Wheel ideas...

I know I want to powder coat my wheels to continue this dark theme I started with the badges and tinted windows, but I was trying to decide on whether or not to do the whole wheel. This is something I have not seen done to this point.

The entire wheel black looks menacing. However, I also like the contrast of the polished lip or portion of the wheel against the black. So, I did the following $15 experiment to see how the idea of keeping all the polished/machined portions of the stock 17" S2000 wheel unpainted would look.

Here are the results.

I like how the Honda center cap works with this setup. Many of the powder coated wheels that don't paint the center cap look odd, IMO.

Anyway, I want to hear more feedback. Right now, I am liking it, but the polished part has too much of a 2D feel in the pics, not like the 3D feel and look of a polished lip that I was looking for. Not that it is a bad thing, just different.

 

Thanx for posting this ...

I was contemplating this exact same thing. I thought it would work out well and now I know how well. Great job !!

What kind of paint ... what color ... preperation ... etc.

 

Since this was simply an experiment in preparation for true powder coating later this week, I used a high performance glossy black enamel paint after taping off the polished surfaces with masking tape.

Preparation:
Cleaned the wheel thoroughly and then used "0000" steel wool to give a slightly roughened surface for the paint to attach.



It took about 30-40 minutes per wheel to tape them off. I did not do that great of a job, though. There were plenty of places where the edge is not straight and clean. If I did it a couple more times with more patience, I would probably get the hang of it and better results.

Here are some pics on the car...



In the first few photos that were taken in the garage, the shadows hide most of the darkened surfaces, pulling out the polished spokes in a way that does not do the wheel justice.

Once on the car and in the light of day, the wheel really looks outstanding! I like it more and more.

 

Now how about on an NFR???


Nice Job!

 

that looks really good.

 

Very interesting look. Makes the stockers look VERY different...much larger in appearance and gives the impression of very thin spokes. I wouldn't be surprised if you get people asking things like "what are those, 18's? 19's?" and the like...

 

you did a geart job

they are amazing ``

 

I like the look, maybe tape further in on the lip to give it the polished lip 3-piece look. Definitely Come back with more pics after the powdercoating!!

 

Those look great, nicely done.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm contacting a local shop to get this done, hopefully this week.

I'll post pics once done.

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I thought about pushing the tape further in on the lip, but there is a gradual radius that would be tough to locate a cut-off point.