[How To] Painting Rims the quick and easy way

[fitbike61]

If you want to know how to paint your rims without completely disassembling everything but the rim, youve come to the right thread.

note: PAINTING UR BACK WHEEL WITH BRAKES IS POINTLESS. THE PAINT WILL RUB RIGHT OFF WITH BRAKES.

first off, this is what you'll need.

1. a can of ur chosen color spraypaint
2. paper towels
3. primer (if u care a lot about a clean job)
4. a tire pump for afterwards
5. the ability to flip ur bike upside down
6. (optional) masking tape to cover the spokes & nipples

so step number 1,
flip your bike upside down and deflate the tire you're working on.
should look like this


step number 2, HOOK
get the paper towel and take a strip off (about a third of the sheet).
and as shown in the picture, squeeze it in between the rim and the deflated tire and let it sit there.



step 3,
repeat the paper towel method until its gone all the way around the rim. if its unstable then tape them together.

(pics show about a third way done with 2 strips of paper.)

the process should look like this.


step 4,
take the primer (or spraypaint if you're lazy) and take the wheel and spin the wheel pretty fast. hold it about 2 inches away from the rim at a low angle to spray the sidewalls and the middle simultaneously. then coat with paint several times. spray very lightly because it is so close. the reason for it to be close to the rim is to avoid painting the spokes. if u want u can cover the spokes & nipples with small pieces of masking tape.

step 5,
repeat with the other side

step 6, just spin the wheel or pump it up and ride to get it drying.

step 7,
ride away with a sick new paintjob.


now you are vincent van gogh.

[seanmcguire]

whos too lazy to take off a tire and a wheel from a bike? lol

[fitbike61]

i know i am. this way works just as well and takes much less time. thus the title name, "Painting Rims the quick and easy way"

[MrChikoStick]

Is this what you did with the Turquoise bike?

[JustinCarter]

How do you paint inbetween the spokes? Just put tape on em and spray? o.O

[MrChikoStick]

Have you seen Fits Turqouise bike in my (Layne) Bike Repaint thread

[fitbike61]

this is how my previous paintjob went with my method. if ur careful, u can get just about the nipples only and no spokes.
u CAN tape up every single spoke if u want a super clean job but i didnt care that much about the super clean job.

[MrChikoStick]

still looks good though!

[social]

[5. the ability to flip ur bike upside down

Hmm whered you steal that from Cough*Me*Cough

[fitbike61]

hahaha yea i read it somewhere a long time ago and forgot who it was from. but it was just so witty i had to steal it. haha just appreciatin ur wit :D.

ill fix that part

[RideBmx92]

i mite try that.....:)thx u

[iBMX569]

Thanks, this helped alot. And thats a great idea with the paper towel. I'll do it and post photos.

[fitbike61]

at first i used to use a load of masking tape which worked quite well but then i didnt want to wast so much expensive masking tape and i found out paper towel works just as well and is much easier to use

[SeattleBMX]

very nice, lazy efficiancy at its peak!

[Irish]

im totally gonna do this. great idea man

[Dylan Haro]

How do you do it the long way?

[fitbike61]

take off tire, tube, take off every spoke, nipple, hang it, primer a bunch, paint a bunch, clear coat a bunch, relace everything, put tube and tire bike on.

[Snake Lizard]

As soon as I got paint I'm going to do this to my front rim. Thank you for this article:D

[iBMX569]

What about sanding your rim down? Is that needed? Also will painting the back rim mess with brakes?

[fitbike61]

sanding ur rim isnt necessary at all. spray paint will go right over it. oh and i forgot to add that PAINTING UR BACK WHEEL WITH BRAKES IS POINTLESS. THE PAINT WILL RUB RIGHT OFF WITH BRAKES.

sorry i forgot to mention. ive just been brakeless for a while so i just forgot

[Alex Steadman]

And if you're painting the rim black, you can just leave the tire because it's black anyway, that's the super duper lazy way haha.

[fitbike61]

and exactly what i did ^

im just showing u with the tissues what i did to get the teal/turqoise color on my past paint job

[iBMX569]

I did it. Here are some photos...

