I thought about going to aftermarket wheels for my RX-8.

I had seen the polished aluminum ones, but they were a bit too bright for my tastes, and besides polished and chrome wheels have been done to death I think..

Then i had a thought.. I work with a company that does powder epoxy baked finishes, and a couple of months back they were finishing some snow shovels for one of their customers. The shovels were aluminum ( meant as an emergency shovel for keeping in the trunk of a car) and they had polished them, then coated in this baked epoxy which is transparent clear, but with a colour in it.

I thought it looked quite nice.

I decided to investigate this and found that this coating material comes in a few colours, Yellow, Red, Blue, dark silver, black, and so on. I looked at a sample of the blue, and it was very close to the colour of my Winning Blue RX-8.

Hmmm.

So, i decided to get one of my wheels stripped of the original epoxy finish, polished, then coated with the transparent blue epoxy, and another coat of clear.

The following photos show the process and the result.

 

After stripping theold finish i had the wheel polished at a local shop that does metal polishing.
The aluminum comes up to a nice finish.
This is fresh polished, with no coating on it yet.

 

one more polished shot

 

One more time..

 

Now with the finish:

 

Another:

 

transperant blue??? hmmmm that might make or break your car... pics pleez

 

S'More:

 

ok nevermind your still posting..hmmmm i've never seen that b-4..its different...

 

Last one:

 

So, what do you think?

 

I've never like the matching you car wheels to your car thing much, but it's really hard to judge until they are on the car. The whole monochromatic rage from some time bacj really bugged me though. The dark might have looked nice, how difficult is it to do and what are the chances of seeing a wheel done with the dark epozy?

 

looks crazy

got any pics with them on your 8

 

I do not have pics with them on the car yet.

This one wheel is all I did so far as an experiment.
I like it, so I will be doing the other three now.

I will not be putting them on the car until spring, so I can't post that until maybe sometime in March or April.

We get a pretty long winter here..

 

thats a long time to wait

 

That's pretty cool, Maurice. I kind of like the plain polished look. Do you know about how much it would cost to get someone to just give the stock painted rims the polished look?

 

It seems like your mind is always working. Were you born this way or was this acquired somewhere along the way?

 

Oh your killing me ZOOMER>..we have to wait that long to see this....UGH!!!...ok ok...

that is kinda wild though..i like the look of that blue on the wheels, i'm anxious to see it's contrast with the car...although..just the plain polished aluminum looked mighty fresh and clean also...nice idea...

 

I don't know..

The whole thing left me feeling just a little BLUE...


Vince

 

It costs me about $220 Canadian to have the tire removed, wheel stripped of the old finish, and polished. That is about $168 U.S.

Then finishing a wheel afterwards (even polished needs a finish of 2 coats of clear) costs $65 Canadian ( about $50 US)

Total cost per wheel: $285 Canadian / $220 U.S.

So, if anyone were to want their wheels refinished I could have it done for them for $1,000 U.S., including handling, packing, running the parts around for the work to be done, paperwork, and so on.

That is in clear over polished, clear colours, or solid colours.

 

If you mean"Why did I investigate this finish idea?"
Simple:
1) I wanted different wheels or appearance.
2) The stock wheels are pretty decent quality and weight, just look boring.
3) The stock wheels are not too expensive from dealers, so selling them leaves little cash for new wheels.
4) Through my business I have contacts in metal finishing.
5) Through my hobby I have contacts in auto stuff.
6) The wheels are off for the winter, sitting in my basement just taking up space.

So..

 

True. Polished looks sharp, but it is so "done already".
I wanted something more interesting.

And the RX-8 is not a "chrome machine" so I prefer colours.

At least I did not cover it in ricey paint like those cars in the shows. I don't like "ricey looking"

The clear colours gives you the same highlights as simple clear, but colour matched to the car.

One could also use contrasting colours. Gunmetal for example.

 

I think the only way to make judgement is to see them on the car - so post some pics please

Anthony

 

I wonder how the gold mag rim's from mazda speed would
look on my winning blue rx8.. anyone have pics of that?

 

Thanks for the info! I may consider that. It's probably cheaper than buying all new wheels anyway. I like the style of the Mazda wheel, just would prefer the polished look.