I bought a set of five 16×7 Unique Series 42 wheels (with gently used stock tires) from doubleajaybrock last weekend. He included the chrome center hubs, but I didn't really like the way they looked on the wheels, so they are for sale on eBay.

Not using them left a 3¼" hole in the center of each wheel. That looked like crap with rust showing through, so I decided to paint the wheel mounting surface black to match the wheels. A trip to PepBoys and $15 later I had two options to cover the rust: Blue Magic Rubber Underoat and DupliColor Truck Bed Coating.

After some sample sprays on a piece of plywood, I decided to use the DupliColor.


I jacked up the passenger side and took off the aluminum wheels. I definitely had some rust awaiting me, but nothing really bad. I used 150 grit sandpaper on the rust and kept blowing the dust off.


When the first wheel had the loose rust sanded off, I used blue masking tape and a trash bag to cover the wheel studs and circumference of the "hat" to protect the disc brakes from overspray.


From there it was easy to apply the "paint", recoat it 10 minutes later (per the directions on the can), and peel off the masking. (I used the same masking for the whole Jeep.)


Here is a picture with the masking removed.


I did the same on the other three wheels.


The only real "challenge" I faced was that I initially masked off the large nut and bolt on the front wheel (that attaches to the CV joint). That looked really bad, so I re-masked the studs and brakes and painted the nut and bolt. See the bottom right of the picture below.

It was a little hard to fill in the threads of the bolt without spraying so much that it would drip, but I was just careful and used a bunch of really quick sprays.

While I was at it, I exposed the pinch welds and pounded them down (in anticipation of an upcoming lift).

I would have been remiss I didn't cover that in the DupliColor as well.


The next day, we took the pooch to the dog park.


Since I did this on a Saturday, I let the DupliColor cure for half a football game before I put the wheels on and switched sides. In all, it probably took me 4 hours or so (with curing time).

Jack stands and/or a floor jack would have made this go much more quickly (and probably a lot safer too). If I had been able to do all four wheels at the same time, it would have been ~15-20 minutes per wheel (sanding, masking, and painting). It's probably a 60-75 minute job for most, plus curing time.


keywords: herculiner, rhinoliner bedliner

Edit 1: spelling

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~James
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Black '05 CRD Sport
L.O.S.T. # 068768
Rock Lizard Skink Sliders, Skid Row tranny skid, Wet Okole seat covers, Black Widow roof basket, front tow hooks, cargo/pet partition, all Amsoil

OMG at the Bricks!!!! That is, lumber, some stone blocks, bricks, and thin 2x4..

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NYC L.O.S.T.# 022174 -
Check out my CarDomain

Very observant, so what's yor point?

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Slightly modified Lt. Khaki 3.7 2004 LTD 4X4. Purchased new 8/6/03.
What I don't have....A Mag light mounted to my seat.
Original Old L.O.S.T. #000354

Nick's Pics & Mods click here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/531173
http://www.survivaltopics.com/forums/

A disaster waiting to happen, especially pounding down pinch welds with your car held up with a stack of bricks and a jack ontop of those. downright dangerous.

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2003 Silver Sport - Debadged
245/75/R16 DuraTracs
Cragar Soft 8s
OME Coils & Front Shocks, Bilstein Rear Shocks - Muddified Lift
JBA 4.5 UCA
K&N CAI
MagnaFlow Exhaust
Rola Vortex Rack

http://www.fusion-multimedia.com

At least there not round rocks ,I've had to use round rocks before to place jacks on,even stacked round rocks to place jacks on.The worst thing I've done was have a 16,000lbs HMMWV jacked up with all 4 tires off the ground using 4 High-Lift jacks,in the sand no less ,gotta do what you gotta do and use what is at hand.

lmfao!!!!! jj thats the truth for sure. in my first tour in iraq we had the back to wheels pretty much blown off by an ied. so we eventually got a spare off 2 other vehicles in the convoy(our spare was toast from the ied along with half the stuff behind the rear seats. we used a winch over the top of another hmmwv to lift the back up to put new tires on. was interesting to say the least.

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2003 Jeep LIberty Renegade
Rusty's Offroad 2.5in suspension lift w/ rear rancho shocks, Fastman TB, Beam's 4 point harness', custom D rings up front, Custom flowmaster exhaust, JKS Quick sway bar disco's
Hella 500's, General Grabber AT2's on stock rims with spidertrax
coming soon: Corbeau Moab seats, JBA 6"lift