Photoshopped Ideas Inside, Refinishing Expensive CCW Wheels, Thoughts?

[josh99ta]

I'm already daily driving the GTO on the stock 17s and plan to swap the CCWs back onto it when I get locking lug nuts, a security system, and the wheels refinished in the near future.

The fully polished finish it just too much to keep up with on a daily driver but with some very minor work to eliminate the problem areas they'll be no worse than keeping up with the paint. The lips are staying fully polished, the centers and barrels of the wheels are where I'm going to do the refinishing to cut down on all the nooks and crannies that make keeping them polished such a pain.

This is obviously a huge decision so I'm looking for all the input I can get so i dont screw up a very expensive set of wheels. Right now it takes me 30 minutes to give the car a good cleaning and get it clean and about an hour to polish the wheels out and get them clean so I'm looking to level that time out a bit more. Here is an initial picture of the car as well as the options with photoshops to accompany them...

Fully polished (as is):
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/1425/sdsc0127pgn5.jpg

Silver centers/polished lip (like this car (http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173208)):
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4713/sdsc0127xk2.jpg

Arthracite centers/polished lip (like this car (http://www.iforged.com/showroom/main.php?g2_itemId=1342&g2_page=2)):
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9194/sdsc0127axy4.jpg

Black centers/polished lip (like this car (http://www.iforged.com/showroom/main.php?g2_itemId=4218)):
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4705/sdsc0127bph0.jpg

Polished lips and faces/black spoke sides and barrels (35th Camaro SS wheel style):
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9719/sdsc0127ibsp7.jpg

Polished lips and faces/silver spoke sides and barrels (same as the 35th SS style except silver):
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4936/sdsc0127isvn0.jpg

To me the fully polished looks best, but again its just too much to keep up with on a daily driver.

COMPLETE CENTERS: The anthracite centers look completely off on my car's color IMO. The silver centers would look classy and be extremely easy to keep up with. If I refinish the entire centers of the wheels I'm leaning heavily towards this even though the black centers do look sick (I'm not going to refinish a set of CCWs for a GTO in black, just not going to happen, did the 'chop though just to see).

SPOKE SIDES AND BARRELS: Far more subtle than the fully refinished centers and while it would be a little more work it keeps the polished look and saves my fingers in the areas I absolutely hate polishing, in between the splits of the spokes and in between the spokes as well as the barrels. The silver looks, well, meh. The black sides and barrels in 35th SS style looks killer IMO. Out of all the options I think this is by far my best bet to retain the great looks of the car as is but make it easier to maintain. If anything it may even make the polished face of the spokes and the lips stand out even more and the black would also go with my black accents (windows, grilles, splitter, side markers, etc).

So right now I'm heavily, heavily leaning towards the polished faces and lips with the black spoke sides and barrels. Just looking for some more input from everyone just to see what the general concensus is.

[gregorykicks]

The black spokes polished lip ones look nearly as good as fully polished, and I'm not sure that black spoke sides and barrels will look right.. far away they'll look like polished ones pretty much but close up they'll look weird.

[Disney Lincoln]

Is chrome out of the question? Easy to clean and even more BLING.

[Moody]

Man, in all honesty - you need to be really careful with your decision on these wheels. If you go gunmetal or black spokes, you're really going to cheapen them, and they're going to look like some Motegi knock-off - cheap and trying to be something that they're not (but they really are, which is the sad part).

Polish them entirely, or please leave them chrome. Perhaps the black accents on the insides of the spokes, but no grey/black centers. My Advans are like that, and I'm so sick of them. I wish that I'd gotten 100% chrome or red centers, or even gold these days... every kiddo is rockin' the gunmetal grey centers with polished lips, and it's hard to differentiate between quality wheels and $800-with-tires included discount bull****.

[floyd4ford]

Is chrome out of the question? Easy to clean and even more BLING.

Im with disney if I couldnt chrome them I wouldnt do anything to them. Why not just leave the other wheels on while you are driving it daily.

[josh99ta]

Too much trouble to swap back and forth all the time.

