Painting Winter Rims

So I decided to have some fun with my winter tires this year. Whatever paint Kia uses on their factory rims is terrible. I'm pretty sure they just colour them with a sharpie because the "paint" does almost nothing to stop the rust. I decided to hit them with some rustoleum and see what happens.

I don't have pictures of the whole process but I washed the rims down with dish soap to degrease them and then hit them with a wire cup brush on a drill to get rid of most of the rust and to finish I sprayed them down with simple green and rinsed with water. The sun took care of the drying. Next I masked them off, which was actually quite tough. I was using some cheap green painters tape and it didn't like curves. The best results were obtained by using lots of short pieces.

As you can see below my masking got better as I went. I started with the right most tire so it's the worst looking. A friend told me that a deck of playing cards wedged between the wheel and tire works very well.

All painted up.

Back on the car. I think it's gives it a fun rally look. Either way it's more interesting than black.

Three sets of summer tires in the garage waiting for spring.