Opinion on painted rims

[jimfj]

I have a 82 GS1100G that the rims are are looking a little faded and I want to paint them. The bike is gloss black with the gold pinstripes and i want the rims to be gloss or satin black as well.

My real question is "Should I go all black, including the lip and the spokes or leave the lip polished aluminum and then everything else all black."

My though process is to leave the lip polished so tire mounting doesn't scratch it up. I am open to ideas.

Jim

[Nessism]

All black like that will be a LOT less work in terms of masking.

[tkent02]

At least the rims polished. All black looks terrible.

[Octain]

At least the rims polished. All black looks terrible.

Agreed but it is much easier to do em all black, if you're lazy.

I've done em in stock form, six of em to be exact.
Lots of work and VERY time consuming. But worth it.

[chuck hahn]

Wow Todd..that looks just like how i do it too. Yeah it takes some time to mask them all off but they sure look good when done.

[JEEPRUSTY]

there was a very nice blacked out v twin suzuki a few years back
black rims with very sharp looking red stripe around the rims.

[850 Combat]

Years ago, in the 70's, I painted the tims on my RD400 with gold mag wheel paint to match the anodized aftermarket radial finned heads and gold tipped expansion chamber silencers. I scratched it up mounting the tires myself, so cleaned up the shoulders with super fine steel wool. It came out very nice.

[Hornswaggle]

I like the aluminum spokes so my vote would be to mask them when you paint it. Another option would be since you have some gold pinstriping on the bike maybe lay in some subtle gold accents inside the black.

[Octain]

Wow Todd..that looks just like how i do it too. Yeah it takes some time to mask them all off but they sure look good when done.

I use a smooth round edge, like a socket extension to cut the tape along the sharp edges of the wheels. Works a treat once ya practice at it.
Also found a new way to polish using a Dewalt Angle grinder with a polishing wheel mounted on it. Also works fantastic. Still not the easiest task to overcome but it sure makes it go much faster.
I've found that MOthers Aluminum Polish works the best. Rub it into the wheel with my finger then buff the hell out it with the grinder. Gives the bare aluminum a nice luster. Better than factory but not like chrome.
It's not as hard as one might think if ya have a lot of patience.
Here is the wheel mounted. I bit dusty but you get the idea.

A little tidbit. Dont wait for the paint to completely cure before removing the tape. As a matter of fact I like to remove it about 5 mins after spraying.
This is so any overspray can be easily removed with paint thinner.
Let cure for a day or so then scrub the spokes with a *dry* (green) scotchbrite.

[pete]

Here's what I did... just left the lip of the rim clear of paint so I could polish it up, rest blacked out:

[Octain]

there was a very nice blacked out v twin suzuki a few years back
black rims with very sharp looking red stripe around the rims.

Now that might look good as long as the red stripe is painted on, and not Auto Zone masking type pin striping that ya buy in a roll.

[nvr2old]

Personally, I like rims that are all black. I always put the tire on the rim..first. Don't inflate them to set the bead. Mask the tire sides, paint the wheel, then inflate the tires. If they chip when mounting new tires down the road, they're still easy to touch up.

[TheCafeKid]

You could always just mask off the lip. Paint it, then go back after it's set up with a flat razor blade to the spoke faces. I've done that after seeing another member do it. Works well. Big key is to clean the snot out of em, and polish whatever you want shiny BEFORE you paint.

[Steve]

A slightly easier way to keep your silver edges:

Use a wire wheel to clean the whole rim.



Polish the rim to your satisfaction.

Mask off the polished rim and center hub, paint it ALL.



Give it a day to set up, then use a razor to scrape the edges of the 'spokes'.





When you are done, it looks a bit like this:


.

[Smokinapankake]

As probably the laziest person on the forum, I vote just paint the whole thing. I have no patience for polishing, so I just powdercoated the whole shebang and said to heck with it:



But that's just me.