Make your car look Wheely Good on a budget!

[twofake]

Hi guys,

I bought my S2000 about 6 months ago and did the changes that I felt were needed.

Firstly I changed the gear knob to a titanium one.
Secondly I changed the head unit to an Alpine media unit with Ipod control.
Thirdly, I wanted to keep the S2000 stock wheels but wanted to stand out a bit more.

Here's my wheel project.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/JSC_2390.jpg

I bought a second set of S2000 wheels off ebay. In hind sight, I should have removed the tyres and then sprayed the rims but you learn what not to do only after you have done it.

I went to the local auto paint shop and had the silver wheel colour matched and then I personally eye matched a gold acrylic paint to be as yellow gold as they could mix.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5702.jpg

The wheels were cleaned of old wheel balancing weights and the usual road grime and corrosion.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5715.jpg

The second hand wheels did have some scratches so I cleaned them up and filled the deep scratches with a small amount of filler. The surface scratches were filled with primer filler.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/JSC_2391.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5335.jpg

These were then sanded using decreasing grades of sandpaper.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5334.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5329.jpg

The remainder of the painted areas were scuffed using a "Scotch pad"from the auto paint shop. This is like a large scourer which "keys" the old paint.

Prepsol was used to do a pre clean prior to painting

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5776.jpg

The wheels were masked and this took hours and hours.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5726.jpg

and hours

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5729.jpg

and hours

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5733.jpg

The hub caps were removed and the Honda "H" was covered with contact and these letters were cut out with a sharp scalpel blade.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5694.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5696.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5697.jpg

Initially I used cardboard to reduce overspray to the areas that were to remain silver but later abandonded this idea (read on).

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5788.jpg
The spokes were sprayed gold.

I then masked the spokes and sprayed the rims silver again.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5820.jpg

On removal of the masking tape, the masking lines were too obvious so I removed the gold paint as the job was not good enough.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5834.jpg

I used dental impression tray forming material ,with Glad Wrap as a separating agent, to make solid plastic overspray guards so that I could spray the silver of the rim without spraying onto the gold areas. Becasue the mask could be rotated as I sprayed the other spaokes, this left a great final result. Dental impression tary forming material is a two part powder/liquid mixture which sets into hard plastic after about 4 minutes. This is a fairly expensive material and substitutes could be paper mache, fibreglass or even car bog.
The spokes now all look the same and the sliver/gold join does not have a sharp masking tape edge.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5903.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5904.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5905.jpg



Once the gold and silver shades were acceptable, a two pac clear coat was applied.

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5927.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5934.jpg

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/100_5938.jpg

This is the end result. I prefer the rims to be silver rather than the WRX all gold (and a dull gold at that) wheels.:thumbsup:

All in all, it took ages to do and as mentioned, would have been a lot easier if I removed the tyres to spray and then had them fitted.
Bead blasting the wheels would have given and better keyed surface.
When spraying wheels it would be beneficial to have a revolving stand so that the wheels can be rotated as they are sprayed rather than trying to walk around the wheel in a confined shed with a long compressor hose getting tangled while spraying highly toxic two pac paint.Oh well, if I die of cyanide poisoning at least I die with gold wheels and an S2000.

[http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/twofake/JSC_8903.jpg

[DC2-PWR]

That's just awsome, top job and all proffessianly done!

[ninzee]

wow you have a lot of patience
it paid off looks hot

[OzSir2]

Nice thorough write-up and great result!

[vyets]

Admire the effort and time you put into it great man. However not a fan of the result :)

[DC5TYPER]

Admire the effort and time you put into it great man. However not a fan of the result :)

Sorry mate but don't like silver/gold combo.

I would of gone a black colour for a silver car. Would suit the roof and some other black coloured parts of the car.

[.::F[L]Y::.]

Definately alot of patience involved. Each to their own in terms of styling but I would have done either painted the rims black or a dark gunmetal for the 'race inspired look'. Then white out the 'Potenza' writing on the tyres. Also, lowering the S2000 either on some springs or coilovers would make a world of difference in terms of aesthetics (if thats what your into).

[aznalex]

so.. howmany weeks was your s2000 on jacks for lol? jokes
but that does look nice if you have the time for it