Wheel painting - what colour?

Hi Everyone.

Cleaned my bike yesterday and decided that I'm tired of my wheels looking tired. So, I want to get them painted. The wheel spokes and inner rim are already painted blue, same as the bodywork, but the outer rim is still the original bare alloy and is looking dull and mottled. I'm thinking of getting the whole wheel painted.

I can't decide what colour to go for though. Do I stay with blue to match the plastics? Or do I go for black? (Easier to keep clean...)

Here's my SV. Tell me what you think. I'd be most grateful!

Do them White but you will have to clean them every day

Fluorescent orange!

Fluorescent yellow wakes your eyes up on a morning

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by BILLY

Do them White but you will have to clean them every day

Looks like I mine be in for some of that as well.



but yellow works with just about any colour, might be worth considering ?



Cheers Mark.

Thanks you guys. I'm struggling to imagine my SV with yellow or orange wheels! Any paintshop pro's out there?

Rictus01, those are some nice looking rides! I'm kinda keen on black now. Dont know if I'm just thinking too much about the cleaning chore! I think this looks good;



I guess if I felt afterwards that black is too... black, then I could get some blue or silver rim tape. Does anyone have any idea how much 2 wheels resprays is likely to cost? I'll have to take the wheels to a tyre place to get the rubber off of course. Then get the wheels to a paint shop... Hopefully it all wont take too long either, I need my SV to get to work!

Cheers again![/img]

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by philh

I guess if I felt afterwards that black is too... black, then I could get some blue or silver rim tape. Does anyone have any idea how much 2 wheels resprays is likely to cost? I'll have to take the wheels to a tyre place to get the rubber off of course. Then get the wheels to a paint shop... Hopefully it all wont take too long either, I need my SV to get to work!

Cheers again![/img]

Black is soooooooo boring, as far as cleaning goes darker hubs and spokes are easy with a striking rim colour.

If you're only doing one colour why not do it your self ? it'll take about an hours prep work on each wheel once removed, 10 minutes to mask up (don't remove the tyres (do remove the brake disks though), just deflate them and use rags under the rim to cover the tyre.

you'll need a warm dry dust free environment (clean the shed out) and a back cloth to spray against ( I use an old sheet from a double bed). do one side of each wheel at a time, don't try doing the other until it's dry you'll only muck it up, 10-15 minutes to dry turn the wheels around and repeat, do 4 coats.

that's with standard car spray tins, on wheels I don't like to lacquer as they always get chipped at some stage and with just a paint finish touch up is easy.

Cheap and quick, you can do it all in an afternoon, give it an hour or so to dry and re-fit the wheels, the paint will take about 4 days to harden right up but you can ride around without any problems unless of course you're on a track day, then all bets are off.

Cheers Mark.

Mark, many thanks indeed for your guidance.

I can see that a DIY job is possible. But I had presumed that the wheels would need sandblasting or something before spraying? The previous owner of my SV has painted the spokes and inner rim with a laquered paint and the outer rims are still bare, so I have both paint and metal to spray over. Would this not need rubbing down at least? Is that the hours prep that you mention?

What paints are good? I assume that specific wheel paint is something that I can find on shelves. I'm wondering if any paints are particulary durable & suitable. Hammerite or something?

As for a warm, dust-free environment. That sounds like my kitchen table. I wonder if the wife would mind me.....

Thanks again!

[Viney]

Originally Posted by philh

Thanks you guys. I'm struggling to imagine my SV with yellow or orange wheels! Any paintshop pro's out there?

Rictus01, those are some nice looking rides! I'm kinda keen on black now. Dont know if I'm just thinking too much about the cleaning chore! I think this looks good;



I guess if I felt afterwards that black is too... black, then I could get some blue or silver rim tape. Does anyone have any idea how much 2 wheels resprays is likely to cost? I'll have to take the wheels to a tyre place to get the rubber off of course. Then get the wheels to a paint shop... Hopefully it all wont take too long either, I need my SV to get to work!

Cheers again![/img]

I've got orange wheels

OK, I've been looking into this a bit. Here's whats floating around my head on this now;

- A DIY job may end up looking OK, but may have durability issues compared to a professional baked-on powder coating. True?

- The DIY route means masking the tyres as described earlier, but what about the hub bearings?

- A professional job will see the wheels come out, stripped of rubber, disks and bearings, a baked-on hard-as-nails finish and bike handed back again intact after two days for... £120 - £180. Expensive?

I'm dubious about DIY'ing if they end up looking crap after a year or so. A job worth doing is worth doing properly and all that. But £180 seems a bit steep doesn't it? I want some summer leathers too and £180 may be hard to justify on making my wheels look fancy...

What do you all think of my points here? Guide me O' wise ones...