Steel grey pearlescent wheel powder coat, Continental ExtremeContact DW tires -
February 2015
I've been wanting to ditch the matte black wheels for a dark gloss grey or gunmetal for a while. Found a great local power coating shop that specializes in wheels, chose from a wide range of finishes, landed on steel grey pearlescent, 80% gloss. They look grey in the direct sun, and dark, almost black, in the shade. The pearl really pops when you are up close, pictures don't do it much justice. I tried to roughly match the bumper valences. $75 per wheel, also bought some new lug bolt caps on Amazon while I was at it for a whopping $8.
And the backstory... it started when I had the brakes done. I do most work myself, but brakes are one place I like to leave to the professionals. While at the shop, one of the wheels hit a lift (dropped I presume), and took out a nice chunk leaving blue paint behind. Brought the car back to the shop the next day, they owned up to their mistake, and agreed to repair and repaint that one wheel. I'd been wanting to change the color anyways, so we decided that I would pay for 3 wheels, they'd pay for the one, and I would work with the powder coating shop to get the color I wanted. Picked out a color, brought a work order with a paint code back to the mechanic with my wheels, and they were to get it all done and let me know when ready. What was supposed to be 2 to 3 days stretched into 10. I finally got a call that the powder coating was done, but the mechanic had lost my tires. There was some confusion and miscommunication between managers and employees, someone thought they were being scrapped and new tires put on, whatever. The tires were on their last legs anyways, probably had about 10% tread left, so I was due. Finally came to an agreement that I would be able to get brand new tires at cost -10%, and no charge for mount/balance. Fine, that works, let me at least see the wheels with the new color I picked out... wheels were black again. Another screw up by the mechanic. Without telling me, he decided to go to a different powder coating shop, and didn't think about the fact that I had picked out a specific color. Plus it was a poor paint job as it was, I image it was cheaper. I was pretty pissed at this point, and decided to take care of it myself, took the wheels and a check for the portion the mechanic was to pay, and delivered to the correct powder coater myself. Wheels were ready the next day, had the tires installed that afternoon, and I was back in business. It was a major headache, and I won't be going to that mechanic again, that's for sure. In the end, it worked out ok for me though, I got brand new tires at a huge discount, and only had to pay to powder coat 3 of 4 wheels.
The damaged wheel:
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Originally Posted by Cloudg8
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