Painting wheel covers W123

[Bear]

Can somebody tell me if I should coat my wheel covers/hubcaps/wheel trims with a clearcoat after painting them.Also whats an optimum number of coats to achieve a good finish with the paint?
I am masking them up today so I wont be painting them until I,ve calmed down.Masking to me is like wallpapering very stressfull, I don't care if it looks alright to my old lady I want it to be perfect.
Bear

[Mr. BILL]

Three to four coats of color and clear each should be fine. It's better to make them medium to light coats, not too heavy. If you haven't completed the masking job you might try something I did on mine.

To protect the tires, take a piece of poster board (the flexable kind) and cut it length wise into two 8"-10"wide stips. Tape the strips together end to end, slightly overlaping at the seam. Make sure one ege is very straight using the "factory" cut edges along one side.

Then, curl your strip into a circle the size of the wheel and carefully fit it between the edge of the wheel and tire. Once you have it fitted properly, tape it together to make cylinder. Now you have a spray shield you can easily transfer from one wheel to another.

[Pete Geither]

If you are painting wheel covers you don't have to do any masking. Just lay them out and blast away. If you are using a basecoat clearcoat system, you must clearcoat. If not, just use the paint you have. You can clear a one stage system, but it takes a special procedure.

[Bear]

PJG56 thank's for the advice, but I'm painting the chrome wheelcovers on a 1982 300D and they definately have to be masked.
Mr.Bill thanks for the advice on painting.Bear