I have chrome mickey thompson rims on my jeep now, I have a black Jeep Wrangler Sahara 4.0L, 35" tires (need some new ones VERY soon). And I was wondering what kind of paint I would paint the rims??? And how I will do it? (take tire off and clean and paint?)

If I do paint them, will the paint rub off at all??

Thanks Everyone.

Go check with some local painters at some bodyshops, they can usually offer some helpful advice.

The best paint will get rubbed/scraped off if you run the wheels into sharp trail obstacles hard enough so I wouldn't waste a lot of $$$, time, or effort on them. I would just rough the old paint up with a sanding pad, wash them off, spray a coat of Rustoleum primer onto them and let that dry. Then spray a final coat or two of Rustoleum satin black on them and be done with it. Using Rustoleum aerosol paint means it's easy to touch them up later.

Would it just be better if I bought some cragar soft 8's instead of going through all the trouble...?

x2, unless you don't plan on scratching the wheels up, just clean and blow some rustoleum on them.

Wheel paint is fairly specific and IMO not worth the cost on jeep wheels.

Best to mask the wheels with the old (I assume throw-away) tires on them and sand/paint them before the new tires get mounted. Touch up as necessary.

I hardly ever go off-roading, it's either little mud puddles in the new neighborhoods that run into the street and that's about it.

I should be getting some new 35" tires for around 75$ a peice... (I know some people) in February and I don't think my front two tires will last that long...

Why wouldn't the front tires last too long?

Plenty of places carry "wheel paint". They have it at my local Napa. I'd do the same I described and paint with the old shoes on so any overspray just gets tossed. Sand, prime paint.

The front ones won't last long because I need an alignment and the tread is very bad on the outside of the wheel and all the tires are, what looks to me, looks like they are dry rotting

might consider getting an alignment too

Yeah I'm getting it done in the near future, old teacher of mine has a shop at a school near here and he's gonna let them do it for me, of course i'm going to check and see if they do it right...

I have Crger soft 8's(15x8) in black and i love them, my #1 choice!!!

I'm considering painting my rims too. I have some chrome American Racing rims I got pretty cheap and plan on painting them black. Was planning on sanding em down and giving a nice wash then using black undercoating on them and going over it with satin black rustoleum for a nice deep black that will idealy be a little resistant to scratching.

Instead of waiting to do an alignment, try the procedure here: Basic Jeep Front End Alignment

If nothing else, it will get your alignment much closer than it sounds like it is now. Then, rotate your tires unless you're getting the new ones within a few weeks.

Duplicolor has wheel paint! The most important thing is prep!

Sand chrome part you want to paint WELL where the shine is gone
Then paint with a rustoleum paint I chose Hammered Black so it could be touched up fairly easy

And you can do a custom wheel pattern
Black outer edge and center

This is exactly what I did to my stock rims and it turned out great....for a while.
I left the tires on and taped them off. There were some chips a few months later but they were easily touched up.
I've since bought black rims but if I ever had to do it again I would spray the rims with Duplicolor or Rustoleum rattle can bed liner.
That stuff's hard to come off.

$287.25 shipped to my door: (5) Cragar soft 8's, (4) cragar closed center caps, and (20) new lug nuts. I didn't get a 5th center cap for my spare. The wheels were $39.95 ea on Summit Racing web site. Shipping was only $12, ground.
I had stock Canyon wheels on it...brought them home around 11am, after the tire shop mounted my new rims, ran an add on Craigslist to sell my Canyons, and had them sold by 5pm for $100. The tire shop only charged me $64, so by the end of the day, I got my mount/balance for free, plus pocketed some extra beer money.
Those aluminum canyon wheels sure were alot lighter than the Cragar's, but I can't really tell a difference driving....I'm sure the jeep can though.

How about powder coating them ?

Was extremely bored yesterday so decided I'd make myself useful and do something for the TJ. Took a while because I had to do it one rim at time, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Before:


After:


Rims are polished aluminum, sanded em down, cleaned em w/ some soap and water, 3 coats of primer, then 2 coats for undercoating. Also took off the center caps that didn't match and the look I got was more than i was expecting. Next step will be to turn the white letters in.

They talked about how to paint chrome on Muscle car TV this weekend...here is the link
Full Episode Player | PowerblockTV

I saw that episode but wasn't paying attention... What if I don't have a paint gun or any of that??

The rattle cans do just fine. Take your time and just do nice light coats.

Ok. Thank you.

This is what I did it has worked great so far. I used Rustoleum black hammered paint instead of the black satin and it looks great. I've gottne a lot of compliments over them as well. It gives your ride a whole new look.

I don't know how much it cost where you live, but on my superduty, I had them powdercoated matte black for $100 and I'm in California where everything is expensive.

Where could I have them done?? What kind of a shop?? I have aa Goodyear, some personal shops around me...