like my username says, I have an 06 Raptor, but I just recently saw the new 08 Raptor and I love the black wheels it comes with. I wanna go the easy (also cheap) route and paint the wheels on my quad black, but I dont have the slightest idea of what paint is best to use.
can you guys help me out??
thanks

 

Can you even put a halfway durable coat of paint on aluminum? For some reason, I'm thinking aluminum has to be anodized or maybe powder-coated?

 

i have no clue thats why im asking. but thats a good question

 

I've seen it done with high temp engine paint...... but it eventually chipped all off.....

I'm sure there is some way to do it but it might be a losing battle unless you can get them baked..... powder coating is not all that expensive maybe you should price it.

 

The factory wheels are clearcoated, so paint will stick to them as good as any other metal as long as it's prepped right. Still, any kind of paint, even powder coating, is eventually goint to chip or wear off on wheels on a quad. Heck, i'm even starting to lose a little of the black paint on the edge of my wheels, and that's the factory baked-on paint. Just gotta touch it up from time to time.

I think the best way to go would be to start by going over the wheels with some medium grit sandpaper, something in the 400 range. Try to get as much of the gloss finish off as possible. The goal isn't to remove all the clearcoat, just to remove the glossiness.

Then i'd hit it with some black Krylon spray paint. Nothing special, just regular krylon spray paint. Hit the wheels with about 4 light even coats of that. I'd give that about 48 hours to cure, then hit it with several coats of some good automotive clearcoat. DupliColor Plastikote works pretty good.

That's about the best you're gonna do on a budget without going as far as powdercoating. At that point it would almost be cheaper and easier to just buy some black wheels. The factory black wheels probably aren't selling for too much on ebay, and shouldn't be hard to find because not everybody is a big fan of the black finish. I, for one, love the black wheels and am trying to use that as a base for everything else that I buy. I already ordered a black blingstar bumper, and eventually I want some AC Blackline nerfs in the black powdercoat finish.

 

You might want to think about powder coating them, It's not that expensive. I use a place called fusion powder coating, in El Mirage, Az. They charged me $20 which included sandblasting the old stuff off. If you are in the Phoenix area and you go over there, tell em big Jim sent ya...

 

Powder Coating is the only thing that will be worth your time and money.

 

powder coating is the way to go.