InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

*For those wanting the short version skip to the next asterisk*

I found a set of trashed ROH wheels real cheap locally. I'd wanted a set of these for quite a while and they dont make them anymore so I was excited about finding them. But they had some HORRIBLE curb rash on two of them.

I decided to bondo the curb rash and paint them hyper black. I love hyperblack. But unfortunately the hyperblack stuff costs quite a bit of money to do properly so I'm reconsidering. So I was thinking about powdercoating these wheels. But I've already bondo'd them up. You cant really powdercoat bondo. I found a few minutes ago this stuff called "Lab Metal" that would have been PERFECT for fixing the curb rash and powder coating over, but it's too late for that now.

After I brought them home:


This is what two of em look like now... sanded to 220, no curb damage anymore:



Bondo isn't the easiest to work with for this stuff, but it looks much, much better. And honestly even as it sits it looks way better now with the bondo in it than it did without it. Im willing to roll just like this after polishing these up. It's just not THAT noticable.

Also tires are mounted from the back side on these wheels, so the bondo shouldn't get damaged from the mounting/balancing process. And I considered that the bondo would throw off the balance of the wheel, but the way I see it, it's replacing material that's already missing, how bad could it really be? I cant imagine bondo is heavier than metal.

So here I am at a crossroads. Hyperblack is going to be a far more expensive proposition than I expected. SO I can either roll like this, paint the whole wheel gray, paint just the lip some sort of gray. I was thinking Duplicolor metalcast or something... but I dont know that it would look right at all. You never see painted lips and polished centers. That's just weird, IMO. I figure I could paint just the face of the lip a gray color, but Im not sure I'd like that too much.

So then it hit me... what if I painted them white? Is that that ridiculous? I prefer a metal looking wheel myself... but white might be cool. It'd be pretty unique, and I could always strip it in a year or two and do the hyper black thing...

*****

So what do you guys think of white wheels? Any other colors you guys would suggest? I personally HATE black wheels. That's not an option at all.

Here are some examples of white wheels. Im just worreid they look like a bit [word that rhymes with "nicer"]-ish.








I think that my car being bright red, and not metallic red, would actually look better with white wheels than an all metallic-finish car. The two I linked work because they've got white stripes and that blue is gorgeous anyway. But my car is going to be repainted next spring so it'll look pretty good then. The only problem is I lack white accents on the car to match it... Not a fan of full body stripes on thirdgens, and it's hard to get heritage style stripes to look right on a cowl hood. We'll see.

So what do you guys think? Am I crazy? I know this is pretty unheard of in our circles... but given my options I think it might be the best one available. It's pretty unique though, so Im sure I'll get flack for even thinking of it, but Im starting to think white wheels would look pretty cool. And the idea would still be to strip and go to Hyper black later on probably. Love hyper black...

JMR

honestly i do not think it looks all that bad

i know the full lip is not painted but close enough

hedberg667

White wheels are hit and miss. I think black would be your best bet but white looks killer on some cars. If your car is bright red and has the fresh paint look then i think if would definitely work. But if the paint is faded like mine is then i think it would look a little sketch

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

Well... the paint is presentable but not great. Hence getting repainted in the spring.





But the wheels will likely be on there before it sees paint so...

That's what I was afraid of too.

usamuscle892

Paint the spokes gun metal gray and leave the lip polished.

92z28camarokid

iTrader: (4)

Oreillys sells black wheel paint and clear for it. I am a huge fan of black wheels so I would go black. I've got the same wheels as InfernalVortex and I painted them all black except for the center cap. It looks copo, I will most likely paint the center caps black too, but I reallly want some black 5spoke rims.

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

Cant do that. The whole point is that the lip needs to be painted. The lip has to be painted to cover up the filler I used for the curb rash. No way around that.

Either way, I've decided I will paint only the lip around the wheel a metallic silver color, and leave the rest of the wheel polished. If that ends up looking goofy I'll paint teh whole thing metallic silver.