going for glossy look, just like paint

i de-greased the hub caps with 409 and then did a few coats of plastic primer on 2 of the hub caps so far

i already noticed a big difference in color that will be sure to stand out (hopefully in a good way)

will post pics after I'm done

$14 for one can of plastic primer, rustoleum glossy white and bottle of 409

not bad eh? :)

question: how would I go about painting the front wheel brake caliper and the black steel wheels that the hub caps are covering?

I think painting the wheels white would look pretty good

BTW I have the 5 spoke wheels, not the 20 hole cheap wheels like hondas usually have

 

White wheel covers do look good on white HHR's, we've had some folks do that here before, might be a pain to keep clean but that holds true for most wheels/wheel covers.

Now painting the rims white is a simple task if that's what you want, you'd need to clean them well and then scuff sand them so the paint will adhere properly. White paint will cover black without primer, but since you'd be dealing with rims you need to look for "high temperature" white paint. Standard paint will quickly discolor from brake heat.

Painting the calipers is relatively simple too, here's a link to a thread on that. Again you'd need "high temp" paint or a caliper painting kit to really do the job right....especially using white.

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/appearance-modifications-discussions-6/my-1st-mod-painted-calipers-rotors-15518/

All this being said, the general opinion around here is that the stock 16 hole "steelies" are pretty dorky looking rims, so maybe you'd want to keep them black so they disappear behind your nice white wheel covers. Just a thought, have fun modifying, and feel free to ask more questions.

 

 

Thanks for all the info. I would have never thought of high heat!

My rims are actually 5 spoke and look pretty decent compared to the 16 hole ones

 

OOPS! Misread your post, I see you do have the 5-spoke "steelies", would still probably leave 'em black though...lots less cleaning to worry about.

 

well if I painted em white (glossy) I don't imagine it would be any harder than the paint on the rest of the car :p

here is my progress so far

HUGE difference

 

they look good..... i like blue with the white car and then blue victory stripes to match. just my two cents

 

that would look pretty good!

perhaps the thicker 5 spokes white or blue and the rest of the hub cap the opposite

here is the first coat of gloss enamel

looking sexy!



cant wait to put em on and see how it loooks

 

I used to have a white cavalier that came stock with white wheels, I always thought that it looked good compared to the the non-pained wheels.

 

Did some one say "blue" ?? Those white covers look very good, did you put lots of clear ??