Hi. I have a 94 Formula, white with white painted rims. The car needs paint. All the finish is coming off the hood like a peeling sunburn!
I want to get the rims done as well (I already have new replacement center caps) but nobody in town wants to do it. They had to be painted once from the factory, right? So what makes that paint job different / better / more durable than what anyone else would do?
thanks

With the wheels, they aren't actually painted per say. They're powder coated. That's when they put a powder style paint on them and then they're heated to a certain temperature to "melt" the powder to coat the rim with the color.

If you want them redone you're best bet is to find someone who does 'powder coating' and have them do it. You can do a search on the net for people who do that or if you live in or near a bigger city that has a place that repairs rims they should either be able to do it for you or at least be able to tell you of someone who does.

Ah... that makes sense. There are some powder coaters nearby, and they do rims. The question is, should that be done first, then try to match the body paint to the wheels? I'm thinking that's the right way to go if I do powder.

Is painting the rims a bad idea?

THANKS FOR THAT INFO.!!!

Actually most people I know who do a full paint restore to their cars including the wheels do the body first and then the wheels. What they do is have the car painted and then when that's done they take the car and the wheels to where they're getting the wheels recoated and let that place match the powder paint to the car. It's easier to try to match a smaller object like a wheel to the body paint then it is to try to match the body paint to the wheel. But what I suggest you do is call the places that do the powder coating by you and see which they prefer to do since some places like to do it the other way around.

As for using regular paint on the wheels as opposed to powder coating them, the regular paint won't be as tough or stick as well to the wheels as the powder coating would be and you'd take a very big chance of the wheels getting scratched and the paint either coming off, chipping or getting gouged off if you ever by mistake curb your wheels if you use regular paint since the paint is more or less just sitting on the surface of the wheel. With the powder coating on the other hand, all of those things are decreased since the pwder coating actually bonds with the metal of the wheel and more or less becomes part of the metal, rather then just sitting on the surface.

But good luck with whichever way you end up going. And you're more then welcome for the information.