I have chrome Mangel wheels that I'd like to paint silver.
Anyone know how difficult it is to paint chrome wheels?
I would expect that this is something that could be done by powder coating or a wheel refinisher but not sure.
Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated.
Thanks, Grant
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It's out of the realm of most home hobbyists. I'm a painter in construction (as well as brush and roller I've sprayed everything from furniture lacquer to coal-tar epoxy and painted several cars) and as far as I know, nothing paint-wise really sticks well to chrome. I have heard of guys sanding chrome wheels and then painting, but don't know how long it lasted. I believe the best route would be to have the chrome stripped off of them and then powder coated. There may be something I don't know about, as there's always new innovations , though.
I hope this helps. Al
Grant, I assume you have 4-bolt mangels.
Why not sell the chrome ones and pick up a cheap set of stock ones on the Samba?
You can paint over the chrome but you'll be touching them up frequently, especially if you keep your hubcaps on.
Carey Hines at Special Edition has had a batch of 4-bolt wheels made with the correct-for-Porsche 10 slots instead of the VW 8 slots. His are powder-coated silver and are quite reasonably priced. they are shaped slightly differently and are not compatible with the baby moons, but will fit the flatter hubcaps with the Porsche crests.
If the chrome is in decent shape - easy to sell. I had Brazilian Mangels that sat in garage and they had rust thru the chrome on them even with me waxing them with Caruba wax. If they are rusted to point where chrome isn't viable any more, you could try sand blasting them to get to bare metal. Powder coating seems to be about $80 per wheel --- so Carey's might be a good deal since already done.
Circa 1988 I wire-stripped, sanded and primed the front bumper of a '67 Nova that had pitted. Got her painted in 1991 an enamel with integral clear. The paint looked fine when I sold the car in 2003, and by then it had spent some time outside.
Just scuff it good, clean it with solvent and use a good primer and it should be about as good as any other painted wheel.
Simple, media blast them or chemical strip them (I suggest media blast), then powder coat them. That is the correct way to paint something that used to be chrome. Media removes the chrome.
Any powder coater can take them as-is and do both steps for you. You can even just have them blasted, remove the chrome then paint them if you would like. However powder coating looks better, more durable, and will last longer. I own a body restoration/paint shop and that is how we do them.
