The wheels really needed a refurb. A previous owner had just gone over them with a spray can of black which I guess was a quick and cheap way to make them look a bit better.  They clearly hadn’t been prep’d as the paint was starting to fall off and I have a feeling they weren’t even taken off the car to be painted.  They’d also seen a kerb or two in their time so I thought I’d see what I could do with them.

I spent ages trying to decide on a colour.  I could have just gone with black again but it’s nice to change things to make them your own when you can.  I thought about anthracite but then I always really like a Bronze wheel on a Jap car. My wife was all for keeping them blaaaaack though and I couldn’t convince her about the bronze. She said ‘brown’ wheels will look rubbish! She was ok with anthracite though.  After a bit of interwebbing I found a fiat colour that others have used which looks pretty close to the proper anodised bronze colour but I also found a BMW colour which is on the anthracite side of bronze. So as a compromise and slightly chickening out of going full ‘brown’ then having to keep hearing ‘I told you so’I bought some of the BMW colour along with some primer and matte finish lacquer.

The actual colour is BMW Sepang Bronze. Paint code: A32.

The paint arrived so I got started.  Popped all the plastic fake split rim bolts out first.

 

a proper clean

 

some masking

 

grinding the worst of the rim damage out

 

a bit of filler

 

then sanded down along with the whole wheel. Took ages! 

paint

 

two down, two to go…

 

Done. Just need some bolts to fit back in the holes on the rim.

All back on the car.  I’m happy with the colour and glad I didn’t just go with black.

I got some stainless bolts, fiber washers and nylock nuts a few days later.

Pretty happy overall for about 60 quids worth of paint and 20 quids worth of bolts etc.