Decided at the last moment to try this paint from Ace Hardware:
I had their spray paint in my hand ready to buy, but this stuff gets way more coverage (according to the can) for less money, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I slathered it on some pedals first, before committing to the wheels:
Very impressed with the way it lays out! This was with a foam brush. It pretty much looks sprayed on.
Started the tedious process of masking the wheels, because I don't want to disassemble them. I think its still less work than unlacing and lacing them back up:
Also decided to leave the tires on and mask them. That will avoid any paint damage from mounting the tires after they are painted:
Just need to scuff the existing paint up and I should be good to go to paint them. If it works as good as the pedals they should look great.
Here is the brush I'm using and the paint going on:
And here are the copper-colored, clear coated rims soaking up some sun on the deck:
The masking was kind of time consuming, but knowing myself, the end result will be much better than trying to lace up and put a tire on a freshly-painted rim. This way I just remove the tape, air up the tire and I'm good to go.
Used a combination of metal shear and nibblers, since my shear isn't deep enough to make the long cut:
Rough cut:
Getting close:
Close enough to drill holes for the hangers:
That's as far as I got today, but if time = money then the wheels only cost me about 7x the cost of a set of 3G wheels to do myself. Why is it that masking tape never sticks to anything, until you want to get it off of something?
Here's where I'm sitting at sunset tonight:
Starting to come together...still have a few tricks up my sleeve...