Well...it's almost time to rotate them tires again and while they're off, I thought I would spruce up the paint job here. Any thoughts on what color I should try next? I'm deciding between glossy black (I've seen at least one forum member do this to their 8 and it looked pretty good), a darker bronze, or a metallic dark gray (gunmetallish?).

So far, it has taken me a little over an hour to sand off 40% of 1 rim. Makes me feel good that the paint job I put on wants to stay on. I sanded down the factory paint pretty fast, but this is giving me a tough time. I'm gonna sand it down with 100 grit, wet sand with 220 grit, and use a 400 grit to finish everything. I'm thinking this will take me the better part of this week (3 hours each day after work).

I'll keep you guys posted on the progress. I think I'll be done sanding by Thursday, hopefully.

 

Gloss black, gloss black!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I vote flat black, and brush/machine the lip!

 

Black with a polished lip?

 

To hell with sanding, aircraft paint stripper will take that stuff right off.

 

Finally able to get pictures up. I guess the paint had a bit of bronze in it afterall...so not completely gunmetal. Enjoy.

 

I really respect you for going ahead and doing this. But I gotta say,I'm not so sure about these compared to the previous color you did. It could be the photos, but they just look dirty.

But like I said. I really respect that you are being so adventerous.

 

i think the issue is the tires are so not black. hit them with some areo 303 and get them looking good again.

beers

 

you should do the lugs a color too, I dont like the bronze with the silver.

 

Lugs will be painted black when I have some time...but want to take care of the other rims first. Yah, I just sprayed it with water before taking the picture. Gonna shine up the tires and wash the rims thoroughly before snapping pics next time. I do kinda like the gold more...but everyone needs a little change, right?

I'm just dissappointed with the bronzish color. When I test sprayed it onto a piece of paper, it looked like gunmetal to me. Live and learn I guess. Oh well...I'll snap some more pics after I install Tanabe springs and Whiteline swaybars (expecting to get them this Thursday and installed this Saturday) :D :D :D

 

Sorry... but with this color, all it looks like is your rims need to be washed badly.

 

bluntly put... i don't like them and look too dull and dirty. you should switch back to your old color my friend or buy some aftermarket rims. but i got mad respect for you taking the risk of painting and experimenting :D good luck!

 

tire shine is your friend

 

Like the other members, it takes a lot of guts to do this work yourself to your stockies -- kudos.

Regarding the rims, I'm not feeling them. They don't seem to add anything to your car and even take away a little since, IMO, the color comes across as just dirty.

Can we suggest colors for next time?

 

those aren't painted, they're just covered in brake dust! when are you going to post pics of the painted ones? :D (just kidding, I appreciate the effort it takes to even try it, probably just need to test spray and research the color just a tad more and I bet you'd find something pretty sick )

 

Ew.
But if you like them...

 

Not feeling it either... then again maybe it looks a little better in person. Just an idea, since you don't fear painting your stockers... how about trying some of the Duplicolor MetalCast products?
http://duplicolor.com/products/metalcast.html

Maybe the Smoke would be a little more "gun-metalish"?