Bought a set of alloys off a spares or repairs abarth, they weren't in the best of condition but after sanding, sanding, sanding and some more sanding (manually) and some decisions and experiments with paints colours and so on, I decided on this

Whats your thoughts?

looks ok dude..... but not my cuppa..... have you thought about hydrodipping them?

looks good .. how did you get it to look like this ? like how did you make the top coat crack to show the base coat ?

Looks like what happens when something goes horribly wrong with my painting

If you managed to get that look on purpose, then you've done well!

-Alex

I did think about dipping them as my mate has started doing it for his refurb business, but he was going to charge me full price so decided to do it myself with a paint called crackle its by a company called plastikote basically the process was

1. prime them in white for a brighter gold crackle
2. spray the base coat which was gold in my case
3. finally you spray the top coat, but this needs to be done whilst the base is still tacky otherwise the paint wont crackle, 1 thick-ish coat will give you the best result in my opinion

Not really my thing, it just looks like the paints reacted.

However, each to their own matey and it'll probably look better once you've lacquered them.

Daz.

Flatcap68 said:

Not really my thing, it just looks like the paints reacted.

However, each to their own matey and it'll probably look better once you've lacquered them.

Daz.

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That's exactly what I thought at first, but getting it to happen reliably is quite a skill the "thick coat" will have provided the solvents for the reaction. A thick coat without runs is tricky.

Personally, I think any wheels which have a special effort put in deserve credit. They have got to be better than standard old scratched-up silver...

Maybe a nice two-pack (with hardener) clearcoat to impart a durable shine?

-Alex

Personally, I think any wheels which have a special effort put in deserve credit. They have got to be better than standard old scratched-up silver...

Maybe a nice two-pack (with hardener) clearcoat to impart a durable shine?

Click to expand...

Yeah, deffo, he's put some time in to them and if he loves them, who am I to argue, lol!

Ignore me, I'm 44 so I'm a bit of a traditionalist. I only like black wheels on certain cars, haha. And I loath black wheels on black cars, or matte paint finishes, especially matte black, it just looks like it's in primer and hasn't been finished.

I'll get me coat!

Daz.

Flatcap68 said:

Ignore me, I'm 44 so I'm a bit of a traditionalist. I only like black wheels on certain cars, haha. And I loath black wheels on black cars, or matte paint finishes, especially matte black, it just looks like it's in primer and hasn't been finished.

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I actually agree on all those points, wasn't trying to kick you out - sorry! actually I have a complex about my own wheels having turned out too black... I put on many coats of translucent silver but they ended up darker than I wanted. I thought they would disguise the brake dust but actually, they show it up worse!

I will be sticking with standard silver on my other cars but at least my Stilo is a bright colour so I think darker wheels are more tolerable. My wheels are on the thread https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/315847-painting-my-wheels.html and your thoughts will be welcome there too EDIT: sorry, actually meant the thread https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/325...ad-shadow-chrome.html?highlight=Shadow+chrome would be where opinions would be useful, as I was thinking of re-doing my wheels like those!

-Alex

It's cool mate, I didn't think you were

I like the anthracite colours, especially on flat bold coloured cars, like your blue, or the yellow etc. My mate has a red 156 GTA with anthracite GTA wheels and any other color just wouldn't suit it at all, they're so right for that car. I think yours look good, top job refurbing them too.

As I mentioned, mine deffo need doing, I've considered a light anthracite colour for then instead of plain silver, we'll see. I'm lucky I have access to a spray booth and equipment, so if it does go wrong I can always paint then silver again.

Daz.