Painting wheels - undercoating??

[mattinhertford]

Hi all,

Too wet to take the car out, second wet weekend now, and going stir crazy so thought I'd do a minor job that (hopefully) won't have the car off the road too long!

Planning on taking the wheels off one at a time and painting them. Tyres will stay on. Was planning on sanding down the rusty rims, with various grades of sandpaper, then thoroughly cleaning off any remaining grease/dust etc

Question, should I apply some sort of undercoat, before I spray new colour on?

Thanks

Matt

[936cbpminor]

Hi,
I did a similar thing on my rims (not removing the tyre) by sanding the rust, masking up and using an etch primer (U-POL 1K etch primer but others are available)
Then I used an primer/builder and finally the top coat.
Although I now have new rims the old ones are outside and still show no signs of rust!!
Hope this helps.

[beero]

I used this undercoat a couple of years ago on my daily driver and no rust has come through despite being out in all weathers

http://www.toolstation.com/search?searc ... 61%2098981

[MorrismattVan]

Defiantly use a primer as undercoat- better finish, and it will make your life so much easier!
I just done my wheels over Christmas.
-Masked the tyres up, ( tip I found was to let the air out first- then you can spray the lip up properly, and when you inflate it with air, you loose the rugged edge where the tape has been)
- I sandblasted mine, but sand paper will do.
- clean and then spray primer on ( if you use. High build primer then you don't have to spend as long sanding the wheel, as it looses the Pitts and imperfections better)
- sand up the primer and spray your wheel colour ( couple of coats obviously)
the advantage of primer, is that your paint may react or blister if there's any contaminants on the wheel, ( the primer usually neutralises this- I leant that first hand when I done a set of wheels a few years ago!)

[mattinhertford]

Thanks all for your replies, all very useful. I start tomorrow!