I'm sure that most of you have more elaborate paint booths than I have (the driveway in front of my shop), but I wanted to show you a piece of paint booth equipment I rigged up to paint a set of wheels.
I used an old rear axle and an old set of front wheel bearings, and mounted the axle to an outfeed roller, although you could use a ladder or most anything else.
I wired the axle to the roller and put a backup of several turns of duct tape on it to keep the inner wheel bearing from sliding too far up onto the axle. I used a Model A or V-8 outer bearing, which is the same as the T ones except without the threads on the inside. That way it just slips on and off easily. When painting front wheels, put all those parts onto the axle and put a nut on it finger-tight. When painting a rear wheel, just don't use the bearings, and everything else is the same.
You can spin the wheel by hand and move your paint gun slowly, to get an even coat of paint on all parts of the wheel. Even I can get a nice-looking paint job this way, and I'm no painter.
The total cost for this piece of equipment? Zero! I just used stuff I had on hand. And it works like a charm. Whaddaya' think, Steve?
Mike,
mine has the paint gun on the axle and you move the wheel around in circles. I can see now where I went wrong.
Steve
Great idea! I'm about to put a new set of wheels with clincher rims on my 1905 car. I wasn't going to paint them myself. I've changed my mind!Thanks!
Looks very nice to me!
Great finish!
I'm painting wheels too - but I can't paint without runs, so I rigged an old electric motor with a bicycle rim liner to spin the wheel while painting. Got an ok result for the 10 feet look I'm after
No bearing, just an old cracked hub with some grease running on a iron bar and a pipe, stopped from falling off by a worn out angle grinder disc and some bailing wire. No Cost
I use a rotisserie motor from an old barbecue grill, it turns the wheel nice and slow, yet fast enough to prevent runs.
Brian -- I think you have a good idea there, even though it would be a more complex setup. Turning it slowly is the key to success, and it would be nice to have that occur automatically.
The small electric motor in my picture could be regulated to a rather slow speed, but unfortunately it was rated at only 60w and broke down after one wheel.. I had to find something else. An old washing machine motor worked just as nice - but faster. Turned out it didn't make any difference for my painting result. Even at higher speed every spoke got paint on all sides & no radial runs from the centrifugal force.
Just a saw horse and pieces of pipe laying around. However, you must do two at the same time to keep it balanced.
Mike,
I paint my wheels the same way and it works great. One of the things that I do when I paint a wood felloe wheel is mount the tire BEFORE painting. I mask off the tire, and then I don't have to worry about scratching the final coat of paint when I mount the tire.
Hope this helps,
Russ Furstnow
How about some spray painting tips from you experts out there.
I’m not a expert (or even a good painter) but
I have learned a couple of their tricks that helped me!
The painter described my (lack of) technique as “spraying for bugs”
When spraying (gun or rattle can)
The gun should travel parallel to the surface being painted – many people swing it in an arc.
Limit the width of the surface covered by the distance you can move the gun without this arc.
Let go of the trigger at the end of each paint stroke and pull trigger again when you start back.
Holding the trigger applies extra paint at the end of each stroke and can cause runs.
Also keep the paint shaken or mixed ( but not during a paint stroke <g>)
I have a very similar setup using a length of 3/4" steel rod and a pair of pillow bearings all mounted on a piece of 2 x 12. The rod projects over the end of the wood 18" to allow easy access to both sides of the wheel. I drilled the end of the shaft to mount an old wheel puller; front or rear hubs will thread onto it. Like Russ, I mount the tires and mask them. This not only saves scratches but the masked tires make handling the freshly painted wheel easy: I can carry the wheel into the shop for drying, then go back out, thread on the next one and go.
I have found that starting with the hub and moving outward as I spray gives the best results. I begin with the "crotches" between spokes, then the hub, then the rest of the spokes, finishing with the felloe.
YMMV but this has worked for me for years.
I do mine the same way Mike does, except I just clamp a steel rod to a sawhorse. Works great, and my spraybooth is the same too!