How to paint rims?
 

I am kind of new at the "do it yourself" custom work and I am wondering what kind of paint should I use to paint my stock rims and what steps should I take?

I painted my wheels on my old car about 6 months ago using these instructions. I have had tons of people ask if I had them powder coated. They have not chipped at all, even with some curb scrubs, and the best part, it costed about $36. Here is the address if the link doesn't work:
http://www.peterbeers.net/vw_roadtri...eels/index.htm

powder coat best quality

Sure powercoating is the best, but at $90 a wheel, I wasn't about to do it.

On my tC, I painted the wheels bronze following basically the directions that adrock posted.

I had a spare set of wheels, so I did it over a period of about 3 days.

1. Clean the wheels well
2. tape off wheel. Some people use index cards between the wheel and the tire to make it easier.
3. Fix any road rash using a wheel putty (autozone).
4. sand/scuff the finish. It doesn't have to been deep, just scuff everywhere. Inside the curves is the hardest.
5. wipe down the wheels with acetone to clean off any dust
6. lay on a coat of primer that is barely thick enough to do anything (a dusting if you will)
7. wait 7-10 minutes (unless cold) and lay another thin primer. You should barely be able to see the original color now.
8. Another 7-10 minutes and another thin coat of primer.
9. Wait about 30-60 minutes then thin layer of your base color, again, just barely covering the primer.
10. Lay on another 2-3 coats of paint, waiting 15 minutes or so between coats. Go fo light even coverage. If you lay it thick, it will run and look like crap. If you want, scuff between coats.
11. Let it dry for about an hour then lay on thin coats of the clear gloss, again, waiting 15 minutes between layers until you get to where you want.

After doing this, my wheels looked great (still do on the dealers lot :)). Only nicks were where the alignment machine hit them and where the lug wrench hit them.