wheel painting???

[freak]

hi i want to paint the wheels on my madbull but i wasn't sure wether i should just paint 'em or have to do some thing before like primer or owt?please help!!! 

cheers cal

[DI Joe]

Cal,

i'm no expert but i believe the best way to 'paint' them is actually to dye them. Apparently dylon is one of the better one's to use. If you search the forum I think its been mentioned a few times before.

 Rgds

Richard

[jozza]

Dye works well, but paint can give you more options for colour. If you want to paint them, I recommend a light coat of primer first. I've painted Mad Bull, Pumpkin, Twin Det and Baja Champ wheels with Plasti-Kote gold enamal spray paint. The first wheels I painted didn't get primed, and the paint hasn't lasted as long, but the others which I did prime have stayed looking good for over 3 years now.

Make sure the wheels are clean before priming them, use a plastic primer if possible and spray thin light coats, and it should last a long time.

The only other tip I can think of is to mask off the grooves where the tyres sit before you paint the wheels. Then, when you glue the tyres they will be glued to the wheel itself rather than a coat of paint.

 

[Mad Ax]

I've had pretty good results with Tamiya polycarbonate paints. 

They don't shine as much as acrylic plastic paints, but they're

resistant to impact and they can flex with the wheels.

I painted

my Blackfoot Extreme wheels by first cleaning them thoroughly, rubbing

down with fine grit paper, then painting first with PS black, then with

PS silver.  This gave a lovely aluminium look to the wheels which

seems to be surviving well so far.

[Jason1145]

On ‎17‎/‎04‎/‎2007 at 3:17 PM, Mad Ax said:

I've had pretty good results with Tamiya polycarbonate paints. 

They don't shine as much as acrylic plastic paints, but they're

resistant to impact and they can flex with the wheels.

I painted

my Blackfoot Extreme wheels by first cleaning them thoroughly, rubbing

down with fine grit paper, then painting first with PS black, then with

PS silver.  This gave a lovely aluminium look to the wheels which

seems to be surviving well so far.

How's the wheels surviving Mr Ax?

I'm after painting some yellow Midnight Pumpkin wheels black and this thread has given me to impetus to move forward now...... I'll give them a light grey primer coat and then some black Polycarbonate spray paint - then they will match my Black Edition Pumpkin waiting to be built.

[Mad Ax]

2 hours ago, Jason1145 said:

How's the wheels surviving Mr Ax?

I'm after painting some yellow Midnight Pumpkin wheels black and this thread has given me to impetus to move forward now...... I'll give them a light grey primer coat and then some black Polycarbonate spray paint - then they will match my Black Edition Pumpkin waiting to be built.

Been a very long time since I ran those wheels.  If memory serves they chipped around the rims, but then the truck was driven pretty hard for quite a while.  I wouldn't expect wheel paint to last for ages on a runner.

I've never tried dyeing wheels but read loads of forum posts suggesting it works well - might be worth a try.

Have you tried to track down a set of wheels from the Lunchbox Black Edition?  Not sure how easy they are to find or what they cost but might be easier than painting or dyeing.

[howaboutme]

I've tried Ritt dye on my HS re-re and it didn't go well. After many attempts, the wheels only turned purple (was supposed to be black). Then did more detailed research online and read many posts that the latest (at that time, not sure if anything has changed) Tamiya plastics don't take the dye well. I ended up painting them. This is just my experience though.

[racer1]

I just finished painting the wheels on a Midnight pumpkin last weekend.  I simply scuffed them up with a green scotch brite pad then shot on one coat of adhesive promoter then very light coats of Duplicolor Automotive spray paint. First went white to cover the yellow before painting the final color while was a Light metallic Blue in this case. 

[Jason1145]

6 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

Been a very long time since I ran those wheels.  If memory serves they chipped around the rims, but then the truck was driven pretty hard for quite a while.  I wouldn't expect wheel paint to last for ages on a runner.

I've never tried dyeing wheels but read loads of forum posts suggesting it works well - might be worth a try.

Have you tried to track down a set of wheels from the Lunchbox Black Edition?  Not sure how easy they are to find or what they cost but might be easier than painting or dyeing.

I found the black wheels (19335666) at Tamico for €11 but it’s €13 to post to UK so it seems a waste  

These Pumpkin wheels are pretty high off the ground so they might escape the usual kerbing etc.

[78Triumph]

I dyed the wheels on my XV-01 with Rit Dye and they came out pretty nice.

Untitled by Joe, on Flickr

Untitled by Joe, on Flickr

[Wooders28]

They do look the business.🖒

I'm going to try black Rit dye, but it's the powder, and the wheels are starting off pink! 🤔

[howaboutme]

5 hours ago, 78Triumph said:

I dyed the wheels on my XV-01 with Rit Dye and they came out pretty nice.

Looks great! Did you follow the instructions? I used the same liquid version and didn't get the same results.

[Supercoolnothing]

You want to use RIT dye in powder form and a old/cheap pot that won't be used for anything else except dying parts ever again unless you really want your spaghetti to turn out purple or whatever colour you've been using last (ask me how I learned this one). 

Bring the water to just about a rolling boil and pop the parts in. If I remember rightly I tied fishing line to the wheels I was dying to make it easier to get them out of the water again. 

Leave the parts in the water for a few minutes and then check the colour, if they're too light then pop em back in for another couple of minutes. 

Repeat until you get the colour you want. 

If you want your wheels to look really snazzy afterwards then get a pot of humbrol enamel or the like in a contrasting colour, load up a brush with the paint, spin the wheel and gently put the brush against it, this gives you a cool pinstripe around the wheel which looks great on a shelfer. On runners it can chip which ruins the effect. 

Another top tip is make sure the wheels are clean and have no old superglue or anything similar stuck to them because the dye won't get under it leaving a patch of the original colour unless you want tie-dye effect wheels (which could look kinda cool on a vw bus)