Managed to spend the weekend at a buddies house...who has a garage thank god. We originally had planned on just doing an oil change and somehow things ballooned into Yellow Lamin-X films on my fogs, refinishing my wheels in a graphite gunmetal color (to hold me over until the powdercoating), shaving my rear emblems, the originally planned oil change, and an amazing 8 hour detail by his g/f. All told, I spent about 60 bucks, and I don't think I could have spent that 60 any better way. Except maybe a massage w/happy ending......

Here's what the wheels ended up looking like after all was said and done. The job consisted of quite a bit of prep, a few coats of Duplicolor grey automotive primer, about 4 coats of Duplicolor Gunmetal Wheel Paint, and a couple coats of Duplicolor Clear coat. What's pretty amazing, aside from how good they turned out for a spraypaint job, is the fact that thanks to the prep and primer a bunch of scuffs that were on my front passenger wheel (thank you girl I was dating at the time...) are now completely gone. WOO!




And this is the car with the wheels, post washing but pre-detailing. It's dark out now (typically is at 3:22 am) so I'll try to get some more good daylight shots in the morn.



Finally, here's a shot that shows the fogs with the Yellow Lamin-X film. I'm actually REALLY happy with this because with the lights off it looks nicely yellow, and when you turn them on you get a yellow tint to the light without being YELLOW...subtlety is my friend.



The *** looks great too now that the emblems are gone, but like I said...it's dark. I'll post some shots of the rear and other stuff tomorrow. Oh, and FYI...I realize it looks like it's lifted or something...these were taken right after we lowered it off the jackstands. Once the suspension settles, I looks normal, I swear!

I'd love to hear some input.

 

Nice job on the wheels. I have a quick question for you, is there an actual Gunmetal DupliColor or is it referred to as Graphite? Thanks in advance for the info!

 

Yes, it's the "Graphite" color. I believe the Duplicolor code for it is WP-102. I just have a problem calling graphite colors gunmetal, even though in reality gunmetal has a blueish hue to it.... Me = retarded sometimes.

And thank you, BTW.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I was planning on painting my winter wheels "Gunmetal" and right now I have 4 cans of "Graphite" DupliColor paint sitting in my garage!!! I'm glad to know it's the same thing because the color on yours looks really good. (I'd rather call my wheel color gunmetal than graphite as well!!!)

 

No problem at all. Biggest thing with painting the wheels, or anything for that matter, is the prep work. My buddy and I spent a good 2 hours cleaning and degreasing them, followed with a little bit of 600 grit sandpaper anywhere I had minor scuffs, then made sure to use plenty of primer, and followed up the paint with some clearcoat. Though, FYI, if you do some clearcoat, don't overdo it. It causes the wheels to become glossy VERY quickly.

Just for reference, I only did 2 very light coats of clear on mine. Good luck, and I hope they turn out!!

 

Looks good. I wonder how well wheel paint jobs like that hold up in winter conditions with road salt, ect.

 

Don't have any experience with it personally, but I do have a friend that did basically the same paint job with a different color about a year ago and his still look surprisingly good. Luckily I'm not too worried about it as I plan on powdercoating well before next winter. Still, it seems to be pretty durable stuff.

 

Thanks for the tips, I bought the DupliColor primer and wheel clearcoat as well, I'll make sure I don't overdo it with the clear.

 

where did u get that "Yellow Lamin-X film"?? is it ina spraycanor an actual yellowy stickery thing u put on ur fogs?? <---only discribtion that came to mind at the this time.

 

It's the actual yellow "stickery thing". You can pick them up for about $14 bucks for a set that's pre-cut for our fogs, but we were lucky enough to already have a sheet of it lying around from another project. It was somewhat irritating to work with, but not horrible. Basically just removed the fogs, cleaned them up, and cut out pieces to the right size. Then gave it a nice spray of water/alcohol so it wouldn't stick immediately. Once you get it positioned, smooth it out to get all the water and air bubbles out. A credit card works fine, unless you have the rubber tool people use for other types of graphics. It helps to have a heat gun or blow dryer to make the film a little more plyable while you're working with it. All told, we got both foglights off the car, filmed, and put back on in about 20 minutes.

Oh, and here's the ***-shot I promised last night. Washington weather is lame so it's bright but overcast, making it look like my car is black...sometimes I really hate living in western WA.