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[nsjames]

Originally Posted by Torgus

I can't wait for the total hours invested.

Wheels are starting to look nice!

I stopped counting at 90.

it just makes you feel dumb for not paying someone to do it.

lips orange peeled. I suspect it was the sealant in the polish, or that first batch I didn't get quite thin/hot enough.

the barrels and backs are flawless of course.

I'm going to try and sand/polish out the peel on the lips, but I suspect they're going to end up re sprayed.

If it doesn't go well after a second helping I'm out of paint and I'll just polish them back to bare metal.

we're learning and having fun!


and this is dumb and you shouldn't ever do it. j

[nsjames]

here's the lip.


that's pretty representative of all of it.

but like I said, barrels are mint.

[nsjames]

well now it's just picking which color I like.

leaning towards the gold on the left.


that was at 47.4 volts.
more testing and viewing tomorrow in the daylight.

[nsjames]

well I've determined that the orange peel issue was definitely a prep issue and not a paint issue.

paint film held together, it's just not stuck to the metal.


good news is that makes it easy to remove.


Where the center sits was not heavily polished because I was lazy, so the paint stuck there. So I'll leave it underneath where it's not visible, strip the lips with a putty knife and then polish the shit out of them and seal them.

Looks like I just signed myself up for annual wheel polishing.

everywhere else the paint is stuck and the finish is good. a quick go over with the polisher and that will all look like glass.

cars is a fun hobby. everyone should do it.

[pennychow]

look nice! can't wait to see the end product!

[nsjames]

probably gonna go with the lighter gold color.
I'm going to see if my tumbler will polish them after coloring.

me being me I've managed to lose one.

fuck.

[nsjames]

valve stem game on point.


edit:
and i did not misplace bolt. I thouht I did and after an hour of looking/cleaning for it I decided to count how many I had and yep, all 76.
:homer:

and tumbler didn't do jack to the oxide coating, but a good coating of oil makes them shine. It's almost like parkerizing I guess.
so I'll probably soak all the bolt heads in oil after they're done so they've gt some shine.

[pennychow]

it is awesome !!
thanks for sharing with us

[nsjames]

you've got to have options.

[nsjames]

the contenders:

[nsjames]

other decisions were made.



final answer. it's matched to the roundel. obviously.

and test batches were simple. try matching them between batches and it gets interesting.

[nsjames]

gentle people.





that's a completely assembled set of wheels.

if you're about to ask me how long it took, the answer is too long.
I know that I had some levity eariler in the thread, but this is 100% real talk.
It will take far longer than you think.
It will cost more money than you budget.
You will question your decision making process halfway through.
Your wife will hate wheels.
It will consume more hours of your life than you ever thought possible because you can't just half ass it after you've stopped counting the hours you'e already invested.
The scope creep is real, and extensive.

that said, I do have a one off set of style 71 wheels that I refinished myself from curb rashed pieces of shit, and that's pretty cool.

[Torgus]

Real talk.

They look bad ass. Congrats man! Get some pics of them on the car!

[nsjames]

obviously I'm pretty chuffed with myself, so suffer through more photos.

ceramic coated the whole shebang.

[nsjames]

[dakine_surf]

Rad Project... I keep telling myself that I want to pick up a set of thrashed (insert 2/3 piece here) but have managed to keep myself from actually doing it.

Yeah I know it would be better just to pay someone... yeah it's not worth the headache, but there is something cool about a one-off set that you put a bunch of work into... maybe it's just me but I like making ugly stuff pretty again even though I hate it while it's happening.

Loving the blue... bronze and the yellow/green was cool too... I used to anodize ti back in the day when I liked to mod my higher-end knives... but it was all guess work and some daisy-chained 9v's. I like your idea way better... may have to pick up one of those... mind posting a link?

[nsjames]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

just a basic buck converter.
that's the easy button for $30. It's what I used.

it makes all these colors.
I didn't even boter with the higher voltage


I literally hooked my DMM into the output and just read the voltage.
turn the screw for different colors.
note the voltage of ones you like.

[tlow98]

Wow. Bravo. They look pretty damn awesome.

Loving the anodizing. Had no idea could do it for that kinda monies. Very cool.

But being realistic on my end. Ain’t gonna happen time-wise.

Loving that ‘arctic pearl’ (?) paint color of your car against these wheels. Nice job.

[nsjames]

arctic metallic is what BMW calls it.

I need to get some touch up paint to fix some chips before the big paint correction.

I've had 4 sets of wheels on this pile since I've owned it, including some dark enkeis.
I like the personality with the lighter wheels.

[nsjames]

out and about.


so, initial impressions.
I like the look.
ceramic coating is the bomb and I will do the entire care after paint correction.
falken fk510s seem like just the tire I wanted so far.

reasonably quiet.
Quieter than the conti DWS set I had last. certainly quieter than the runflat ssrs.
I'll give them a 4 out of 10, 1 being the quietest michelin I ever had, ten being interco super swampers.
turn in isn't laser sharp, but it's no slouch.
grip is ridiculous.
wet performance seems good.
comfort. that's why I chose these over say the firestones. They ride nicely. Even though I went from a 225/50/17 to these 18's they ride way better than the blizzaks. I've finally gotten to really experience the coilovers I installed in january. it's just less jarring than it was.


I had a shimmy on my first rip above a hundred immediately after install, but after 150 miles they were smooth to 115 today.
in mexico.
obviously. of course that was also post re torque, so initial shimmy may have been that.
so we'll see how I like them after a thousand miles.

[dakine_surf]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Wow. Bravo. They look pretty damn awesome.

Loving the anodizing. Had no idea could do it for that kinda monies. Very cool.

But being realistic on my end. Ain’t gonna happen time-wise.

Loving that ‘arctic pearl’ (?) paint color of your car against these wheels. Nice job.

Yes very easy... and cheap, but only with Ti... aluminum anodizing is a bit more involved and costly.

[nsjames]

wheels have not separated and caused me to crash into a bus full of nuns, so I got that going for me.

You ever want to know true fear?
Go take a cruise on two piece wheels you just assembled in your living room without really knowing WTF you're doing.

so, further tire reviews. now at like 500 miles or so.

wet performance is outstanding.
I have yet to find the real limits of lateral grip.
I've hucked it into some turns at ludicrous speeds and not heard a single tire squeal or felt any push.
braking performance is also pretty good, some squirm.
They are a bit soft in the ride department, which is what I wanted for sure, but I've upped them 3 psi over the bmw recomended pressures and that seems to be the sweet spot.
some slight tread noise at like 50-55, gets quiet again at freeway speeds.

would recommend for the price point.