First off I tried searching and i couldnt find anything good on painting aluminum wheels.
Basically I picked up the aluminum wheels for 50 bucks, They look like garbage right now and I want to paint them black. Anyone have any ideas or any tricks to make this work well?

I pulled this from an autobody sight that I'm a member on.
I hope it helps.
Good Luck

http://www.autobody101.com/forums/vi...um+wheels+rims

That helped a lot thanks, the only thing google got me was like yahoo answers, not very reliable IMO.
Would you suggest painting with tires off so it's easier or with them on so I don't mess up the new paint putting the rubber on?

I've seen alot of members paint there wheels with the tires on.. Just let alot of the air out and slide in some index cards betweem the wheel and tire all the way around the tire.. Then you can use newspaper etc to cover the rest of the areas. Goodluck..

Your options are (from best and most expensive down) powdercoating, automotive paint and spray paint. The best bang for your buck would probably be to get a body shop employee to paint them on the side (after you do the sanding/prep work).

Are you sure theyre aluminum? That style of wheel was often made of magnesium.

thought the same thing(general leeand the a-team van), maybe later switched to aluminum. interested to see how they turn out.

I was told that they are aluminum, I guess I can't really be sure. would magnesium get that sort of look to it after years of winter usage?

try this site it tells you towards the bottom how to restore;

http://www.roadsters.com/wheels/

So even if they are magnesium, which I'm starting to think they may be by the way they look, with the white spots and such, Could i still paint them using a self etching primer and some black paint and then some clear coat?

i would say yes.

When I was in the USAF, we used a zinc-chromate primer on aluminum. It was a bright yellow/green color. Not sure if it was specific to military use or not, but that stuff STUCK!

Andy

I wish i could find me some of that then, I am going to try the dupli color self etching primer, they have a specific wheel paint but I have heard some bad things about it.

Try an aviation supply shop or maybe a dedicated automotive paint supply house.

Andy