I started with a cheap set of ugly, curbed up ROH wheels.



The curb rash was terrible on a couple of them. I mean REALLY bad. Just unacceptable, but I loved this style of wheel so I got the set anyway. So I stripped off the paint, then applied bondo to the curb rash and sanded them down to 220 (Despite my various concerns about using that for this application a google search returns a LOT of results of people using this method with very good results):



Then I took them up to 320 grit and got them all ready for paint.




I really like the aluminum/polished aluminum look, but I didnt know about this aluminum filler called "lab metal" yet... if I did I would have used that. It would have worked much better for this application, but it's too late now. But since I had bondo all over the lips to cover the curb rash, paint was necessary. I spent a lot of time deliberating on what color to paint them. I didnt want to go black because I think black wheels look horrible ,and I didnt want to go silver because I just hate painted silver wheels. Aluminum is silver and looks better. I'd rather just leave it as is.

I ended up going with this hyperblack wannabe color (I had originally planned to go hyper black, and I will eventually, but it's just a matter of not having the resources to do that at the moment) but unfortunately it turned out a lot darker than I had hoped it would. But it still looks pretty interesting. Not sure if I'll leave it this way for when it goes on the car, but I think it might grow on me.

 

They look good. Nice job!

 

are those off a 93-94 firehawk? they look just like mine. i am missing a center cap would you might know where to get another one from

 

I didnt know those were ever factory wheels. Interesting. They're the same wheels but mine are 3rd gen offset, not fourthgen.

I searched far and wide for a centercap as Im missing one myself and no suck luck.

The only idea I've really had is making some out of my stock 91-92 center caps via a few different methods. I'd have to make the hole in the ROH centercap ring a little big bigger to fit the 91-92 style centercap through it.

Or I could grind the tabs off the back of the factory centercaps, and drill a hole in it and secure it like the ROH centercap rings were held in, but it's just slightly too big and wont sit flush into the pocket. So if you're okay with it being raised by about 2 mm then that will work too if you find a way to hold it centered. You cant turn it down since the aluminum outer ring of the 91-92 Camaro centercaps because the aluminum it's made of is very thin and is wrapped around the edge which Im pretty sure is how it's held on. The aluminum is just wrapped around a plastic disc, and if you turn it down the aluminum faceplate would just fall off. But you could probably even do something with that if you didnt mangle it in the process.


Since you're talking about a firehawk, you'd probably need to paint the center of the 91-92 centercaps where they say "camaro", but it's pretty much the best option I've found.

I've decided to just run without centercaps for now. I'd probably pay up to $100 for my one missing centercap.

 

those turned out GREAT kyle. i think they'll look killer on the car!

 

Those aren't the factory wheels. They do look similar, but they aren't the same thing.


To the OP:
What brand and color name of paint did you use? That looks like the exact color I'm looking for!

Thanks,
Mike

 

I was trying to go for that Z06 Competition Gray look...



It seems close but I need to see it on the car... I plan to be ordering tires next week. This is what I used.

 

get em on an post some pics.
looks great man!