To repaint or plastidip winter rims...
 

Hi All,


I have a set of Enkei dm5 5x100 rims with winter tires on them. I got them pretty cheap off of craigslist, they are really badly painted gold, which I am so so on since it will be my winter set. BUT, I was thinking of repainting them or just pastidipping them a matte black... thoughts? The finish on the rims is... not the greatest. OR just leave it.

If they're winter wheels, they're going to get beat up anyways. I use my stock wheels for winter and they've got scratches and gouges and rash on them. I don't worry about it because with all the salt and sand that gets kicked up on them, I'd have to redo the paint every year.

Yeah.... that's why I was thinking plastidip. I am just not that into the gold.... but it might grow on me....

I was going to do the same with the white painted Bugeye wheels I use for winter, but now it's looking like Saturday won't be as warm as originally forecasted, and may actually snow. So I'll just deal with the flaking crappy paint job on them now.

But if you're going to do it you'll need to either clean/sand them to be smooth, or use some paint thinner/stripper to take it off. Then lay down some primer coats, color coats, and clear coats (if you wanna get that fancy). Probably a good half day's worth of work to do it properly.

MaN..... that sounds like too much work :) I might though... I am going to clean the wheels when I wash my car on Friday and here, supposed to be 66 on Friday.

I prefer to have nice rims, even for winter. I bought some used P1 OZ prodrives and powder coated them for my WRX. They are sweet and are my winters. But for the price you could just get a good set of rims.

I good paint job will be at least 300 and powdercoating will be like 450. So don't do it unless you like the rims. Paint them yourself a graphite color for winter, covers dirt and can even hide dirty salt.

Or .. just don't do anything at all. Even curbed/scratched alloy rims will look better then steelies. Where there is one scratch, will be another. I'd think only of how much wheels cost/weight and of their condition cracking/bending/balancing wise. Paint/finish? It's simpler and easier stress-wise to just drive car as it ought to, then be overly cautious about minor things.
Though then again people for whom minor curb damage or paint scratches turn wheels to unusable make up good & cheap used wheel source in classifieds of several sites for someone like me. Forged wheels sets at 1/2 or even 1/4th the price of new ones? Keep it coming :)

I would go plasti dip. It's cover the imperfections better then another coat of paint would, especially if it's only for winter rims.

Just be aware that you'll need three cans to get enough of a solid layer to keep it from coming off during the winter.