How to paint fake splits

[cwspellowe]

Hi fellas, will be updating this as I go along, but here's a quick guide for how to PROPERLY refurb fake split wheels and try and make them look half decent!

Right, the problem with fake splits is that the bolts can't be removed, so to paint them you have to pick a masking line away from the bolts. Or paint the bolts too. And that would look crap. Or you could always mask up each of the 30 fake bolts PER WHEEL which, unless you spend years doing it, would also look crap.

If only there was a way to paint the centres as if they were actual two or three piece splits?

Here's the wheel in question. That cheap knock off basterd.





I got a bit carried away today, picked up an 8mm 12 sided socket and thought "hmm, wonder if these are plastic lugs screwed in?"

They aren't.



Snap, dead. Superglue the head back on? Wait a minute..

Turns out that yes, as suspected, they're plastic lugs that are supposed to look like real bolts. And they seem to be glued in pretty well, so they don't pull out and as soon as they twist they snap. But if you take a 6mm drill bit to what's left after snapping the head off...





Here's the wheels all drilled out. Really soft plastic so was a piece of piss removing them all, some even pulled out whole! Loads of plastic swarf everywhere though!

Here's a tip too - use a drill bit for wood, the ones with the bayonet like part at the end of the bit. Helps to centre the drill on the lugs so you don't skew off and destroy the edge of the alloy.





Now start masking up. I found the easiest way for these was to mask all round the edge, then CAREFULLY running a craft knife around the edge of the "barrel" and peeling off the unwanted masking tape. Then just battered bin bags over them to cover the lips and tyres.

Here they are with primer already misted onto them





Then we start adding some colour. I'm using Halfords' own "Diablo Red", apparently, but I've found with a white primer instead of red it looks even LESS like Diablo, and more candy. Result.

Bit of basecoat





Aaaaand then start adding the clear. Lots of clear. Lots of clear is good for two reasons - depth, and flattening. Means if you get any runs you can sand and polish them back, and when shiny they give a HUGE amount of depth to the colour







Then when you're all done, like with my 8 coats or so of clear, off with the masking and look at your nowhere near finished yet a different colour already wheels!





Sorry about the photo quality, camera was set to auto and I had f*ck all natural light left so they've come out pinky. Will get some decent pics in the sun (if it even exists any more?) and post them up.

Now to wait for the bolts...