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Originally Posted by chris82
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Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob
Wheels arrived today from the powder coater. I took them all out of the box to inspect the finish, and I'm quite happy with the result.
I snapped a pic outside - it's overcast, so diffuse natural light. I popped an APEX center cap in for comparison. The center cap is a "carbon fiber look" sticker, so I thought it would be helpful to compare the gray to the bronze. It would've been better if I had an extra BMW center cap laying around, since the roundel would've provided a reference we could all understand, but no such luck. Anyway, here it is:
I still feel like the pics don't quite do the color justice. In certain light and from certain angles, the color can look almost gunmetal-ish, but other times it's a nice, rich bronze. So far, though, it doesn't seem too gaudy or shiny, although I imagine they probably will look more "metallic" in bright direct sunlight. I'm eager to see the finished product and really see how they work with the car's paint.
Wheels are back in the box for now. I won't have them mounted until this winter at the earliest, and possibly not until next winter. The autocross season here runs until early December, and last year I heard temps dropped pretty low afterwards, even freezing and lightly snowing a couple of days. So if this year is a repeat of last, I would think about retiring the RE-71R's until it warmed up again. |
I thought it was gunmetal at first, but regardless they look good. What did your powder coating cost? The job looks nice |
It really doesn't look as gunmetal-y IRL, but I suppose it's good that the bronze sometimes looks subtle because I really didn't want it to be over the top.
The refinishing was expensive - $600 - partly because I had to custom order powder and partly because I had very few choices in my area, and I went with the one that looked like the best. I could've shipped further for less expensive work, but then shipping costs would've gone up, obviously. If I were in a large metro area I would've had a number of local places to choose from.