Ok, I am torn as to what to do.

Should I keep the rims that came with my car and get them powdercoated black?

Or should I just wait and get the black z06 wheels later when I can afford the rims and new tires?

 

Chromed wheels would be expensive to powder coat correctly because they'd have to strip them.

 

Thats a tough call, I think it comes down to which wheel design fits your liking the best.

 

man them 16's look to small to me, go with the 17" z06's.

 

I found myself in the same predicament.... and here's an easy answer

the tires that you have on the rims now... how much tread is left? if it's over 25%, you shouldn't be looking at new rims and tires yet...

 

If you want black rims, I'd just paint them so you can satisfy your black rim look. Painting is cheap, can easily be redone, and is a good temporary fix until you can get the exact rims you are looking for. So my vote would be waste no money on powdercoating, paint em and save your $$ for the new set. Thats what I did

 

yeah, I still have 50% tread left on my tires. That is why I cant justify buying new rims and tires yet.

hey stroked...what kinda paint did you use on your rims? And did you have to take the tires off or did you just cover them up?

I know I want 17" z06 rims and will probably have them within a year or so. I just want something different until then.

 

At autozone or some place equilavent, they have actual rim spray paint. When I painted my stock salad shooters, I just used a couple of black gloss rattle cans from walmart. I did about 4 coats and never had any chips....and I took these things thru their paces.

In terms of painting, I masked off 3 of the 4 tires, but it took about 30 min worth of taping and whatnot so the last one I said hell w/ it. I found that you *should* mask the tire off, but if you don't want, one of those green scotch-brite pads will scuff the paint right off....even around the numbers on the tires. It would be easiest for you to have them de-tired while you paint..but it isn't necessary IMHO.

Worst case you mess up the paint...throw on some brake cleaner/thinner and you are back to your start. The only issue you may have is you are painting chrome...so you'll have to sand it a bit for the paint to stick...definitely prime it first! If you have any other q's or want some pics...I have some...gimme a PM and I'll go into more detail.
Good luck bud... I think the black rims w/ your tint and black tail/turns would be perfect....but I am bias'd

 

OK, I think I will check out autozone today and see what they have.
Do I need to clear coat them after I paint them or will it be glossy enough without it?

I guess I will leave the tires on but just mask them up and tape them. I dont really want to have to do all that clean up on them. I just hope they wont look trashy painted. That is my main concern with painting.

 

If in the future you plan on new wheels & tires, I would not do anything that would damage the resale value of the present wheels. Painting them, would reduce there value for someone else. Plan on a resale now to offset your future costs. My opinion

 

Very true to what he said...if you plan on re-selling these rims down the road...I'd just leave them. But if you don't care about the re-sale and plan on using the rims for drag tires...who cares. You do have a good set of rims on there where as I had my extra set of salad shooters just sitting there mocking me!

I didn't do any clear on mine...like I said prob 3 coats of primer, and 4 of gloss black. Probably the best part of having my rims black was the fact that you don't see any brake dust on the rims...made it seem cleaner IMHO.


Bottom line do what you want, but like 87DJP2001 said, painting is going to severely limit your ability to re-sell em. If you really wanna set of black 5 spoke lookin rims...I have an old set off a 96 trans-am. They are the 16" size and have a bit of curb rash but if you'd want em...Id ship them for just the shipping costs. Otherwise I am just going to pitch em. You always have options! Keep them open.

:EDIT: Painting is all about the prep work...get a good coat of primer on there, and then lightly coat the color coats and everyone will ask you "where'd you get those wheels powdercoated at"

 

Something else I thought of that you might look into is Whistler's headlight mod on the 98-02 style headlights...It'd make your headlights darker like the rest of your car would be.
I even found the link: Enjoy buddy...if you are like me, you are gonna paint something!
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/224386/2

 

oh believe me. I think the rims are too small too....but so is my savings account.
I will eventually have the 17" black z06 rims that I want, but it will probably be a year from now. I just want to do something different for now.

Stroked, That headlight conversion looks great. I think I will be doing that this weekend.