Redoing my rims, need paint choice

Dagon · Post by **Dagon** » 07 Jan 2007, 09:25

Given that my Holden HQ's rims had started to rust around the wheelnuts (apparently more from strays pissing on them than anything else, but shrug), I got myself iin gear in nipped the problem in the bud. Anyways, here's what I'm doing to them so far:

-Sanding down and removing all rust, grease and most of the exterior existing paint
-Giving them three coats of hand-applied primer
-Sanding down this primer with some 120 grain sandpaper (to get a near-perfectly smooth surface without ripping up the bare metal or resorting to crappy body filler methods)
-Applying a heavy coat of spray-on Cold Gal
-Giving them under and middlecoats in preperation for the final coat

The final coat will likely be applied via my compressor and be one of chromepaints supplied by DNA-paint.com; but in the meantime (a few months at least), I've got two choices of what sort of paint color to use for the under and middlecoat.

Anyways, I'm undecided between using 'wheel silver', which leaves an 'oxidised alumnium' silver look, or 'chrome repair', which leaves a 'polished stainless steel' look - IE, chrome without as much reflectiveness and a little less 'gloss'.

Which'd look better on an HQ, being a classic '70s pony car? I've tossed the idea of getting them actually chromed because it's ludicrously expensive and weakens the wheels considerably - while the wheels that I've got atm (somebody's custom jobs to begin with, no way to identify them - however, they're somewhat like the rims some Valiant Chargers came with) are very strong, I'm not looking to make them any less so.

steelsnake00 · Post by **steelsnake00** » 07 Jan 2007, 13:03

Polished steel or a dark grey, depending on whether the car is light or dark. Dark = polished steel, light = dark grey.

Dagon · Post by **Dagon** » 07 Jan 2007, 15:48

The color I'm doing it in is a Plymouth color, "Limelight Green", best known for coming out as a popular color on the Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda; so I guess this' a bit in the middle ground between two tones. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... da_340.jpg , if you're interested)

The real thing thing I'm trying to achieve, however, is a balance between the colors' overall parts. Since the car itself is a 70's car its' got big chrome bumpers / grill / etc, so I'd like to the wheels not to clash too much with that.

Toshiro · Post by **Toshiro** » 07 Jan 2007, 19:35

Why not just get new rims?

evilmegamonkey · Post by **evilmegamonkey** » 07 Jan 2007, 22:22

Might be costly. IE buy them, have them put on, maybe something is wrong with them e.t.c.

Dagon · Post by **Dagon** » 08 Jan 2007, 02:28

New rims are expensive - unless you want some POS alloys, to get some good 'muscle car' rims such as Cragars or Welds you're looking at about 3000-4000 dollars, with another 3000 for the wide tires they're generally designed for.

These rims I've got as-is have the wide tires, but since they're not -quite- as wide, they're less expensive. Furthermore, these rims, being apparently custom, aren't very easy to replace with a new identical pair.

Sil-Eighty · Post by **Sil-Eighty** » 08 Jan 2007, 02:31

just get one and get the other one your next pay day

xHaZxMaTx · Post by **xHaZxMaTx** » 08 Jan 2007, 02:53

Rice! I can't tell you how many cars I've seen with only stock rims in the front/back because the owner didn't have enough money to pay for all of them at once.

korge · Post by **korge** » 08 Jan 2007, 02:56

xHaZxMaTx wrote:Rice! I can't tell you how many cars I've seen with only stock rims in the front/back because the owner didn't have enough money to pay for all of them at once.

Rofl.. It looks hilarious

Try doing this. Put the two aftermarket wheels on your passenger side, so people on your right wont know your driver side wheels are stock.

Toshiro · Post by **Toshiro** » 08 Jan 2007, 03:00

Or get hubcaps and claim you were in an accident and blew a tire.

korge · Post by **korge** » 08 Jan 2007, 03:27

Toshiro wrote:Or get hubcaps and claim you were in an accident and blew a tire.

Ooh, Go to the junkyard and just get 4 black spares.

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 08 Jan 2007, 03:29

Dagon wrote:they're somewhat like the rims some Valiant Chargers came with

So are they like kidney-bean wheels?

A better description would help . . . how many slots do they have?

xHaZxMaTx wrote:Rice! I can't tell you how many cars I've seen with only stock rims in the front/back because the owner didn't have enough money to pay for all of them at once.

That's usually because the owner does/tries to do burnouts frequently, or at least wants to look like they do

Tuners Rock · Post by **Tuners Rock** » 08 Jan 2007, 13:41

Personally, id go with black rims, as long as there 5 spokes, anything else just stick with anything but that chrome.