i am the king of run ons and lack of paragraphs
i can tell… :lol
and what do you guys think about my stock wheels, should i get them powdercoated hyper black or bronze?
do black inserts and leave em be
what do you mean by black inserts?
i LOVE this color here…
or this…
a little lighter than this…
I will barter for a sandblasting job… your rims for my car looking a little better. I know you have detailing skills. PM me for more info
Chemical strip the wheels, do not blast them. Blasting results in uneven finish quality. It’s much easier and less time consuming as well. Just use a good aircraft paint stripper available just about everywhere and use a pressure hose to rinse them clean. Follow the instructions and you can’t go wrong. Good paint strippers will remove even the toughest of coatings, including powder coat. Chrome can be blasted, but again with so so results. You can paint directly over chrome as long as you put a good ~400 grit scratch to it and coat with a proper primer.
And I’m always going to pick automotive paint over powder coat on wheels that can see debris abuse. The reason being that while powder coat is more durable than paint once the surface layer is penetrated(chip, deep scratch, etc) it’s very susceptible to blistering and flaking as the coating is durable as a whole film. Automotive paint, when applied properly, is just as durable and unlike PC, can be touched up and sealed very easily.
Also remember that alloy wheels need to be treated before any type of finish coat goes on(paint or powdercoat), otherwise the base material will oxidize and the coating will bubble and fail guaranteed no matter how well the coating was put on. Powder coat and automotive paints are porus and DO allow moisture to penetrate below the surface to the base metal. The wheels need to be sealed, a good epoxy type primer works well for it. PC coated wheels need chemical sealing, products available from PPG and Dupont work excellent. Magnesium wheels are even more susceptible to this stuff…
If they’re crap wheels and you’re just looking to change the color that’s fine, but I’ve never known Volks to be crappy wheels 
Learned all this when finished CNC’ing these wheels below and Pete finally painted them(NOT powercoat)
This
To this
Ill second this, Ive had a few powder coated bike parts over the years and the second a good rock compromises the surface not soon after the rest of the coat goes to hell.
My volks are 100,000% fake haha. I’m not even sure if I’ll be keeping them, I have to do more research on if the offset is best for 100% tracking, the only time I’ll be using them. I think the offset is too high so I’ll be on the search for new track wheels again soon.
But for the meantime, I would like my OEM wheels (the ones in my sig) painted/powdercoated some sort of hyperblack/glossy dark gray. I’d say pretty much exactly like the e46 M3 CSl reps that EAS puts out, the 2nd pic in post #23.
There are a few extremely minor curb rashes/chips/scratches on them from the previous owner, within the next day or so I’ll put up more detailed pictures of them to get your guy’s opinions on what should be done to get them looking 100% again.
Also, my wheels are forged aluminum, will this affect what options for stripping/blasting/painting would be best or does it make no difference?
All the same. Best to strip the entire wheel, then rinse/repeat until every bit of OEM coating is removed(even on the tire side of the lips. Touch up any necessary nicks scratches with appropriate filler(Devcon AL repair works very well for small stuff) then seal the whole rim in one shot, finally coat.
Those are not forged, they’re just cast alloy. The real volks might be forged though.
the stock SE-R wheels are forged though.
oh, word.
yeah, we’re talking about my stock wheels now, seeing as I’m most likely going to sell the “Volks” :lol
EDIT: in hindsight, they MIGHT be cast :nana
paint the insides black leaving just the face as is