Help me choose rim color

[Blackmobile]

Hey guys, haven't really been posting much as i'm not doing much to my car these days, but time for something new for the old blackmobile.

i've got a set of 19" g35 rays which i've taken off for the winter, i bought them used and the previous owner had curbed 3 of them, some worse than others and patched it with some silver paint/epoxy kind of stuff to hide it. damage is visible if you're standing within 5 feet, so it's time to refinish them. the tires are bald so i'll be taking them off to make my life easier when sanding/painting them. i'm most likely going to be rattle canning them since i'm going to have to patch up the damage with bondo, and from what i understand, you can't powdercoat over that. so my question is, what color should I paint them? the dupli-color silver won't look the same as OEM color, so i'd rather not do that but i've got it as an option anyways. i'm thinking i could go gold, bronze, black or gunmetal, maybe even paint the lip a different color. any feedback is welcome.

note: i could potentially sand down the damage and not bondo them and have them powdercoated, i've got a place nearby that does a sandblast and powdercoat for $300. their ad says they do it in black, but i'm sure i can ask for more colors if i throw in another $50 or so.

my car:

oem color:

duplicolor silver:

black:

black with silver lip:

gold:

gunmetal:

[DAAN.]

black

[Blackmobile]

it would be great if i could get someone to do a quick photochop of the rim color on my car, my only photoshopping skills are with MS Paint

[mmkeller]

I would go w/gunmetal

[nismofool]

gold w/ polished lip

[downedzephyr]

bronze. not a fan of how flashy gold is, more a fan of bronze's more subtle appearance. plus bronze on black is damn sexy.

[headhunt3r]

Gold, after seeing Loop's car back in the day.

[trigger_storey]

black or gunmetal

[obstacle]

gunmetallllll

[mrxhenry]

gunmetal ftw!!

[JoeyBaggs]

how about gunmetal and black lip I think it would look nice with the stealth look your whip has

[Blackmobile]

yeah i really liked the look of loop's car when he had the gold rims. a lot of people are voting gunmetal though, my original thought was gunmetal as well. i'm not a huge fan of the "blacked out" look, some contrast is good. i'll see where the poll goes in a few more days and make a choice, thanks for the input guys

[Blackmobile]

8 votes for gunmetal, 4 for the rest except silver with just 2. i was hoping that there would be more of a difference with the other colors, i kinda thought gunmetal would be the favorite, but if i decided to not go with gunmetal i was hoping one of the other colors would be a clear second.

[Blackmobile]

finally getting around to getting my rims refinished. tires are off, rims are halfway done refinishing, i expect to have them done in a week or so. i ended going with gunmetal. i'll post some pics after i'm done.

[Blackmobile]

yeah kinda dumb for me to have 4 posts in a row, but i thought i'd throw up some pictures of my progress.

right now i have them primered with 4 coats (no pics yet). i sprayed 2 coats, wet sanded with 1500 grit, sprayed another 2 coats. i'm letting them dry and will do another 1500 wetsand, then paint 2 coats, wetsand 2000 grit, 2 more coats, wetsand again, then probably 2 coats of clear.

i started off with 60 grit to get rid of the all the curb rash, then applied bondo, sanded using 100 and 180 grit to knock it down smooth. i probably should have sanded with some finer grit before i put on the primer but they still look pretty smooth.

how i got them:






here you can really see the discoloration, i don't know what from but they almost look like they're corroded


after bondo

[DJ_B_Easy]

Bondo on wheels? Is that going to stand up to the abuse it will take? Heck, will it stand up to a mounting machine?

[Blackmobile]

i wasn't so sure bondo was a good idea either, but from several rim refinishing threads i've read up on, it seems to be the way everyone refinishes their rims. many post update as well many months later saying that the bondo holds up well. i'm sure that it will get demolished if i ever hit a curb, but that's understandable.

i'm following these threads as guides (many others also say to use bondo):
http://g35driver.com/forums/body-interi ... oaded.html
http://g35driver.com/forums/repairing-d ... ation.html

[DJ_B_Easy]

Interesting, I had no idea. I guess it makes sense though, if it can withstand torture on other parts why not wheels too.

[Blackmobile]

more work's been done over the last few days after i get off work,

after 4 coats of primer




after 1 coat (a little to heavy though) of graphite paint



i actually picked up another set of g35 rays which i got from a buddy. gonna sell them since i don't really need 2 sets of rims, if anyone's interested in a set with bald rear tires and good meat on the fronts and a little scratched up, send me a PM

[Coupeguy23]

those are looking good man , im working on my m45 wheels . Im still trying to find a new color for them

[Viper5000]

How much would you let the second set go for?

[AlexM.]

Gold would have looked nice. But they remind me of advans a little too much.

[nismogxs21]

damn bro the rims are coming out really good!!!

[Blackmobile]

yeah thanks guys, they turned out really good. there's still a couple of tiny spots where you can see they were refinished, but for my first time around i think it's a decent job. it's also my first time using bondo, i'm not sure if i mixed the stuff properly. i did my first sanding after applying the paint, 2000 grit. i threw on another 2 coats of paint, gonna do one more sand, then do a bunch of coats of clear and probably polish them up real nice. i hope to have the tires back on the rims by early next week and back on my car. i've been on my steel rims for almost a month during the summer, that's way too long for me

[Coupeguy23]

hey blackmoblie post up some picture when your done man

[Blackmobile]

i will for sure. the rims are done, final coat of clear went on today. gonna let them dry really good before i have the tires mounted, so probably mid week and they'll have fresh new khumo ecsta spt's mounted and the rims back on my car, i've been on my snowies for far too long this summer.

[Blackmobile]

biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch... i just got my rims back from getting the tires mounted and one of the rims slipped on the tire mounting machine and chipped off a bunch of the paint all over the rim. the other three turned out great, but i'm going to have to do some touch ups on the damaged rim. luckily they're all pretty small chips, but after all the time and effort i put into refinishing them i don't want to just leave it. it's going to be harder now that the tire is on the rim too... they didn't charge me anything for mounting the tires since they messed up one of the rims, but still... super pissed. i'll post some pics when i get off work

[DJ_B_Easy]

Did you paint the inside wall of the wheel? From the pics above it doesnt look like it.

[Blackmobile]

naw i didn't bother, just did the face. doing the entire rim would have probably needed about 3x as much paint.

[xshinnyshinx]

black or gunmetal

if u dont mind if i ask, where kind of rims do u have and where did u get it?