Technic wheels

[DarkShadow73]

Most time with Technic or Racers cars and also any other wheel on Technic construction equipment, its either lt grey or yellow. I am building an 8070 Supercar and want to paint the rims either black or a crimson red, think it would really set the car off instead of plain-jane grey rims. I bought some Rust-Oleum Plastic paint in both colors. It says it is mainly for things like plastic outdoor furniture and other plastic items, but I wonder if it is safe to use on Lego, which I believe is ABS plastic? It says no primer needed. I considered buying some primer and automotive paint, which comes in a lot more cool shades of red and black, metallics, but I went with the Rust-Oleum. I know I have seen models occasionally posted in this group with parts painted. Do you think this is safe? I have no other rims that would fit this car at the current time and would hate to mess them up if it does something crazy like warp or melt the plastic. Worst case scenario, yes, but I want to do this right. I'm a good spray painter, used to buy older cars back in my teenage years and fix them up and paint them with a simple paint gun, but that's metal, however in 2003 I painted a plastic bumper, which almost all cars have nowadays and even though I was using spray paint made for the metal body, it turned out quite well and held the paint, though I primered it first, but I know in body shops they use specially made plastic paint for plastic bumper covers and plastic ground effects, etc. I know probably hobby stores would likely have more options and a better paint for plastic models they sell like model train cars and model kits, but the nearest one to me is like 15 miles away, whereas I have a full line store right up the road. Thoughts on this?

Thanks, Eric

Edited March 27, 2012 by TechnicFreak

[1gor]

Most time with Technic or Racers cars and also any other wheel on Technic construction equipment, its either lt grey or yellow. I am building an 8070 Supercar and want to paint the rims either black or a crimson red, think it would really set the car off instead of plain-jane grey rims. I bought some Rust-Oleum Plastic paint in both colors. It says it is mainly for things like plastic outdoor furniture and other plastic items, but I wonder if it is safe to use on Lego, which I believe is ABS plastic? It says no primer needed. I considered buying some primer and automotive paint, which comes in a lot more cool shades of red and black, metallics, but I went with the Rust-Oleum. I know I have seen models occasionally posted in this group with parts painted. Do you think this is safe? I have no other rims that would fit this car at the current time and would hate to mess them up if it does something crazy like warp or melt the plastic. Worst case scenario, yes, but I want to do this right. I'm a good spray painter, used to buy older cars back in my teenage years and fix them up and paint them with a simple paint gun, but that's metal, however in 2003 I painted a plastic bumper, which almost all cars have nowadays and even though I was using spray paint made for the metal body, it turned out quite well and held the paint, though I primered it first, but I know in body shops they use specially made plastic paint for plastic bumper covers and plastic ground effects, etc. I know probably hobby stores would likely have more options and a better paint for plastic models they sell like model train cars and model kits, but the nearest one to me is like 15 miles away, whereas I have a full line store right up the road. Thoughts on this?

Thanks, Eric

Eric,

several years ago I've painted this one http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=22969 in Yellow for earlier version of this model

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=412852. Last summer Ive decided to clean dow this yellow color and was surprized - I did not clean yellow but also metalic silver, so now wheel is something like old light gray. I have used ordinary multipurpose spray for metal, plastic, wood etc. Important thing is that you clean for any kind of dirt, grease... and to spray few thin layers on temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius without any wind, and DO NOT spray and dry on places where sunlight is falling.

Hope that any of my experience could be useful

Igor

[DLuders]

Since you're in the USA, I would use Krylon Fusion spray paint (which is sold in lots of stores). Yes, most Lego parts are made of ABS plastic (black stormwater sewer pipe material). If this paint can stick on PVC lawn furniture (which flexes a tad), it should do fine on ABS too. Click on the link above to see all of the colors and the technical information about the product.

You could go to Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. to buy a small, black ABS storm sewer pipe fitting, and see how the Kyrlon paint adheres to it. That way, you will be assured that it will work well on your Lego ABS wheels.

I'm not a Lego purist, so I don't have any qualms about PAINTING Lego. After all, it's just a MODEL of a real car, truck, etc. Painting a real Chevy's wheels with a non-stock color does not make the entire car some other brand -- it makes it UNIQUE and special!

Alternatively, you could what Paul Boratko (a Pennsylvanian) uses -- Coat of Chrome to place a thin layer of CHROME on the wheels.

Edited March 27, 2012 by DLuders

[Paul Boratko]

As David mentioned, I have a guy named Don Pirre who can also color tint the chrome wheels and we got an amazing crimson red color effect over chrome for a project that I did a short while ago...

