Sponsored by The Tire Rack

[DTNJNQ]

I think it will look ok.

Here's some photos I found

[Simon_135i]

Im getting my AW in July and I'm powdercoating my rims to either gunmetal or black.... White may just be too much white on the vehicle... but some of those pictures do look really nice

[ptack]

Looks great on the BMW wagon, cheap on the Subaru. In any case it only works if they're clean and, unfortunately, you probably couldn't have picked a worse car to deal with in that regard.

[TP 135i]

I think that it would look fine.
And as far as the brake dust issue..........common folks, the stock wheels show the brake dust after 20 minutes of driving...how much worse could it possibly be ???
I say go for it.

[blackbubblebum]

IMO it takes away some class from a BMW...

[blklacker]

I dont recommend it, I think it will take away from the vehicle.... but if your trying to be unique and it pleases and your happy go for it.

[MVF4Rrider]

Originally Posted by jzhang1013

IMO it takes away some class from a BMW...

There was a stock white 320is I believe that came with white centered basketweave BBS wheels. Outside rim of the wheel was painted silver. Looked great.

[blklacker]

Originally Posted by Balls

There was a stock white 320is I believe that came with white centered basketweave BBS wheels. Outside rim of the wheel was painted silver. Looked great.

was the rim Lip Painted silver?? or chrome. I agree having a white basketweave BBS wheel with a chrome Lip would look pretty snazzy If you cleaned them every day. If the lip was painted silver im not too sure about that, I would have to see a picture of it. But a chrome lip looks great but, again we are talking about poweder coating OEM rims that do not have a lip to chrome or paint.

[redframe85]

haha maybe u wanna get ur tire white as well?!!??
no good at all

[BuddhaTB]

Not a good look. Go with gunmetal color instead.

[wrongprotocol]

i think there would be too much lack-of-contrast...and the brake dust would kill it. i'm already frustrated w/ cleaning my rims after every other drive!

[I-One-Da?]

White on white is the hottness!

I love gunmetal and black wheels but it is starting to be too common. Although I will probably be PC'ing m wheels on my 135 black as soon as I get it.

BTW- $280 for powdercoating is pretty expensive. Maybe it depends on where you are but $50 a wheel is about the running cost unless you are doing a custom color or some type of chrome.

[White Lightning]

I have AW, but I am either going gunmetal or black. I'll post up pics if I get it done before anyone else.

Steven

[blklacker]

Originally Posted by I-One-Da?

White on white is the hottness!

I love gunmetal and black wheels but it is starting to be too common. Although I will probably be PC'ing m wheels on my 135 black as soon as I get it.

BTW- $280 for powdercoating is pretty expensive. Maybe it depends on where you are but $50 a wheel is about the running cost unless you are doing a custom color or some type of chrome.

I have to disagree $280 to powered coat 4 rims is a fair price. I payed a little less than that@ 250 and they did a great job. The reason why the price is fair is because it also includes Sand blasting. Sand blasting is one of the most important preps when it comes to power order coating its time consuming so @ $280 its a pretty good deal.

[I-One-Da?]

Originally Posted by blklacker

I have to disagree $280 to powered coat 4 rims is a fair price. I payed a little less than that@ 250 and they did a great job. The reason why the price is fair is because it also includes Sand blasting. Sand blasting is one of the most important preps when it comes to power order coating its time consuming so @ $280 its a pretty good deal.

I guess it all depends on where you are from then:iono:

I paid $200 for sandblasting, chemical clean, powdercoat, and clear coat on all four wheels plus they powdercoated all 20 of my lug nuts and sandblasted those too. I did not have any type of hookup at this place either. I have had three sets of rims in the last three years done too.

BTW- If a shop quotes you a price without including sandblasting then I would not use that shop. Unless you bring them raw metal wheels it is assumed you will need sandblasting:iono:

[blklacker]

Originally Posted by I-One-Da?

I guess it all depends on where you are from then:iono:

I paid $200 for sandblasting, chemical clean, powdercoat, and clear coat on all four wheels plus they powdercoated all 20 of my lug nuts and sandblasted those too. I did not have any type of hookup at this place either. I have had three sets of rims in the last three years done too.

BTW- If a shop quotes you a price without including sandblasting then I would not use that shop. Unless you bring them raw metal wheels it is assumed you will need sandblasting:iono:

Your rims you had powder-coated BMW rims???? BMW rims traditionally take longer to sandblast, they are not easy to strip, unlike cheaper OEM rims. Even the guy sand blasting admitted it was alot tougher than he expected to do it correctly. They explained to be very clearly if they were example a "honda,mit,toyota" $200 no problem. Since it was a BMW rim they explained the extra work that was required. But who knows maybe they just wanted an extra 50 bucks because I was wearing a suit&tie

[I-One-Da?]

Originally Posted by blklacker

Your rims you had powder-coated BMW rims???? BMW rims traditionally take longer to sandblast, they are not easy to strip, unlike cheaper OEM rims. Even the guy sand blasting admitted it was alot tougher than he expected to do it correctly. They explained to be very clearly if they were example a "honda,mit,toyota" $200 no problem. Since it was a BMW rim they explained the extra work that was required. But who knows maybe they just wanted an extra 50 bucks because I was wearing a suit&tie

I have had OEM Honda, OEM Subaru, and about four or five other aftermarket wheels done in the past. I have never heard such a thing. Plus if you were to go and get a quote for just sandblasting it would be about $10-20 per wheel depending on the place. For them to charge an extra $50 because they are "hard to blast BMW rims" sounds like :bs:

Who makes BMW rims? I think that there are multiple companies that produce OEM rims for BMW. BBS is one of them and I do not believe that BBS would make OEM rims better then say their branded high end wheels like the LM's. Which by the way is one set of wheels I had powdercoated.

Anyways, I am not trying to call you out or anything but it just sounds like they might have taken advantage of you:iono:

That is what these boards are for. To make sure we all get what we are paying for and don't get had:thumbup:

[I-One-Da?]

I also just noticed that your sig says "two toned gunmetal". Another reason yours could have been more is because of the type of powder you choose.

There are a bunch of different powders that can all range in price. Most of the time if you go to a shop they will show you their "stock" colors that are all the same price. These would be the colors that they buy in bulk and can sell cheaper.

I wanted to do a custom bronze powder on my LM's and the shop told me that they would have to order the powder custom and it would cost $400 just to get the company to produce the powder for me. That was an initial cost to create a custom powder to match what I wanted. The $400 would only be charged once for that particular color to be created.

Wierd stuff...

[BMW Dreamer]

This looks awesome!

[r_seng]

IMHO, I would not powder coat OEM wheels. The powder coat process requires that the wheels be heated, therefore compromising the integrity. I have seen many OEM wheels crack and in extreme cases even rip clear off.

Granted that the place you take it to is more professional then just some jacka** with an oven, they should me able to do low temp powdercoating np.

Still I personally would not do this to my own wheels, too much risk and spotty reliability of the work performed.

Heres a picture btw of what CAN happen:

[wrongprotocol]

wow that's sick i've never seen a wheel break clean off like that!

[I-One-Da?]

I agree that there can be risk involved with powdercoating but the risk is very very low. For every 1 picture of wheels like the ones above that have cracked or worse after being powdercoated I can show you probably at least 100 sets that are just fine.

All I can say is research the shop you want to use and try to use shops that specialize in powdercoating. Don't go t some mechanics shop that also does PC'ing unless you know they do good work.