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Painting the "lego" chrome wheels


crue313
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I'm really wanting to paint the stock chrome wheels on my pathfinder, but I know its a pain to strip and paint chrome. I was wondering if anyone knew of any good ways to paint them. I really want to do black, or black chrome. I was going to try the clear lens tint on the chrome to see if it would make it look like a shiney black chrome. Any thoughts?

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Which wheels do you have? The only chrome rims are the stamped-steel type. The Legos are alloy with plastic center caps.

 

The lens tint sounds interesting... it would be pretty much impossible to touch up, though, if it got chipped or scuffed. I think a few people on here used gunmetal spray paint, which might be closer to what you're after. Others go straight for the bedliner. I don't think I've seen the chrome wheels painted, though, so if that is what you have you might be blazing new territory. I imagine you'd have to rough up the chrome a bit for the paint to stick, through sandblasting or high-grit sandpaper.

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What he said about the which wheels. You either have Legos or the chromies. I've seen the stock chromies done in black, but it was a basic in your garage spray on black. You could always get em powdercoated as well, its amazing the colors they have now.

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The do it yourself Duplicolor "Black Chrome" is designed to paint right on to shiny finishes like chrome but you need a good clean surface to start any imperfections you have will show through. Chrome is hard to get paint to stick to with the smooth finish. So if you are going the plain spray paint method, best bet is sand blast then paint.

Edited by Desert89
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Dont be so quick to jump and say he ha steelies because he has chrome, I've seen legos polished out to look like chrome...

Yep! One of the members here who got into an accident actually had chrome lego wheels.

 

EDIT: Here is the link to that thread: http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=25961&st=40

Edited by Tungsten
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I painted some tail lenses on my old SRT4 with the lens paint and then put clear over them and the clear actually damaged the lens paint. The paint is meant to be left as is and is apprently VERY resilient to standard fading factors. Just my experience though, not saying it's a guarantee.

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  • 2 months later...

Ok so i've been away for awhile but now I'm back. So. I finally got some new tires, not because I wanted to but I had to. I had two tires blow out on me while driving so I got some cheap yet nice Goodyear Wrangler radials. Now while my Pathy was out commission for awhile I took the time to test my theory of the lens tint. I do have to say they came out fairly well. I used 2000 grit sandpaper to smooth and sand the chrome then spray a light coat of the paint on. To my surprise it stuck to the chrome. I had to use several coats of it to make the wheel an actual black color but it came out very well. I finished it off with some duplicolor clear coat wheel paint. It shined up really nice and makes the whole thing look great. I'll have pictures soon.

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Yep! One of the members here who got into an accident actually had chrome lego wheels.

 

EDIT: Here is the link to that thread: http://www.nissanpat...pic=25961&st=40

 

Heheheh......

 

Mine were done hard core though.... sandblasted and dipped...

and before the EPA/state laws on chroming came along too....

Totaly stinks those wheels got messed up....they did look nie with the black center caps.......<sigh>

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I respect everyone's decision to modify the alloy wheels.

 

For me, they are the best wheels I have ever seen. Including aftermarket. Nothing matches their tough look.

I love the matte finish. Very innovative.

Edited by jwblue
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Nice job. I'm going to change up my legos soon and still deciding on the final colour scheme. I think I'm going to go with gunmetal for the centre of the mag but keep the outside lip silver. Would have loved to see what your wheels would have looked like if you had kept the lip chrome against the dark centre.

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Nice job. I'm going to change up my legos soon and still deciding on the final colour scheme. I think I'm going to go with gunmetal for the centre of the mag but keep the outside lip silver. Would have loved to see what your wheels would have looked like if you had kept the lip chrome against the dark centre.

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Wow, just stumbled accross this thread and am impressed with how your wheels turned out!! Great job!!

Thanks. I think they turned out really nice looking. A lot better then I was expecting.

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