Type R FL5 Wheel Paint Shootout

[JustJim]

I purchased a set of used Type R wheels to use with snow tires, and one of the wheels had some curb rash. I figured I would just get some factory paint, fill and sand the bad spots and call it a day. I couldn't find any honda factor paint for the wheels. The color looks like a flat-to-satin black, so I bought two cans of wheel paint, and two cans of clear to see if I could find a match. I used the inside of the wheel as a test area and here are the contestants and results. Each test area had one color, the two clears, and a "plain" area. Each area was primed with self etching primer.

Winner: The Duplicolor Wheel Satin Black + Rusoleum Dead Flat Clear is the winner. Time will tell how well the dead flat clear holds up.

The non-flat paints (1 & 2) are way too shiny unless the dead flat clear is used
The dead-flat clear makes all the paints pretty darn close to the right sheen and color
The matte clear is too shiny with any of the paints
The flat paints (3&4) are too flat if the dead flat clear is not used.


Paints
1) Dupli color Wheel Satin Black
2) Rust oleum Wheel Matte Black
3) Rust oleum 2X flat black
4) Rust oleum High Performance flat black

Clears
Rust oleum Universal Dead Flat
Dupli color wheel matte black

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[TypeOne]

This is an interesting test. Did you end up painting an entire wheel?

 

[JustJim]

I refinished most of the lip on the wheel. I wound up needing a little bondo for some of the deeper scratches. The spokes and barrel are in great shape so I wanted to leave those alone, but it was certainly a pain to mask off each spoke and blend the new paint so it didn’t look bad…..these are for snow tires, so I wasn’t super fussy.

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