Been wanting to powder coat the wheels and I think I have found a temporary fix that may turn out to be my long term fix. If you are contemplating getting your wheels powder coated black I would recommend this. I thought I was going to like the "glossy" look better but I'm in love with the way the wheels turned out.

I was at the JTran Dyno Day and was inspired by another car that had black rims. As I said before, I have been wanting to do this for a while but a buddy told me about some stuff called "plasti dip". I was all ready to sand my wheels, primer, and paint. He stopped me and showed me a buddy of his G35 with some $10k rims (forgot what they were) that this stuff was used on and I liked it a lot. That guy didn’t like the black very much but had left it on for several months and they still looked flawless. He decided to go ahead and show me how you could just peel this stuff off once you got it started. It was easy after he started but was this stuff was still fairly durable since there were no issues that I could see after several months of use. Took all my sandpaper, primer and paint back and spent a whopping $22 on three cans of this stuff. It took my about 4.5 hours to do and is a great way to see if you like the look or not. If not, you can peel this stuff off with a little bit of effort and have your wheels right back to the way they were. NO sanding and NO primer. Just wash your wheels, dry them, and apply. I was taking off one of my wheels and barely tapped it with the tire tool and got a nasty little chip on it so I'm not impressed with the paint job Infiniti did to begin with. It seems pretty durable and kind of a weird texture. Feels, well, like plastic. No need to polish these bad boys, just rinse off and you're good to go.

Will keep this updated for any wear issues but for now this looks like a good way to save some money and if you don't like then you can go back to the original look without a lot of effort, time and money spent. Got this stuff at Lowe's for about $7 a can.


Will try to get some better pics as well. Camera is messed up and all I have is the bberry for now.

 

Sweet, but could u post some better quality pics?

 

just make sure you used the paint that can withhold over 200degrees of temperature it will peel off by itself.

 

Synthetic Rubber Coating

Plasti Dip is a multi-purpose air dry, synthetic rubber coating that can be easily applied by spraying, brushing or dipping. Plasti Dip protective coating products resist moisture, acids, abrasion, corrosion, skidding/slipping, and provides a comfortable, controlled grip. It remains flexible, stretchy and will not become brittle or crack in extreme weather conditions; -30°F to 200°F. Available in 7.25-oz Can, 11-oz Aerosol, 14.5-oz Can. Large containers of Plasti Dip are available for industrial use. Learn more about them in our industrial specialty coatings section.

 

I'm not a fan of black wheels (glossy or flat), but I've always wondered what the 19" sport wheels would look like in a glossy gunmetal gray.

Don't laugh too hard, but has anyone seen the Toyota RAV4 with the 18" wheel option in gunmetal? It has a really good contrast to a lot of different body colors.

 

How easy is it to peel off the coating? I kinda just want to do it to see what my car will look with black wheels. Will the coating damage the wheels in any way?

 

I used this on my grille and my grille has held up nicely for a year. However wheels are different, I'm suspecting that your wheels will get dirty real quick. This is great short term on the wheels, but long term I can't really say. And be careful of what you use to clean the wheels, certain chemicals will just eat right through the synthetic rubber. But if that happens you can just peel off the paint (which is pretty damn easy to do).

Look up plastidip on google for more info. A lot of people with euro cars have used plastidip.

 

Sorry, just seems weird to me

 

Used this for my grill. Awesome for the grill, flat black finish, rubberized texture, no chipping or flaking, no sanding or primer necessary.

For wheels I guess it work temporarily but the rubberized texture would be really odd on wheels. Its not smooth at all, but I guess if you're far away they would just look like flat black wheels.

 

I guess we will see. They look great for now. Not a paint finish (texture wise) for sure but not like it looks weird or anything. From what I could tell on the other rims that I saw that had this on them for at least 4-5 months it still didn't look bad at all. I know from washing the G yesterday that it will grab fabric so your can use anything like that on them. I rinsed them after spraying some soap on them and they were good to go.

Like I said...I will post more after a bit of use and if all else fails I will get to peeling.

 

One more pic...a little better but still not the best. Sorry guys, camera is fried. This was after a rainy drive home this afternoon so it's a little dirty.

 

wow. Thanks for sharing. I wish you had better pics.

If they looked anything like these ( I googled these pics btw) I will give it a try.

 

Not a smooth finish like that for sure.

 

Its not bad. You should do your rear valence and roof in black to finish it off.

 

nice i guess. i just prefer glossy black over flat any day.