from your old paint! Hopefully you didn't pay the guy that much for that horrible paint job for the black.

 

[Bud92gsx]

I told myself the same thing for years with the wheel gap..And I FINNALLY broke down and lowered it.

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

I told myself the same thing for years with the wheel gap..And I FINNALLY broke down and lowered it.

Thats the problem with doing this right, they take A LOT of money.

Still have my Talon TSi sideskirts to paint and install. Should change the look even more, but suspension will be the next thing to save up for.

 

[Tiki2777]

Wow, you painted this yourself? Looks sick. How much time and money did this cost you to do (if you dont mind me asking)? Did you know how to paint or have a lot of experience with this kind of thing? Thanks

Oh, and for the wheels, you could go with a nice gold or bronze setup or go with the black rim with silver lip setup.

 

[JmacDaPlaya]

I feel your pain man, I have the same giant wheel gap going myself. Piece by Piece I always tell myself

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

Wow, you painted this yourself? Looks sick. How much time and money did this cost you to do (if you dont mind me asking)? Did you know how to paint or have a lot of experience with this kind of thing? Thanks

Oh, and for the wheels, you could go with a nice gold or bronze setup or go with the black rim with silver lip setup.

I have NEVER used or held a spray gun prior to this. Lots of rattle can experience doing wheel repair, but never anything remotely close to this. It was a very overwhelming/nerve racking ordeal, but happy I did it.

Paint came from thecoatingstore.com and it was a kit with clear and all reducers and hardeners. They have options between different clears and activators, I chose the upgrade to High Solids for the clear coat, since its supposed to have a higher gloss and more protection. Lots of colors to choose from, too. The kit I purchased, being red and with the different clear coat option selected, was $215. I ordered with a buddy, he got the charcoal metallic, and his was $205 with the same clear I opted to get. They had free shipping over $400.

I don't know what everything all together cost, but I used a $40 Harbor Freight gun (66222), with a 20% off coupon, and my buddy had a compressor, spent $40 on 4 rolls of tape and paper. Took 4 hours for my wife to mask off the car, and for me to remove panels, and around 3 hours to spray.

Thanks for your input!

 

[stracer107]

When my car was red I painted my wheels a dark red maroon Fish color.I justest mixed a bunch of reds we had sitting at the shop together and added a bunch of gold peral it looked sick.just my .02

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

When my car was red I painted my wheels a dark red maroon Fish color.I justest mixed a bunch of reds we had sitting at the shop together and added a bunch of gold peral it looked sick.just my .02

I had thought about doing red, since I have half a gallon left, but doing the same exact color would look 'ghetto'. A darker red wouldn't be bad though.

I kinda like the idea of gold, and maybe work some silver into it... Doing tons of research on color combo's.

 

[gotmyeclipse]

good job man! how much was your recent painjob?

 

[VegasTuner]

I love the paint job its great! the rims not my thing if you havent already um check out the EVO 8 Enkeis they in flat black would look amazing on your car!!

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

Thanks guys!

Gotmyeclipse: I answered this in post 10, but it was inexpensive because I did all the labor and spraying. Overall, it was probably less than $400 after all materials and equipment.

Vegastuner: I don't have money in the budget for new wheels, but thanks for sharing that model. Enkei seems to make some nice wheels, and they are usually inexpensive. I saw the EKM3 in gunmetal at a local store and love them, but for now I think I'll just refresh the CDR9's I have now.

 

[Tha Fella Dylan]

Nice job. I plan on respraying mine too. What size tank did you use? My profile pic has "phantom grey" paint on my Evo 9 Enkei's. Its a nice dark gunmetal color but still shines. It's a Toyota color though. Lol.

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

Nice job. I plan on respraying mine too. What size tank did you use? My profile pic has "phantom grey" paint on my Evo 9 Enkei's. Its a nice dark gunmetal color but still shines. It's a Toyota color though. Lol.

Thanks for the wheel visual. Looks great!

We used an older Cambpell Hausfeld 5hp 26gallon (I think). It did a good hub, but we definitely needed to online water filter. I had a disposable one ar the gun, but having a separator after about 15ft of hose would have been nice. Sprayed at 35psi, gun was only rated at a max of 45psi.

 

[zcoh2gdsm]

reds the only color i like with a wheel that has a gold center and a polished lip.

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

reds the only color i like with a wheel that has a gold center and a polished lip.

I feel the same way. I'm trying to figure out a way to mask it off so I can do gold and silver, since there is no lip. There are no sharp edges to make clean lines.

 

[Black Widow97]

It's looking pretty good. Keep up the good work.

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

It's looking pretty good. Keep up the good work.

Thanks. I'll try to get some more done before it starts getting cold. Hoping for another mild winter like last year here in KY.

 

[gsmokez]

Out of curiousity, where did you paint the car? Did you use a paint booth?

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

Out of curiousity, where did you paint the car? Did you use a paint booth?

I used a friend's one car garage.

 

[gsmokez]

Wow, from what I can see, it came out really well for a garage paint job. Good job.

 

[sccrbrandon4788]

Wow, from what I can see, it came out really well for a garage paint job. Good job.

Thanks! It did turn out a lot better than I thought it would have turned out. Only thing I suggest for any of you wanting to do it, buy lots of tape and primer your car before basecoat. Do this unless your car is all one color. If you don't then the lighter and darker colors will change the appearance of your paint. Example would be my car was originally red, painted black, primered patch areas with black primer. When I sprayed my paint, the paint over the original red was bright, over the black/primer was darker, and a diffrent color over the original primer, which was a light gray.

There are tons of different primer colors, usually you use black or gray primer, but depends on what you want your desired color to look like, brighter or deeper.