DIY Blacked-Out Rims for 2013 Ford Explorer

Howdy folks, Ed here. Welcome back to Bullnose Garage. And this is not a Bullnose, but it is my wife’s car. It’s a 2013 Ford Explorer, and as you can see, there’s something missing. So about a little over a year ago, we went on a little vacation up to the Grand Canyon just for a couple of days. And going through Tucson, we went through some, uh, really rough construction. And then on the other end of town, we stopped to get some gas. And when I got out, I noticed we were missing a hubcap. Now, who knows where we lost this thing? It’s probably on the side of the road somewhere. Even today, my wife looked at this and saw an annoyance. We were gonna have to pay money to get a new hubcap and get it put on. I saw it as an opportunity for customization. I’ll be using this stuff here to achieve the look that I want for these rims, which is basically to look kind of like a police vehicle. Now, I’m not doing it so that I look like a police vehicle. I’m doing it because I like the way that black rims with center caps and trim rings look. And if you’ve watched any of my videos before, you already know that about me.

So what we’re using is this wire wheel on this big old grinder. Hopefully, that’ll make quick work of getting this rim cleaned up. I’ve got some automotive primer here just to get a good base layer. I’ve got high heat paint because that’s what I have. I have a whole bunch of it. But the important thing about this is that it’s matte paint. So I’m also using a 2K Spray Max clear coat. And if you’re going to use a clear coat over top of a base coat, you want to make sure that your base coat is a matte finish and not glossy because if it’s glossy, then your clear coat won’t adhere correctly. So this should be interesting. I’ve never used a 2K clear before. This will be the first time. I’m really interested to see just how that’s going to turn out.

So keep in mind, this is basically just a driveway paint job. I’m not going for super professional results, but, uh, I’m hoping that it turns out nice and, uh, sort of dresses up my wife’s vehicle just a little bit. So first thing to do is to get the vehicle up in the air, get all the wheels and tires off, and then I’m going to go through and remove all of these wheel weights so that we can get a nice, even clean finish all the way around. And then when we’re all done and everything’s put back together, we’ll just take it over to Discount Tire and get it rebalanced because generally, they do that for free, and we always get our tires from there anyway, so it’s a good deal.

Now, so I picked up this trick from some other YouTube videos I watched about painting rims with the tires still on. They used index cards to mask off the tire by placing them in the rim, but I’m using old wedding invitations. We had a bunch of them laying around. I guess we don’t have as many friends as we thought we did. Got the wheels and tires off the Explorer into the garage. The wheels are just about as clean as I’m prepared to get them, so that means we’re ready to start the painting process, which means I’m going to start with my automotive primer. So the plan for this is to put down one good coat on all four wheels, and then about the time that I’m done with all four, the first one should be ready for a second coat. So I’ll just do another round, get them all coated again, and then this primer is gonna need to dry for about 45 minutes or so before I put on my base coat.

So the base coat, again, is this high heat black Rust-Oleum matte spray paint, and that’s going to have two coats. So I’ll go around the exact same way as I did with the primer. And once the, uh, the base coat is on, then I’ve only got about 30 minutes or so before I want to put on my 2K clear. So you don’t want the base coat to dry completely before you put the 2K clear on because you want that good chemical bond. You want them to sort of bond together before the base coat is completely cured. So the base coat needs to be dry but not completely cured. So if you can touch it and you know it’s not tacky, then that’s about the time that you want to put your 2K clear on.

I may have a little bit more time today than normal. It’s a little chilly out. It’s about 60 degrees in the garage. So when I get to the 2K clear, I’ll go over a little bit more exactly how this works. It’s a little bit different than a rattle can because it actually is a two-part clear coat just like you get out of a spray gun, except it’s in a can. So, uh, it goes on a little bit different and works a little bit different. So we’ll talk about that when I get to that point.

So, so, so, so while I’m waiting for the base coat of my rims to dry up a little bit, let’s talk about this Spray Max 2K clear coat that I got. Now, I got this because it’s an, actually, it’s a two-part clear coat just like you’d get out of a regular air spray gun, only it’s conveniently in a rattle can. Um, and it should provide a nice long-lasting clear coat finish to these rims so I don’t have to worry about things coming up on the road and chipping them or giving any other kind of problems, at least not above and beyond what you get on a normal car finish because basically that’s what this is. So I wanted this for the durability and the, uh, you know, lasting longer than just like an off-the-shelf rattle can clear coat.

So the way this works is there’s this little cap on top, and you actually, uh, put this on the bottom there, hit it with the palm of your hand, and that breaks open the seal inside which mixes the two parts. Give it a good shake for a while, and you’re good to go. Now, when you’re spraying this, whenever you’re spraying paint, you always want to, uh, keep your hand in constant motion. You never want to stop, and if you’re gonna stop, you’ll let off so that you don’t create big splotches when you’re, uh, you’re doing your spray. But this is a little bit different than a regular rattle can. A rattle can, you go kind of quick. Uh, this you want long, deliberate strokes, much more like you’re doing, um, a regular spray gun because that’s basically what this stuff is.

