One of my friends is starting a plumbing business in San Francisco.  Well, he happens to be a crazy Z-addict and recently, he spray painted his rims he got off a Mercedes Benz.  The above picture is actually after the Nissan Z has been driven awhile(ignore the dirt, it looks good in real life), but it’s a good thing I took some pictures of the process so you can spray paint your rims. (the right way of course)

1) Anyways, first you will need some rims like below: (Take out any screws or bolts if you have any)

2) Now, start taping away the spots you don’t want painted.  In this case, my friend wanted to only spray paint the inside.

3) Once you are done taping, you will need to “buff” using a scouring pad. (the ones you use in the kitchen)

4) Before you start painting, place a powerful lamp over the rims such as this 500W Lamp.  (Anything around 200W and up should work)  The lamp will allow your spray paint to dry much faster so you can spray faster.

After buffing a little, you can start spray painting by applying 2-3 strokes at a time.  Don’t do all at once, you will flood the paint and leave watermarks.

Now, if you mess up during the first couple strokes, don’t be afraid to grab some cloth and clean it off to try again.

The MOST important part of spray painting is that you dont’ over-do it.  Try to do small strokes at a time.

5) After couple strokes, let the paint dry by the lamp, then keep strokin’ it baby!

6) Repeat step 5.

7) When you have spray painted everything nice with your desired color, spray paint again with Clear Coat spray paint, which will protect your paint.  (Same thing with clear coat spray paint, do 2-3 strokes at a time.)

Yey, let it dry for about an hour or two under the lamp, and you should be able to get a nice “professional” finish like this.  Now, this isn’t probably the best way to paint your rims as far as durability issues go but for about $20 of spray paint, you can add a new look to your rims.

Here’s the finished product, looks much nicer. (Note, I took the finished photos after my friend drove a lot and didn’t clean his rims but it looks nice when clean and you can’t tell that someone actually spray painted it.)

And yes, here’s an extra for you, a HOME-MADE cold-air intake for about $20 in parts from Lowes.  (I tell you, my plumber friend can do stuff like this really good.)  That sure beats buying one of those over-priced cold air intakes.

I can understand how valuable these things are as I have spray painted my rims myself(and utterly failed) and spent $300 on cold air intake.

Next time, I will try to see if I can get some pics of him doing it on someone else’s car.

(Homemade Cold Air Intake for $20 of parts from Lowe’s Hardware store)

Here’s a cool video of the intake too:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

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