[manbearpig]

As someone who has painted countless murals using spray paint, I would highly suggest priming the wheels with the Krylon Fusion posted earlier, but they come in very terrible colours. Once you have your base layer down (do it lightly, no need to spray a thick priming layer) go out and find a place that sells http://www.montana-cans.com/products/Cans/Montana_BLACK/Montana_BLACK_400ml/20

As you can see you can get many many shades so you can match the colour of your MOC properly. Montana Black cans are mostly matte or semi gloss, for full gloss you can buy http://www.montana-cans.com/products/Cans/Montana_GOLD/Montana_GOLD_400ml/61

or go to your local art store and purchase a can of gloss clear coat.

When spraying, keep the can about a foot away from the wheel and sort of coat it using the cloud of paint, if you get closer you will begin laying down too much paint on the wheels and they will drip and it will look horrible.

Using the Montana cans, you don't necessarily have to prime either, this spray paint is TOP quality, 100 times better than anything Krylon sells, it sticks to everything trust me. Also be wary of lighter colours like yellows and oranges, they will need a white prime base layer if you are painting over a dark coloured wheel. The yellow and orange pigments aren't fully opaque which is why you need white as your first layer.

Good luck

[DarkShadow73]

Crowkillers is what was my inspiration to paint my rims through another member, he showed me some of his MOC cars and they were awesome looking, better than I ever seen MOC car, but one thing I noted obviously is that the rims were definitely not in any color that TLG has produced, it was that shiny crimson red that caught my eye, do you put a base coat of chrome paint then top with the red? To DLuders, I simply couldn't find that crimson red shade in Krylon, I bought a Rust-Oleum primer though like suggested and since I used to work in an auto body shop, I know the drill, painting ABS bumpers requires special paint. One thing I was wondering about, maybe from Crowkillers or others is sometimes those Racers and other Technic wheels can be a pain to get the tires on the rims easily and I can just envision some of the paint flaking as I try to get the tire on and positioned right, any thoughts on this? Can't imagine trying to mask tape a small tire with the rim already installed then paint it, you kind of want the paint to extend downwards into the outside of the rim a bit where it is visible ot the eye. For those of you who have done it, would really appreciate any input. Also wanted to paint the spoiler on one of my 8649 Nitro Menaces to match body color and found some perfect lime colored paint, also some midnight blue paint for the rims.

As David mentioned, I have a guy named Don Pirre who can also color tint the chrome wheels and we got an amazing crimson red color effect over chrome for a project that I did a short while ago...

@manbearpig - I kind of wondered about the glossiness of the paint I purchased. It looks glossy on the chair in the picture on the can, but I sort of wondered about gloss clear coat like you would use on cars and truck paint jobs. That's the look I'm trying to achieve, but all I could find in clear is for metal/wood, not for plastic. I wonder if applying over the plastic paint it would adhere correctly, I think I have a couple of rims I could experiment on, but man this investment in paint and clear coat could get expensive, I've got a lot of Racers and Technic cars that I would love to set off with different colored rims and other highlighting on trim, spoilers, front/rear fascias and groundeffects. Just want to make sure I do it right, otherwise I could have a heck of a mess and useless rims. Case in point, I try to paint my 8070's rims which I spent $119 + tax on the set, then screw up the job, then I have no extra rims unless I purchased more from BL. But I do thank you all for your replies and any additional input you can give me.

As someone who has painted countless murals using spray paint, I would highly suggest priming the wheels with the Krylon Fusion posted earlier, but they come in very terrible colours. Once you have your base layer down (do it lightly, no need to spray a thick priming layer) go out and find a place that sells http://www.montana-cans.com/products/Cans/Montana_BLACK/Montana_BLACK_400ml/20

As you can see you can get many many shades so you can match the colour of your MOC properly. Montana Black cans are mostly matte or semi gloss, for full gloss you can buy http://www.montana-cans.com/products/Cans/Montana_GOLD/Montana_GOLD_400ml/61

or go to your local art store and purchase a can of gloss clear coat.

When spraying, keep the can about a foot away from the wheel and sort of coat it using the cloud of paint, if you get closer you will begin laying down too much paint on the wheels and they will drip and it will look horrible.

Using the Montana cans, you don't necessarily have to prime either, this spray paint is TOP quality, 100 times better than anything Krylon sells, it sticks to everything trust me. Also be wary of lighter colours like yellows and oranges, they will need a white prime base layer if you are painting over a dark coloured wheel. The yellow and orange pigments aren't fully opaque which is why you need white as your first layer.

Good luck

Edited April 8, 2012 by TechnicFreak