Chrome is not an option. Its expensive and it pits and flakes and is just not durable at all not to mention it adds significantly more weight. And I dont like chrome that much either, way too blingy.

Painting the centers is basically out of the question but I photoshopped it just for comparison's sake. Right now the sides and barrels stay pretty dirty even when the faces and lips are fully polished so honestly I think doing those in black would make the wheels look more clean overall and help the faces and lips pop even more. You'd barely notice it as its really not that big of an area but it would really make cleaning them alot easier and the wheels wouldn't look as bad between polishes.

I doubt I'll powdercoat though as thats tough to come back from. At least if I get them painted and change my mind I can always hit them with some stripper and thinner and take them back to full polished.

[Fairlane]

I like the Arthracite centers and polished lip...but black centers look good as well.

[Tungsten]

Sell them and buy wheels that have the look you want. Chances are you'll make more on the sale than it will cost you to get the two-tone wheels if what Moody says is accurate.

Just a thought.

[wax]

this one is badass.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4705/sdsc0127bph0.jpg

[Bob-E]

I get red xs, but without looking at them -- leave them alone. They look good as is imo

[Disney Lincoln]

I'd stay polished then. get some ZOOPS polish and sealer for them. They will stay polished a LOT longer even on a DD car. For wheels that nice, it's cheap insurance. On our racing wheels, they would require about weekly polishing since they aren't as finely made as your wheels. Even still, with Zoops they can go a year of abuse before they need polished again and even then they aren't very bad at all.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=ZSP%2D9550&N=700+400003+4294922165+115&autoview=sku

[lloyd]

Polish the hell out of them, then get a clearcoat sprayed over them. Then they'll clean up with soap & water. iForged used to offer clearcoated polished finish as an option on their wheels but I don't think they do anymore.

That's what sucks about polished wheels, I'll never buy another set.

[Bob-E]

I see the pics now. Definately keep the wheels and keep them as is. Balck centers + polished lip is played out imo. Save your money up and move out of your burglary prone apartment complex.

[QuickSilverZ]

I had a set of those wheels, so I understand how much trouble they are too polish. However the fully polished version definitely looks better on your car. I am a fan of black centers, but the polished still looks better. The black sides and barrels would probably be OK, but the change would be subtle. Not worth the cost IMO. For that cost you could pay someone to polish the wheels for 6 months.

What are you using to polish the wheels? You might try changing your polish or technique and see if that prolongs the shine. I used to use Wenol, but then switches over to Semichrome. I have some new stuff at the house that I have yet to try. You can also try the mothers billet polish with a polishing ball, I use that on my truck wheels. A coat of Zaino after a good polish job will has help protect the finish.

[jamtoy]

Black centers/wheels are over played imo. I like the second pic with teh anthricite.

[josh99ta]

Right now all options are out but these three...

35th SS style, polished lips and faces with black painted barrels and spoke sides. It'll make the faces and lips of the wheels pop even more, tie in with my black accents, and make them far easier to clean.

Same as 35th SS style but with brushed barrels and spoke sides. Brushed aluminum is basically sanded aluminum but you can clear it whereas clear wont adhere to a fully polished finish. This would basically keep the wheels near exactly as they look now but I think the black barrels and sides would look better and be easier to maintain.

Chrome. Although I'd have to find a place that really, really, really knew their **** and could assure me that they'd do a top notch job. Chrome plating is a pain to get right and have last and the thing I hate about chrome is that once its blemished it cant be fixed again. Right now if I accidentally curb a wheel I can sand the polished finish out and repolish it and you'd never know it happened. With chrome I'd have get the whole wheel rechromed. I also prefer the duller shine of polished over chrome by a long shot. Chrome looks almost cheap to me in person. Overly blingy.

Right now I think I'm going to try the 35th SS style finish and see how it looks. If it doesn't look right I can always strip the paint off and be right back at fully polished wheels or I could have them chromed at that point. It offers me more outs in case I do it and it doesn't look right.

[Mr. Pink]

Polish. Maybe German.

[Lowerd1]

I vote ZOOPs because those rims look great as is.