Help deciding on a color for centers

[wheelfetish]

Im slowly working on refinishing my style 19s. I can't decide on a color to paint my centers. So I need advice. I don't like black or gold- too overplayed imo. Anyway my E36 is lagunagrun.

Here is my ideas so far:
polished centers with purple bolts and centercaps
off white (mayo-ish) centers

I want some color. So let me know what ideas you have. Heres a picture of what my car basically looks like and the rims I have.

[schroedin]

Whhhiiiiiittttttttteeeeeeeeee.

[Purp]

polished centers with purple bolts and centercaps

That idea

[wheelfetish]

That idea

Thats what Im feeling. Your style 5s are polished right?

Any tips on polishing the centers? I already stripped the clear coat off its a rough dark gray steel. Should I just go and buy a polishing kit and do it that way or is there a different method?

[Purp]

Thats what Im feeling. Your style 5s are polished right?

Any tips on polishing the centers? I already stripped the clear coat off its a rough dark gray steel. Should I just go and buy a polishing kit and do it that way or is there a different method?

Mine are the original HRE silver... But I have spent countless hours polishing wheels. The best thing to do is take the faces to a sand blaster and have them blast them and then put them in a chemical treatment where it does a wizard polish. That's what I was told it's called. Then take them home with a polish refinish kit and go to work. I would also recommend getting 2 full size jars of mothers. That stuff is amazing

[00bmw323]

i left mine the color they were...Silver and polished...but in your case go Color matched

[wheelfetish]

i left mine the color they were...Silver and polished...but in your case go Color matched

Im not a huge fan of color matched rims. Not on a green car at least. Still leaning towards the full polish with purple bolts/caps.

[wheelfetish]

Mine are the original HRE silver... But I have spent countless hours polishing wheels. The best thing to do is take the faces to a sand blaster and have them blast them and then put them in a chemical treatment where it does a wizard polish. That's what I was told it's called. Then take them home with a polish refinish kit and go to work. I would also recommend getting 2 full size jars of mothers. That stuff is amazing

Any idea how to make the plastic caps polished? They're not metal so should I just use chrome spray paint?

[Purp]

Any idea how to make the plastic caps polished? They're not metal so should I just use chrome spray paint?

call your local powder coater and see what the process is on getting plastic to have the chrome/polished look. They may also provide the service of doing that. Which they should. I would recommend that before even thinking of spray painting.

and before you think that is a costly process, it's not.

1. to have the wheels sand blasted and be chemically charged, it was gonna cost me 50 something a wheel.

2.A powder coating process shouldn't be much more than that.

Disclaimer: These are prices I was quoted in Georgia. They may differ in your location

[wheelfetish]

call your local powder coater and see what the process is on getting plastic to have the chrome/polished look. They may also provide the service of doing that. Which they should. I would recommend that before even thinking of spray painting.

and before you think that is a costly process, it's not.

1. to have the wheels sand blasted and be chemically charged, it was gonna cost me 50 something a wheel.

2.A powder coating process shouldn't be much more than that.

Disclaimer: These are prices I was quoted in Georgia. They may differ in your location

The only problem I have is that I can't think of any place around here that has those services. Maaco is the only place that comes to mind for sandblasting and powder coating. And im not too found on there "work". Luckly I know some people who majored in autobody/paint that I can ask.

[Purp]

You can also try asking privately owned auto body shops... Motorcycle shops. anything that has a connection to the customizing world.

[wheelfetish]

I just got off the phone with my buddy from college who has a degree in automotive repair. He told me that after sandblasting, to just do the wheel polishing kit. The chemical treatment just polishes them for you, so its the same thing as the polishing kit but faster. So im going to attempt that tomorrow. As for the plastic center caps, he said that powder coat would be the best option but spray paint plus clear coat will be the second.

[wheelfetish]

So I just got done working on my centers. I started stripping the clear coat off Friday. After about 4 or 5 coats, theres about 10% clear coat still on the rims. I ran out of gloves, so I just took the one rim that had about 2% left on and started to work on that.

It looked like dark grey steel. I took a metal brush and started rubbing the shit out of it for a good 20 minutes. There was a layer of what looked to be some kind of rubber. Im not sure what it was but once that was gone, there was shiny raw metal underneath it. I took my sandpaper and and started to get all of the "rubber" off. That took forever so I grabbed my cordless drill and a sanding wheel and just went to town. So one center is ready to be sanded in steps, then polished. Tomorrow hopefully all the centers will be free of clear coat and roughed sanded. Ill post pics up tomorrow.

[Purp]

hell yeah, man. Glad it's coming together for you.

You should snap some before, during and afters.

[Neb]

not to rain on your polishing parade but just sand blasting and hitting it with compound will not get them as shiny as they could be. Ideally you want to sand them totally smooth going up to 2000 grit before hitting them with the compounds.. I've done my fair share of polishing and I've found this to be the best method. Here's the stuff I've done for reference that I know what I'm somewhat talking about..

Polishing stuff

and some pics: