How to refinish factory
muscle car wheels

No matter what brand of '60's or '70's muscle car you may own, the factory option muscle car wheels can become a bit edgy looking over the years. Thin factory paint, road grime and salt can take its toll. With a few simple tricks you can repaint your wheels at home in a professional manner.

First dismount the wheel from the car, then remove the stainless steel trim ring and emblem center cap from behind. If you do not have tire-changing equipment, a local tire store can dismount the tire for you. Be sure to remove old valve stems and all wheel weights before going any further.

Then sandblast all the old paint and rust from the muscle car wheels. A home sandblasting cabinet is a wonderful tool for the job. If it is impractical to do your own sandblasting, take your wheels to a local blaster. Make sure they do not use too high of pressure or coarse of blasting abrasive as you can end up with a very coarse finish.

Once clean, be sure to blow off any abrasive residue and wipe with a clean rag. Any abrasive will show up in your paint.

Use a Self-Etching Primer for your first coat. It does not take much of a good quality primer to give you a top-level secure finish for your final coats.

Once thoroughly dry, then switch to a Silver Wheel paint. Shake the can thoroughly to mix the metallic pigment in the can and spray in several light coats to avoid runs. Optimum temperature for painting with the product is 70-90 degrees. Do not attempt to use spray paints that have been sitting in a cold car or garage just prior to use. If so, warm up your paint can by sitting it in a pan of warm water. Wipe the can off so no water drips onto your painted surface. Paint the entire wheel, even though the muscle car wheels were originally a two tone color scheme.

Allow plenty of time for the first color coat to dry so nothing is lifted during the masking process. If the muscle car wheels have an inner area of the hub and spokes painted a darker color, with the outer area of the relief area of the spoke and the wheel rim in silver, you can spend hours masking off the spoke relief with tape and an X-Acto brand knife, or you can do it the easy-way with a pre-cut mask diecut. The cost is quite low, especially when you consider what your time is worth. Apply the mask to each spoke and then connect each diecut with conventional masking tape and paper to protect the wheel rim.

Once masked you can then apply the darker color.

Reinstall the stainless steel trim ring, center cap and mount on the car. You can use 20 new stainless steel capped lug nuts for the final touch in freshening up our wheels. The old nuts are probably tarnished and rusty.

There you go !! One of the simplest ways to dress up your car, by refurbishing the OEM wheels to look factory new.