If you’ve watched any of my videos in the past, there will have been times that you’ve seen me do some spray painting without a respirator, and that’s either because, quite frankly, I forgot or because I was outside and didn’t feel like I needed one. But in the case of this stuff, no matter where you’re at, no matter how well-ventilated your room is, you want to make sure that you’re wearing a respirator because this stuff is no joke. It’s serious stuff, just like the stuff that you put on a car in a spray booth. And so you’d never see those guys spraying without a respirator. You never want to spray this stuff without a respirator. I will definitely have my respirator on. Word to the wise, just, uh, it’s okay to get away without a respirator if you’re doing regular spray paint for a little while. Not with this stuff, so make sure you got one on.

We’re just about ready for this. Um, I’m letting these dry a little bit more. It’s taking quite a bit longer for these to dry than I expect. I think that’s probably because of the temperature, and I did put quite a heavy top coat on here. So I just want to make sure that there’s no more of these little tacky spots like you can see right here. They’re almost gone. I’m just about ready to put this on. One of the nice things about matte spray paint is that you can very clearly see when it’s dry and when it’s not. So even though this stuff here isn’t tacky anymore, uh, it’s definitely not fully cured. So I should still get a good chemical bond with my 2K clear. I just want to make sure that I don’t clear over this stuff. It’s still a little bit wet and sort of seal in that wetness and, uh, make it so that it never dries. I’m not sure if that’s even a thing, but, uh, I want to make sure that that’s not a thing that I’ve got to worry about. So we’re letting it dry. I think I probably got about five or ten more minutes, and then we’re good to go.

Okay, here we go. Okay, so now we’ll let that tack for about 10 minutes. Do it again. Okay, here we go, round two. So, so, all right, got my wheels and tires all done, back from the tire store, balanced and, uh, ready to put back on the Explorer. I think they look pretty good for, uh, an amateur garage black rim paint job. I’m pretty happy. There’s a few spots where the, uh, clear coat didn’t go on real smooth, and I think that’s just because of the angle that I was spraying at and just unfamiliarity with the process. But overall, I’m real happy. Out here, just about ready to put the wheels on the Explorer. I wanted to go over real quick exactly what I’m doing here.

So I went out and I got some center caps from a 2002 to 2005 Explorer. Now, this is a 2013, so obviously these aren’t meant to go on here, but I think they’re gonna look really good in the center of these black wheels. And to get these to work correctly, I had to go out and get lug nuts that actually allow for these to clip on. So these, um, actually clip onto the lug nuts themselves. They go back here, and there’s a little clip that goes in. So you have to make sure that if you’re going to do this with these particular center caps that you get the right lug nuts. So I had to get a set of new lug nuts for all four wheels, but they aren’t that expensive. I think it’s going to look nice. I will put the part numbers for these lug nuts and these center caps in the description of the video. You’re going to have to go to eBay probably to get the center caps, but the lug nuts that you can get from just about any auto parts store.

And then once that’s all done, of course, if you know me, I love trim rings, so we’re gonna put trim rings on all four wheels. But, uh, we’ll do that when everything’s done. I’ll save the trim rings for last because I am kind of curious how these wheels are gonna look on the vehicle without the trim rings, with just the center caps on them. Okay, I’m really looking forward to seeing how these rims finally look on this vehicle, so let’s get them on.

If your goal for this project is to make your rims most closely replicate what a police Explorer rims look like, then this is where you’re going to want to go and probably where you’re going to want to stop. This is about how they look now. The center caps aren’t exactly accurate, but the actual police Explorer center caps are a little bit more expensive than the ones that I got, so there’s that to consider. As for me, that’s not really the look that I’m going for. I like that look, but as I’ve said before, if you’ve watched any of my videos, you know that I am a sucker for trim rings, so that’s what I’m doing next.

Before you do something like this, keep in mind that the clips of the trim rings, trim rings, hello Bailey, before you do this, keep in mind that the clips on the trim rings are going to mar the paint on your rims. I don’t really care about that. Like I said, it’s a garage paint job, not a big deal, but trim rings will do that. So if you’re concerned about that, you may want to think twice about putting trim rings on your vehicle.

So, so, well, there you have it, a basically brand new set of rims for my wife’s Explorer. Now they’re not new, but they are refurbished, and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. If you’re looking to do something similar, then maybe you, uh, could go the same route that I went. Just an old set of steel wheels with some primer black paint, a real nice 2K clear, and a little bit of bling on top. The nice thing about steel rims is that you can pretty much do whatever you want. They’re pretty cheap. You can find them in any junkyard anywhere on a whole bunch of different vehicles, and if you screw them up, oh well, just clean them up and repaint them or get another one. It’s not a big deal. And me personally, I really like the way the steelies look, especially when they’re nice and cleaned up like this.

As far as my wife is concerned, she doesn’t really care. She told me that I could paint pink polka dots on them as long as the vehicle runs okay and is safe and as long as all four wheels match. Well, at the very least, all four wheels match, and I really like the way it looks. As always, guys, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, stick them below. Thanks again for watching, and we will see you next time.