hey all, my center caps look really bad because the paint has flecked off and their are tan looking

would painting them work for one, and would it be easy to make the color match or would it be hard because it painting plastic vs. metal

has anyone done this? i know people have powdercoated their rims but im talkin about painting their centercaps the same color

thx - Jon

 

Yeah, just take a flathead screwdriver and gently pry them out. I painted mine black because it defines the stock five spokes better imo.

 

Yes you can paint them. Honestly, if they are all chipped up, even if you don't match the rims 100%, as long as it looks "close" it will look better.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...threadid=17530

 

I have painted mine. I don't suggest prying them out. They are old, and you may break them, or scratch the rim. Pull off the wheel, and pop them off from the rear.

Painting is pretty simple. Just clean them up with some sandpaper to make them smooth. Then spray paint them with the color that you think matches best.

I have stock chrome rims. I tried chrome paint, but it looked pretty bad. I wound up painting them black. I think it looks pretty good. For stock wheels (not chromed) I recommend trying to match the wheel color.

Good luck, Adam

 

Believe it or not- Rustoleum aluminum is a real close match on the color. Prying the caps out with a screwdriver can booger up the edge of the caps or worse- crack them (ask me how I know this!). Take the wheel off the car and bump the center caps out from the back with a rubber hammer handle or other soft object. While the wheel is off the car it is a good opportunity to remove all that road grime from the back surface of the rim.
Ron A.

 

To do it correctly you will need to use plasticiser in your paint or plastic prime the caps before painting.
This will ensure the paint doesn't flake off.

 

I did this a little over a year ago. So I know what you are talking about. I agree with everyone else that the best way to take the caps off is to take off the wheels and then just push/pop the cap off from the inside of the wheel.

As for repainting the center caps. You should wash the center caps with soap and water to get any heavy dirt off of them. Once they appear clean you should use an adhesive remover to get off any list bit of dirt and dust. Just be careful when you do this, because I found that the paint that Mazda used actually had some sort of texture to it. If you take all of the paint off or you sand it (like you typically would if you painted something properly), then you will loose all of the texture.

When you have the caps clean and prepped you can just set them down on a piece of cardboard and paint them. Believe it or not Walmart happens to carry a paint that matches perfectly. It is made by a company called "Dupli-Color." The paint is "High Performance Wheel Coating" and the paint is "WP101 Silver." The caps on the can look a little bit different from can to can, but the paint should be the same. After I painted mine they matched my stock wheels perfectly and I am a perfectionist. If they didn't look right I would not have even hesitated to take them off and try it again with a different paint.

You should be aware though that rex u.k is right. When you are painting something plastic you should use a plastic primer, but I didn't know about the plastic primer until way after I had already done mine. I'm not sure if it would make that much difference for the center caps though.

- Cody

 

ok

now is there any difference between "wheel paint" and just normal spray paint? like is it high temp or something

 

I used high temp BBQ paint. Of course, the only reason I used it was because it was left over from painting the top of my intercooler, and I was too cheap to buy another can

I don't think high temp paint is required.

 

ok well i got the silver wheel paint from Kmart

the duplicolor silver WP101 stuff

and some rustoleum plastic primer, this is all i need right? i just sand down the center caps and prime them like 3 coats and the like paint them for 4 coats?

 

hmm rustoleum primer says one coat only is best

does anyone care to disagree with them?

 

ok i did the one coat and i just did my first coat of the "High Performance Wheel Coating" (#WP101 Silver)

and it looks awesome and perfectly matched the rims, i will post pics when im done with the other coats but i doubt ill be doin more than 3

 

Cool. It is a pretty good match isn't it. I think I only had to do two coats. The first coat was to cover up the larger sections where the paint came off and the second coat was a touch up. If you do much more than that then you may end up putting so much paint on there that you don't see the texture anymore. But hey, that's up to you. It's your car. As long as your happy with it that's all that matters.

I'm glad your happy with it. I was pretty happy when I did mine. Wait until you put the rims back on the car with the newly painted caps. My car looked a lot better with the caps repainted. I didn't expect it to make as much of a difference as it did.

- Cody

 

yea the paint almost matches perfectly, like my caps were a little lighter but they were clean and my rims were slightly dirty so i think itll be about perfect

and they look awesome on the wheels too, but i havent gotten the wheels back on the car yet, because im lazy and i didnt need them back on yet

and i only did one coat of primer b/c thats what the can said was best and then i did 5 coats of silver for durability and you can definitly still see texture

pics:





i still have a bunch of primer and paint left so if anyone else wants me to do theirs if you can just sand the remaining paint off,(dont be too rough b/c you want to keep the texture) and then you can mail them to me with 3 dollars for paint and shipping fees, i will do them, it will take a day or two, and then i will have them off to you.

 

You can put your wheels back on the car without the caps on. The caps press on easily from the front.

 

yes i no....