I'm having some old wheels media-blasted at a powder-coating company right now. I'm debating whether to have them coated, or maybe just get them back blasted and try to spray paint them mhself. I hanker to have them widened to 7" or so some day, so I'm debating whether it's worth the investment of coating them now rather than later. Unfortunately I can't afford to have them widened AND coated right now.

So... anybody have postive success with spray painting wheels themselves? If so... what kind of can-paint did you use? I noticed that IPD's vintage catalague lists a silver type of highly-durable paint, but I'm thinking I might go with a white...

Well, i just sanded it down a little bit and then painted my wheels gloss black. Can't remember what paint i used. But it's held up for a year now... Still looks good if i wash them!
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Kyle - attending Ore. State, while my lil 68 142 (74 b20, m40) AWAITS ME OUTSIDE!!! (check out my cardomain site, kneedsacar)

IPD paint is very, very close to the original color.

I recently repainted mine after stripping them myself. The painting part is easy, it is the stripping part which is a pain in the ass. I purchased Argent Silver wheel paint from Eastwood and topcoated it with some of their diamond clear top coat. Of course like most of my projects, a month or two after I finished IPD starts selling products that I couldn't find earlier. If I were you I would go with with the IPD paint, as I am not really happy with how shiny mine ended up looking. They look nice but they don't have the satin look of the stock paint.

Or you can go ahead and do the mercedes look and paint the rims the same as your car color. That is how the paint is on my 210, the paint matches the primary color of the car. You could even paint behind the V on the hubcap to match

I like Plastikote brand, which you can get in rattle cans at CarQuest stores, if they have those in your area. It's worth hunting for. Two or more light coats, then a coat of clear over that. Got positive comments on wheel finish at a concours with that.

8^)

As an aside, Body shops HATE rattle can paint. For whatever reason, it causes major headaches when it comes time to sand and respray and they tend to strip the whole part instead of blending in new paint. Of course if you are going to have them powder coated then this matters not a whit.
I like powder coated wheels a great deal!
Moss Motors sells "hammered silver" for wire wheels that looks nice and isn't too shiny.

Mike!

Powder coating is just great -- but the question was whether anyone has had success painting wheels with rattle cans.

I'd say a qualified "yes", but only if the surface preparation is done correctly. My comments are based on many years of experience in a northern climate. Simply scuffing the old paint with sandpaper doesn't seem to allow the spray can paint to bond to the old surface well enough. Over the years, with extremes of temperatures, the spray can paint seems to eventually flake off.

On an early 740, the salt would attack the plastic coating on the alloy wheels, resulting in metal corrosion. I ground off what remained of the metal coating and the corrosion, used an aluminum etching compound, then used the Volvo alloy spray can paint and they lasted another 10 years with no problems at all.

On the Amazon, I sand blasted all 5 wheels since I was changing the colour from 42 California White to 46 Red and I didn't want any of the original colour to show. This took me about a day and a half to do, but with a coating of new paint at the body shop, these wheels look perfect with no uneven surfaces, or old paint showing through. If possible, I sand blast any metal parts before painting and have had good results. Like any job, if you have the time and the money, it's worth doing the job properly and not having to repeat the job if you are dissatisfied.
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Cam a.k.a. CVOLVO.COM