OT- Paint for truck rims??

Are they steel?

Mike L

If so rustolem. If any other material I would sand blast them.

Re: OT- Paint for truck rims??

Dick Coers

I like the machinery enamel at the Tractor Supply store.

Re: Are they steel?

Mike L

Sorry would not sand blast them. They may be magnesium or some other soft metal mix.

Re: OT- Paint for truck rims??

Tom Norton

The rims on my F150 are steel. I also will do the rims, aluminum,on my wife's Fusion.

Re: OT- Paint for truck rims??

TomD

I have not tried it, but I have been having good luck spraying metals with appliance epoxy. A lot of high end paint jobs start with an epoxy primer. When you rattle can on the appliance epoxy the surface is tacky, or at least soft for a while after it dries, and might be receptive to a top coat of enamel.

I have tried heat curing the epoxy, and it does harden up a lot, even with judicious use of a heat gun.

It is my current go to finish on metals, but I do not know how well it would hold up to hard use. Certainly seems a lot tougher than enamel. The downside is that it does not come in a lot of colours, and epoxies do tend to degrade in the sun, which is where an enamel topcoat would come into it.

Sam Devlin, of boat fame, is now painting his high traffic wood composite boats, like skiffs, with truck bed liner. He is even painting the water side. Bed liner is designed for metal. Or possibly enamel.

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Blasting increases the wetting ability of metals, and thereby allowing a stronger bond. It only last a short while after the blasting, and you can tell whether the metal is still active by whether water beads somewhat, or wets out flat like it might sink in. What I don't get is how this feature survives the cleanup of sand blasting the metal. What is the usual process for cleaning up parts that have been sand blasted (forget for now the other media).