S10 Blazer Upgrades Part 1 - Rims

Doing some improvements on my trusty old little blazer. First step painting my corroded aluminum rims. Some of this work was done at Techshop. http://www.techshop.ws/

While doing the ball joints on my truck, I decided to paint my rims, the first step was removing the tires from the truck, Then removing the tires from the rims.

After I removed the rims, I made a valiant attempt to sandblast them over at Techshop. However, the clear protective powdercoat proved too tough for the cabinet blaster. I then attempted them at home on my own sandblaster in the yard, which made more of a mess then helping. I eventually gave up and had to have them professionally sandblasted.

After they were (finally!!!) sandblasted, my original intention was to powdercoat my rims black. I had flat black from harbor freight picked out to do them. I spent a good couple hours powdering the rims individually, but the coverage was not very good. After inspection, the powdercoat had not made the best protective cover I had hoped for, leaving me to paint over them. I gave them a rough sand and painted then with some black I had in the garage.

After letting the paint dry for about a week, I remounted them on my old tires and bolted them back on my truck. I invested in a new set of chrome lug nuts also, they offset the black quite well. They look a whole lot better than they did originally, and they were done on the cheap as well.