Spray painting wheel wells?

davidc11291

davidc11291

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I've had a few people ask me to do this. I tried it on 1 car, but it got over spray everywhere. Do any of you guys spray paint wheel wells or trim pieces? If you do, how do you prevent/deal with the over spray? How much of the car do you need to tape off when doing this?
 
If I had to do it I would paper & tape off around the whole outside of the well.
 
I've never been asked to paint wheel wells or trim pieces before when detailing a car. I always use a good APC to clean the wheel wells and trim pieces and then apply the Wolfgang Trim Sealant.
 
Ive done it a couple times on my own rides. I remove the wheels. I cover the brake and shock assembly. I then clean the wells very well and scrub them. I used a high temp grill paint in matte black. It was a pain and took alot of time, but now I usually just clean them well and use a shiny cheap aerosol tire dressing. (becareful some luxury cars have a felt lining in the wheelwells)
 
davidc11291 said:
I've had a few people ask me to do this. I tried it on 1 car, but it got over spray everywhere. Do any of you guys spray paint wheel wells or trim pieces? If you do, how do you prevent/deal with the over spray? How much of the car do you need to tape off when doing this?
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Ha ha, that's an old hack detailer trick! Well, I actually shouldn't be so perjorative, in the old days, there were no plastic wheel well liners, pressure washers were not so abundant, and if you had a wheel well that had undercoating sprayed in it, it was a really rough surface that was hard to clean, so it was quicker to just paint over the dirt.
 
Chemical guys makes a product called black on black that can be used for that.
 
Sommy said:
Chemical guys makes a product called black on black that can be used for that.
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Actually black on black is just an aerosol trim sealant; it darkens it, but it's not painting anything and won't cover the dirt.
 
I think he meant "Chemical Guys Bare Bones UnderCarriage Spray".
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Ha ha, that's an old hack detailer trick! Well, I actually shouldn't be so perjorative, in the old days, there were no plastic wheel well liners, pressure washers were not so abundant, and if you had a wheel well that had undercoating sprayed in it, it was a really rough surface that was hard to clean, so it was quicker to just paint over the dirt.
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Sometimes customers will ask, especially if heavily contaminated with road marking paint/concrete splatter that powerwashing wont remove...gotta keep the customer happy.
Usually clean first, dry with compressed air and time (do interior detail), tape/mask off immediate area, then paint.

Then proceed to detail car...
wash
clay
and other processes.

I also agree with Killerwheels' thoughts.


AUDI A6 felt like liner.
 
I've done it on a car that was in a car show. I cleaned the wheel wells but the under coating was ashy gray. Since they were clean but still didn't look great I decided to paint. I covered the shocks and brakes with plastic and sprayed with a semigloss black. Once it was finished they looked nice and dark but not shiny.
 
You guys that have done this, did you have any problems with over spray getting on the body of the car or the hood?
 
You can use painters plastic to bubble off the entire car if need be.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Ha ha, that's an old hack detailer trick! Well, I actually shouldn't be so perjorative, in the old days, there were no plastic wheel well liners, pressure washers were not so abundant, and if you had a wheel well that had undercoating sprayed in it, it was a really rough surface that was hard to clean, so it was quicker to just paint over the dirt.
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Did you spray the wheel wells like you mean it??
 
Are you spraying indoors or out? If a customer asks, then I do my best to provide. Sure, over the years I've on occassion gotten overspray on the vehicle. Thats why I usually do this before I detail the paint.

Heck, I've even inadvertantly placed a direct shot on the lip of the fender well before...no big deal. There are many items that I carry from mineral spirits, to a jump box, rouge and cotton flannel wheels, etc., on nearly every detail.
 
I do it outside. I don't wrap off the whole car but I will tape off the fender lip and a small section of the panel I'm working at. I'm pretty good with a rattle can so overspray usually isn't a problem
 
I've done it to my own vehicles. On the SVT I didn't even bother covering the springs etc, just taped over the SVT sticker on the. I did tape off the rotor faces only since I was painting everything in the area in preparation for a show.

As far as body panels, I taped of around the wheel well lip etc, had some clay handy in case for over spray, but it wasn't an issue.
 
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