When I bought this car, the previous owner (Ryuu600) had painted the stock 18's black. While I liked the look that it gave the car, he either did a bad job painting them, used horrible paint, or regularly had rocks the size of asteroids thrown at his wheels. They were chipped in many places, and after having been washed enough were starting to fade in places. Here are some before pictures, taken by the previous owner:





Here is one of them after attacking it with an orbital sander and 150 grit sandpaper:



When he painted the wheels, he left the lip exposed and painted that too. Getting that paint off with the tire still on proved to be a pain. Fortunately, no children were within earshot.

Finished for this weekend with 320 grit and a quick polish. There is still a little clearcoat left in the corners of the area originally unpainted. Final finishing with higher grit sandpaper will get rid of that. Here they are after I decided to call it a day:

 

Looks good man.. Are those headlights tinted??

 

So whats the plan for them now?

 

The headlights are tinted, and have eyelids. The eyelid paint needs to be fixed, there are a few small spots that show through when the lights are on. I plan to just get rid of them.




I did this mostly because the black faded paint looked horrible. Even before it faded, it was a paint job that you could tell someone did in the backyard with a rattlecan. If I decide to keep the stock wheels for a good while longer, I will likely have them painted something more like the stock gunmetal, or have the somewhat pewter finish they have now clear coated.

 

Keep me posted if your gonna get rid of them