I like the look of the Tundras rolling around town on the black Rock Stars and similarly styled wheels but: 1. I am not too inclined to pay $1200.00 (and that's on the very cheap side) for a set of wheels for a truck I'm still making payments on. 2. I like the fact that the stock wheels keep all debris thrown from the tires inside the wheel well. So....
Write-Up On Painting Your Wheels Black: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Okay, you may be asking why does an "Expedition Tundra" need black wheels. Good question. Well, uh, you see, hmmmm, black wheels... they... uhhhhhhh... OH! The black color of the wheels absorbs heat, transfers this to the air inside the tire which expands it. Helps keep your tires properly inflated... yeah. Truth is there is no legit reason. One benefit of this, mod, if you will, is that if the wheels get cosmetic trail damage, it's very easy to touch them up. So here we go.
Items used for the painting of the stock Tundra 20" wheels.
For the paint, I chose Dupli-Color Wheel Paint (black, of course).
Beverage for the job:
It was very hot when I started around 5:00pm, low 90's. Humidity was VERY high. The paint instructions called for not painting above a 60% humidity level. If that's true, I don't know why they even sell this paint on the Gulf Coast! Hoping I wasn't too far out of the workable humidity range, I got to work:
1. I took my trusty "Petersen's 4Wheel&Off-Road" jack to the frame rail on Moby.
After I had the front wheels off, I had to wash the road grime off the wheels. I can tell you the combination of Simple Green and the wife's toilet brushes are very effective for this job.
I tell you what, scrubbing those front wheels was a lot of work. Time for...
Each time I moved the sandpaper back and forth, making that sandpaper-y sound, it sounded like this, "YOU'RE-KKSSSSHHHHH-SCREWED". Sigh, no turning back now. It's very upsetting ruining a perfectly good set of wheels, better get a...
Okay, tires cleaned and sanded. After a quick spray to get sanded particles off, I used a Dupli-Color prep wipe then, dried the wheels. Now I'm no professional (obvious), so I did not remove the tires from the wheels. I did not want to spray paint the tires though. On a Mustang forum, there was this one guy who, ingeniously, made use of index cards to create a barrier between the wheel and the tire. I was concerned about over spray. I masked off the tires with masking tape first, overlaying the tape onto the wheel. Then I went back and using a razor, circled the outside of the rim, between the bead protector on the tire and the very edge of the rim.
Once that was completed, I placed newspaper over the rest of the tire.
Oh, I also shook up the paint cans...
The instructions called for one light coat, wait ten minutes, apply another light coat, wait ten minutes and then apply a medium wet third coat. That's pretty much what I did. So the process went into the night times four. Here are some wheels with the paint drying...
Once I was finished painting the wheels and had them back on, this is what the truck looked like...
and this is what I looked like...
General impressions: if you have the money, pay someone to do this. I was not real happy with the outcome. The coverage is spotty, you get splatter, and it's going to look like a spray painted wheel no matter what. Now, as mentioned earlier, I have a lot of experience with spray paint after painting my jon boat. I will go back and do a second coat after this paint has cured and some sanding. That made a big difference with the boat. I will tell you that after this experience I, in my conspiracy mode mind, believe that all the videos on Youtube that show this process and the great results are all put out by the evil spray paint industry. If you choose to do this yourself, some tips:
1. Buy your paint at least two weeks in advance. I had to go to six different parts stores to find TWO cans of black from Dupli-Color.
2. Start early in the day. The work involved removing the wheels, cleaning, sanding, prepping, masking, painting, drying, painting again, drying again, painting the third time, letting dry enough to put back on vehicle all take a huge amount of time.
3. Most forums tell you that one can will do all four wheels... if you drive a Mini! I bought two cans to be safe. Knowing what I know now, I would've bought six (see next).
4. Buy extra cans. One of the cans that I bought splattered. I cleaned it, cursed at it, offered it my beverage of choice if it would stop. No dice. Had I extra paint at my disposal, I would've tossed this one immediately!
5. When you get down to about 2/3rds of a can, stop using it and switch to a fresh can. Trust me on this one.
Disclaimer: No beers were actually finished in the painting of the wheels or the typing of this post. For those of you that know me, you won't find this hard to believe; I went through 1.5gallons of sweet tea while doing all this, the beer sat in the corner, half-full.
yes, i can attest to the fact that no beers were finished in the painting of these tires, as he left the first half-finished bottle in the garage for me to trash the following morning.
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