Painting alloy and steel wheels?

[aerosam]

I have a mix of wheels on my car - this is due to using the regular sierra front hubs (13" capri steel wheels) and BMW 5 series rear end (15" multi/crosspoke alloys).

My plan is to remove the tyres, and grit blast the wheels to remove the rust and paint - then paint them all black, in the hope this will at least partially disguise the fact they don't match.

So the questions are, what paint should I be using? Can I use the same paint for the steels and the alloys? Are wheels usually painted inside the tyres? Should I mask up at all, the valve hole or bolt/stud holes?

I'll post pics up on my blog as I go, haven't worked out how to do it here yet.

Thanks guys!

[ozzy1]

First off the best way for your wheels is to get them bead blasted as this is less harsh and will give a much smoother finish,the grit will really make the alloy ones very open and porous.
You can use the same paint for both sets(personally i prefer 2 pac as it goes on reasonably thick) but the alloy ones are really best sprayed with an etch primer first to give a good surface for the paint to 'stick' to, the steels just undercoat and spray.(buy the best paint you can afford to but mostly its down to preparation).
Personally i wouldnt bother masking the holes up and you will get a bit of overspray over the edge where your tyres sit,just make sure you spray the full lip to cover right up to the beaded edge of where your tyre will sit.
With regard to the odd wheels front and rear why not find some alloys you like and buy 2 to fit the ford offset and 2 for the bmw offset then they all match(i know this isnt the real locost way but its an option).

[AshG]

redrill the front hubs its quite a simple job

[aerosam]

good idea Ash, unfortunately I don't actually have another 2 BMW wheels to go on the front, well, I do but they are the old horrid metric rims.

As far as blasting the wheels is concerned, I'm going to remove the rust and paint with coarse white aluminium oxide then finish blast with much finer pink aluminum oxide, at about 30psi this leaves a surface perfect for painting, even on cast ally. We have an aircraft paint shop next door and it's how they do it, and if it's good enough for them then it's good enough for me.

As Ozzy well spotted, I'm doing things very much Locost.

[car.mad]

carefull blasting alloys, the pressure of the beads/sand mite pitt the metal thus ruining them

Jake