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[WAKman]

I picked up a set of decent Competition Package wheels for a good price. They have been chewed up a bit, so they will be refinished. Although I like these wheels in standard silver, I'm toying around with finishing them in something a bit different. My car is Interlagos Blue, and I'm toying around with something like bronze for the wheels.

Anyone have any other ideas/pics/suggestions?

[dparm]

The OEM 359 ZCP wheels are not just a straight silver - they are hypersilver, which is a multi-layer finish with translucency and colored primer, as I understand it.

I have always thought the hypersilver looks good on pretty much every color, especially on blue. You want some contrast against the darker paint. Gunmetal or black just gets lost and you can't even see the classic design of that wheel. It has a lot of spokes and needs to be shown off!

[GotV8?]

I had mine powder coated gunmetal to give my Jerez E92 a more aggressive look, however, will got a second set in silver just because. I like to have the option between the Classic look as well.

[yidgyi]

Gun metal, refinish in the standard silver, or possibly black. Black wheels on Interlagos blue feels a bit weird to me though. Bronze might look good.

[WAKman]

Originally Posted by GotV8?

I had mine powder coated gunmetal to give my Jerez E92 a more aggressive look, however, will got a second set in silver just because. I like to have the option between the Classic look as well.

Those look great!

[Mvy]

Ive been toying with bronze as the best color. It really is a great look with IL blue.

[IB M]

Gunmetal or a darker bronze would look great for a change of pace. Not a fan of bright yellowish bronze. Also black wheels on ILB not the best look either imo.

Of course the classic hyper silver is tops.

[Mr. BMW]

I like the way my GTS wheels look on my car but if I was to paint them I would go with a gloss black.

[dmk08]

Silver or gunmetal. Black wheels look like hubcaps.

[shimmy23]

Gunmetal looks good on IB. Or I’d just get them refinished and resprayed to silver.

Or if ya even wanna sell them I’ll come pick em up

[jiggz]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

Gunmetal looks good on IB. Or I’d just get them refinished and resprayed to silver.

Or if ya even wanna sell them I’ll come pick em up:thump:

This!

Then when Shimmy gets tired of them after a month or two, I'll buy them from him

But seriously, I like the gun metal color on IB, but I'd probably still go hyper silver since I'm an OEM guy.

[E36dude420]

Do you guys think gunmetal would look good on frozen grey?? My bad for the thread high jack

[1MOREMOD]

Yellow

[spazzyfry123]

This thread provides good insight:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1499740

I personally like timothy2001's choice as seen here:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showpos...7&postcount=24

I bet it would look killer on blue.

[WAKman]

Today I went after them briefly with the bead blaster, using 80 grit glass, and I think it only stripped off the clear coat. It does indeed look, as suggested above, that it is a multi-stage paint process.

I'll try some aluminum oxide or walnut shells on them on it tomorrow and see if more comes off. I'd rather go slow and not mess up what are some really nice wheels.

I have the standup blast cabinet from Eastwood, and those wheels almost completely fill it up, making it hard to maneuver the gun.

[WAKman]

I had another go at my wheels. I'll probably just convert this into a wheel refinishing thread . . .

Anyway, after attacking the wheels with aluminum oxide, 80 grit @ 90 psi, I still think I have only taken off the clear and maybe part of the color, but here is many more layers of finish atop the aluminum on the wheel.

At this point, I do not want to go with more aggressive blast media. I want to avoid using chemical stripper, if at all possible, so I am inclined to try to fill the low spots, lay some primer on it as it sits, and then color coat/clear it.

Any experts out there who can advise me on this?

Thanks!

Terry

[WAKman]

Uh, oh! Just found this in an article on hypersilver finishes:

Unfortunately for the reconditioned wheel industry, the translucent metallic paint contains large amounts of lead and cannot be imported into the U.S., so a substitute had to be found for the liquid lead component of the paint.

https://www.thoughtco.com/wheel-fini...silver-3234507

Well, here I've been sandblasting away at the things, generating lots of dust . . . fortunately, I do have a dust collector on my cabinet, and I avoid breathing in the dust when I open things up. But still, I think I'll stop blasting now.

Terry