Painting USP Wheels *DIY Content*

[4Rings3Liters]

I made this for those that want to do this but are afraid it will turn out bad. Enjoy.

I am showing you how to do this on one wheel, obviously it applies to the other 3.

Stock wheels with a little curb rash.



This is what you will need to do the job right. 1 roll of painters tape, 1 pack of 80 grit sandpaper, 1 pack of 400 grit sandpaper and 1 pack of 2000 grit sandpaper, 1 can of Duplicolor Filler Primer, 1 can of Duplicolor wheel paint (I used black caliper paint, it's the same exact thing as wheel paint), 1 can of Duplicolor clear wheel paint, 1 bottle of degreaser and 1 roll of paper towels.



1. Use the 80 grit sandpaper to sand out all the curb rash on the wheels. Once you get that out use the 400 to sand it smooth to the touch and the 2000 to make it glass like. It should look something like this.


The curb rash is gone.


2. Take your degreaser and clean the wheels very well. Anything you leave on there will be trapped under the paint.

3. Use the painters tape and tape off anything you don't want painted. I took the center caps off prior to this so I only taped off the valve stems and tires.


4. Apply light even coats of the filler primer waiting approximately 5 minutes in between coats. Continue coating until the whole wheel is covered. Make sure you don't try to cover the wheel in 1 coat. This will cause runs and the paint will take forever to dry. It should look like this.


5. Allow the primer to dry by waiting approximately 1 hour and then spray on the color you want. Use the same painting method of spraying light even coats until the whole wheel is covered. Now they should look like this.


Allow the wheels to dry overnight to let the paint cure and your ready to put them on. They should look something like this. I took these photos with the flash on to show you the glass finish and the lack of curb rash. The wheels are actually black.

[FourRingsB6]

Looks good. Still don't know how I haven't seen your car around yet.

[akaEsCo01]

Nice job, but that Duplicolor paint sucks if you want to refinish them in silver, it's way too sparkly. I used it and had to redo my wheels with Wurth laquer paint, much better color.

[Trev]

Very nice

Im doing mine this weekend. Did you use just regular sand paper for wood or something different?

Approx. cost to do ALL 4 weels?

[dunggah]

a couple questions:

Did you sand down only the curb rash?

Did you spray the center caps? If you did, did you spray the entire thing?

[Charlescrs6]

Very nice, is that semi-gloss?

[pa4ul]

looks nice i wanna paint my stockies white. u didnt use any fill for the curbrash?

[4Rings3Liters]

Very nice

Im doing mine this weekend. Did you use just regular sand paper for wood or something different?

Approx. cost to do ALL 4 weels?

I just used regular sand paper. I spend about $25 bucks total on the supplies.

a couple questions:

Did you sand down only the curb rash?

Did you spray the center caps? If you did, did you spray the entire thing?

Yes, I sanded down only the curb rash. No, I didn't spray the center caps yet but I want to paint them all black and leave the rings chrome. When I do that I'll post pics.

Very nice, is that semi-gloss?

It's gloss black and clear coat on top of that.

looks nice i wanna paint my stockies white. u didnt use any fill for the curbrash?

No, I didn't need to. It came out with just sanding.

[Trev]

I just used regular sand paper. I spend about $25 bucks total on the supplies.

So $25 will do all 4 wheels?

[eurogruppe]

congrats now it looks like every other black wheel out there. Personally i woulda repainted it silver but thats just me

[18tboost]

i dunno if that is the problem with spray paint, but the interior of the rims are not yet covered i duuno if u are goiing to cover it later on...anyway good job, but i sure will let a professioanl to do my rims if i want another color

[4Rings3Liters]

So $25 will do all 4 wheels?

Yes

congrats now it looks like every other black wheel out there. Personally i woulda repainted it silver but thats just me

And have it look like every other silver wheel out there? No thanks.

i dunno if that is the problem with spray paint, but the interior of the rims are not yet covered i duuno if u are goiing to cover it later on...anyway good job, but i sure will let a professioanl to do my rims if i want another color

I'm not worried about the interior of the rims since these are stock wheels and you won't see the inside of the wheels when they are on the car.

[Turbo1A4]

looks good one day i will man up and do mine

[04_A4_1.8T]

one of these days i will do mine lol... i just keep changing my mind about selling the car or not...

[Shak]

If you didn't spray the clear coat on, would it have looked matte black?

I'm trying to re-do my rims -- the job that's on them right now isn't that great.

[absolutegtr]

Looks good....you should have painted the barrels though

[4Rings3Liters]

If you didn't spray the clear coat on, would it have looked matte black?