[fitbike61]

um..well arent u supposed to paint the middle part of the rim? or did u purposely do that? other than that nice job keeping it away from the tire

[iBMX569]

um..well arent u supposed to paint the middle part of the rim? or did u purposely do that? other than that nice job keeping it away from the tire

thanks, and I meant to doo that.

[kiwi_rider106]

just spin your wheel and spray

[haro540rider]

whos too lazy to take off a tire and a wheel from a bike? lol
well duh if he took off the wheel how would he spin it to paint it :hihi:

[ridelife!]

that has got to be the most retarded post i've ever seen.

[band aid]

it has more point then yours^^

anyways...
did you use primer on yours fitbike61?
because i'm gonna do this i think.
and i like the way the it looks with the bit of spoke/nipples. :)
:applause: :applause: :applause:

EDIT: and i think the point of not removing the tire is so you don't end up painting the inside of the rim/heads of the nipples. am i right??

[fitbike61]

no primer is needed because when u spin the wheel, it will evenly level it out and that rims get scratched anyway.

and the only point of not removing the tire is basically not to unbolt the axles and take off the tire, thus saving time and energy.

[Dushebag]

if i´ve want to paint my crome rim, can i just spray straight over it or is there anything i´ve got to think about

[fitbike61]

um im not too sure cus ive never owned a chrome rim. but i think that spraypaint doesnt stick on chrome that easily so go ask somebody

[Charles]

You might have to roughen up the chrome or something with sand paper or a dremel... I don't know ... Really, I don't recommend painting a chrome rim.

[Shadowclone]

i can jus take the tire off right?

[fitbike61]

^u can but then there is no point in this thread if u do.

the whole reason of me showing u this method is so u save time to get a good paintjob without removing tires and such.

[Shadowclone]

^u can but then there is no point in this thread if u do.

the whole reason of me showing u this method is so u save time to get a good paintjob without removing tires and such.

good point,

heres a pic of my bike,
i kno what would happend if i painted the back but i decided to do it anyyways

[band aid]

it still looks nice with the walls white [after the paint is all gone]^^

[fitbike61]

and just clean ur brake pads constantly till paints all gone

[Shadowclone]

ok thanx, i also did my front rim too, i got a lil excited and accedently spray painted the fork, o well im gonna spray paint it anyways,
my bike looks hott

[JustCantClickIt]

nice, i do the same exact thing

[Bainbridge]

do you need to clear coat the paint afterwards? or is that just when painting raw things.

[fitbike61]

a clear coat is not needed unless u want it to have it.

[JustinCarter]

do you need to clear coat the paint afterwards? or is that just when painting raw things.

If you dont clearcoat it the paint chips easyier.

[bettley661]

As soon as i can be arsed getting some purple paint this is so gonna happen :D
Thanks fitbike

[Bettley1]

Yo done it! Looks sick as IMO! Didnt have any paper as we were out ridin when we did it so we made do with taping the whole tire :P Thanks fitbike!

[fitbike61]

^alright dude! that looks sick with the white forks. good job. i feel so helpful hahaha.

[freecoasterkid]

damn.
ima do this.
even though i jsut painted my bike like last week.
i dont like it so.

[bmsbmx122]

this is how my previous paintjob went with my method. if ur careful, u can get just about the nipples only and no spokes.
u CAN tape up every single spoke if u want a super clean job but i didnt care that much about the super clean job.

i like how you didnt tape the spokes. it looks cool how the blue fades into a black. great job

[NZbmxer]

wtf is wrong wif u??? That creates a really shit paint-job. The least you could do would be take the tire off. Though people may not think so, spraypaint is bad for painting bikes. It is much more efficient to use a spray gun with some proper primer, enamel, and hardener. I honestly can't stand people with half-assed crappy paint jobs on their bikes. Have some damn pride in your bicycles people!!!!!!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[fitbike61]

^uh buddy, if u were reading this thread, i said this paint job only lasted less than a week. i change colors very often so i dont need quality. people who care a lot about their paint will do what u said but i honestly dont care that much.