stevesnj
Junior Member
I have been wanting to paint wheel stripes on my wheels for a while now and I took pics during the process in case anyone needs to do it the way I did. I used an airbrush since i already had the paint in a touch-up bottle from Colorite, if I was not going to need the airbrish for other things I would of purchased the aerosol from colorite but I think the Airbrush gives me more control. So this is the way I did it. I know other will say you shoulda done this or that but this is what I did so live with it 
Step one: (assuming you have the the paint, reducer, tape, airbrush, and mixing bottle)
Have all items at hand, I would hate to do all the prep only to have forgotten something
Step 2:
Tape the wheel and tire area, I removed the back wheel but since the airbrush gives such precise application I should of left the wheel on the bike on the center stand so I could easily spin the wheel during application. But do what you want.
This is the most important part, taping the wheel only works well if the wheel is clean, I suggest NOT washing the bike but wipe the wheel to be taped with Goof-Off or similar. But to clean the area to be painted I wiped it with reducer. It removes grease and dirt that will not be removed with other products. ONLY use reducer on the area to be painted as the reducer is destructive to painted surfaces.
I used small pieces of blue painters tape about 4" long (have a kid do this, they will tear 4" pieces of tape for you, they love doin stuff like that...haha) it was more manageable in these small pieces than longer pieces as the tape has to be turned around a radius. In the second pic you can see I angled the tape to fit in the space between the tire and wheel lip(important step).
Here I used a flathead screwdriver to push the tape between the tire and wheel lip.
On the inside wheel area I just put the tape close to the edge of the flat area to be painted, once the first piece is on where you want it line up the subsequent pieces while slightly overlapping the previous piece of tape.
Should look similar to this. (yeh I know there is some tape missing)
Okay here is how you mix the paint. If you do this the way I did go to your local paint shop for the mixing bottle...it should have the part measurement system printed on the bottle, this makes things a lot easier and accurately mixes the reducer and paint (DONT GUESS) get a mixing bottle!!
I used 3:1 ratio so it went thru the airbrushs' small orifice.
Paint 1 part
Reducer 3 parts (Colorite suggests using their reducer but Im not payin $15 for 1/2 pint so I am taking a risk using the paint shop reducer).
Step one: (assuming you have the the paint, reducer, tape, airbrush, and mixing bottle)
Have all items at hand, I would hate to do all the prep only to have forgotten something
Step 2:
Tape the wheel and tire area, I removed the back wheel but since the airbrush gives such precise application I should of left the wheel on the bike on the center stand so I could easily spin the wheel during application. But do what you want.
This is the most important part, taping the wheel only works well if the wheel is clean, I suggest NOT washing the bike but wipe the wheel to be taped with Goof-Off or similar. But to clean the area to be painted I wiped it with reducer. It removes grease and dirt that will not be removed with other products. ONLY use reducer on the area to be painted as the reducer is destructive to painted surfaces.
I used small pieces of blue painters tape about 4" long (have a kid do this, they will tear 4" pieces of tape for you, they love doin stuff like that...haha) it was more manageable in these small pieces than longer pieces as the tape has to be turned around a radius. In the second pic you can see I angled the tape to fit in the space between the tire and wheel lip(important step).
Here I used a flathead screwdriver to push the tape between the tire and wheel lip.
On the inside wheel area I just put the tape close to the edge of the flat area to be painted, once the first piece is on where you want it line up the subsequent pieces while slightly overlapping the previous piece of tape.
Should look similar to this. (yeh I know there is some tape missing)
Okay here is how you mix the paint. If you do this the way I did go to your local paint shop for the mixing bottle...it should have the part measurement system printed on the bottle, this makes things a lot easier and accurately mixes the reducer and paint (DONT GUESS) get a mixing bottle!!
I used 3:1 ratio so it went thru the airbrushs' small orifice.
Paint 1 part
Reducer 3 parts (Colorite suggests using their reducer but Im not payin $15 for 1/2 pint so I am taking a risk using the paint shop reducer).
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