I'm trying to re-do my rims -- the job that's on them right now isn't that great.

No, I used a gloss black paint to begin with so even if I didn't use clear it would have been glossy.

Looks good....you should have painted the barrels though

What are barrels?

[20A4Audi1.8t01]

barrels= inside of wheel

[ADCS]

For the spraying process, I found it easier to deflate the tires and insert cardboard cards in between the tire and wheel. You can buy them or just cut up some cerial boxes.

In the past I have had good results with the painting process with that duplicolor paint/clear however it does not last. That paint chips away very easily. I also had one can of bad clear coat which ruined the finish (dulled the gloss black paint).

[A4 KiDD 810]

Nice job I'll be sure to refer to this when I refinish mine.

[4Rings3Liters]

I think I am going to go back and paint the inside of the wheels as well.

[cjonesgo]

shameless plug of my rattle can rim thread...

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199801


DO paint inner part of wheels, makes a world of difference. I filled instead of sanding down through chips, but i didn't have major rash on mine. probably a combo of both to get the best result.

[El_Chapusca]

Can anyone recommend an almost exact color match to that of the OEM Silver. Mines were pretty eff when i bought them, Thanks.

[Ultra B6]

just a hint to do the barrels, go around the them with 100-150 grit to get everything clean, wipe clean with spray cleaner and paper towel

and as much of a pain as its goin to be, you should tape off the spokes so you dont get over spray on the face that you just painted

[NvrFllw]

should have painted the inside of the wheel first matte black or whatever black you used then did the outside

[akaEsCo01]

Yes
I'm not worried about the interior of the rims since these are stock wheels and you won't see the inside of the wheels when they are on the car.

You can definitely see the inside of wheels with open spokes and the spokes on USP wheels are open enough that they need paint. I left mine because they are only winter wheels but I will probably do it next year

Can anyone recommend an almost exact color match to that of the OEM Silver. Mines were pretty eff when i bought them, Thanks.

Wurth Wheel Paint, it's expensive but trust me on this. Do it right or do it twice. I had to do mine twice . As I mentioned befor ethe Duplicolor has sparkly crap in the paint, it's close match from far away but as you get closer it's not as close. Wurth is almost spot on, I think after I buff them it will look even closer. Don't cheap out, get the Wurth clear coat too, helps bring the color out more.

[A4OrlandoB6]

I think the USP looks best like this. Sort of stealth. However, if those Sumitomo's are HTR+'s, I'd get rid of them. Theyre either good on tread or blown up. no in between :/ went through 3 in 9 days

[pa4ul]

i painted the barrells sliver to match my rims and it enhances the wheel so much more i get a pic up when i off work

[05A$SE]

YOU FORGOT THE BACK HALF OF THE RIM!
HA im just kidding
there already caked with brake dust that will probably outlast the time the paint sticks onto the wheel. and its black already!

[chadb2434]

My non-usp came with the 16" wheels when I first bought it. We don't have "winters" around here or anything but I'm thinking about getting the wheels I have now worked on a little bit but before I do that, I want to paint my stock 16's something a little crazy, like lime green or gold or something.

This is a great write-up!
Thanks!

[NorCal1.8T]

So when you used black for the finish you waited an hour for it to dry then put clear coat on and thats it?

[pa4ul]

[4Rings3Liters]

So when you used black for the finish you waited an hour for it to dry then put clear coat on and thats it?

I waited a few hours to put clear coat on and then I let them sit overnight.

[4Rings3Liters]

I finally got around to painting my center caps too. I was hesitant about doing it because I wanted to leave the Audi rings chrome but I didn't feel like taping them off. It turns out that the rings come off so it made the job super easy.

[gq9]

Looks great Want to see pics on the car!

[boy412]

...anyway good job, but i sure will let a professional to do my rims if i want another color

Dude...if you take your time and are meticulous with your prep then you can do just as good a job yourself. I painted my MTM Bimotos flat black and NOBODY can tell its a DIY job. In fact it looks better than other wheels I've seen that were done professionally. If I had to pay someone to do it I'd probably elect to have them powdercoated instead. Of course that would involve unmounting the tires, re-mounting and re-balancing.

:(

The Duplicolor product is nice and goes on easily. I haven't tried the Wurth paint, but maybe I will if it comes in flat black!

Nice job on the wheels and caps. Lets see them on the car please! Its hard to get a sense of them because of the flash.

[A4 KiDD 810]

Can we see some pics on the car plz?

Also for reference, the duplicolor code to match the stock usp silver is T191 Truck/Van/Car Ultra Silver. The Wurth is probably better I just hate waiting for shipping.