Messing around in Photoshop

I�ve been thinking of doing something different with my Sport Techno wheels. I like the shape a lot, but sometimes I look at them and get this feeling that they look a bit dated. They have very wide spokes and there�s a lot of silver going on� anyway I�d like to personalize my car a little bit and I�ve seen some interesting paint schemes in this forum and elsewhere. Some paint the whole thing black, others paint the inner spoke area, some get them chromed (well I haven�t actually seen this but who knows, chrome is like deep frying, some people will do it to everything). I like the darker inner spoke thing and came up with this in photoshop, trying to match the car�s paint. I might try plasti-dip as a first step before getting them painted so I can take it off if I don�t like it. As they are now Potential new paint scheme On the car before After

Looks better

Looks good! Pretty nice job with photoshop as well.

Go darker

It's totally up to you, colours are personal but having said that I prefer "before"

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Something like this?

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Thanks. I did some graphic design in a previous life and Photoshop hasn't changed that much since, so I still know my way around it. A few years ago we decided to repaint parts of the house. I took a bunch of pictures of the interior and experimented with wall colors before we picked the actual paint. That turned out to be quite helpful. Changing light conditions will give the same paint color a very different look & feel, ie what's on the sample doesn't always look the same once it's on the wall. We had made up our minds on a couple of colors and ended up picking something else based on the Photoshop tests.

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Now you're talking, darker the better.

I'm kinda digging the darker ones also.

Magnus Walker would love you...

I like the darker also - except for the center caps...I'd leave them matching the lighter silver part of the wheel. I'd also clear coat the entire wheel for ease of cleaning... They look really good when the inner parts match the rest of the car!

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x2 on the caps.

I'm not a fan of the Technos as I think they have a bulky feel that just doesn't fit with the 911's style. I've seen others do what you are trying and haven't liked the result. Typically they either go for black or match the body color (worst I've seen was Speed Yellow!). Now that said, I will be the voice of descent here and say I like your first attempts better. The lighter seems to match your body color well without standing out. It makes the interior areas disappear while I think the darker variant calls more attention to it. I do agree that the centers should match what surrounds them though. A deviating color looks off to me.

I like they way it looks. Reminiscent of the Club Coupe.

My $0.02: use the car's body color for the accent color you're adding to the wheels. Have the center caps match the factory silver wheel color which is what is next to them. Then mess around with sheen (high-gloss, matte, semi, etc.) to see what you like. I like where you're going with this, FWIW. Nice.

My vote is for the lighter color. Don't paint the center caps. Or just find some thin five-spoke wheels.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I see we're split on the darker vs. body color. Obviously this is where personal taste comes in. My initial attempt in Photoshop also had the paint darker, but I ended up lightening until it matched the car's paint. It seemed more cohesive to me... The center caps is where there seems to be clear consensus among those who responded: they should match the wheel hub's color. I also fully agree, but to be clear I did not retouch them, they're actually this color. They're ePay chinese knock-offs and are darker than the wheels. The originals, which I kept, were missing 2 emblems and the other 2 were pretty faded so I decided to replace them. I couldn't find non-oem silver colored caps so went for these hoping they would match the wheel, obviously without much success. I also searched for replacement emblems only but came up dry so went with the knock-offs. This is what my oem caps look like in their current condition:

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Lol, sweet wheels! I actually had to google Magnus Walker

I will be doing a trial soon using Plasti-Dip. Does anyone have recommendations for the automotive masking tape I should use? It will mostly be curves and I will probably need something quite flexible to follow the contours smoothly.

Maybe this? http://3mcollision.com/products/tape...6334-18mm.html

A coupe more attemps with different color caps... silver/lighter definitely looks better.

Thanks Ben for pointing me at your thread. I picked up a set of Sport Techno wheels a few years ago to replace my 19" Antera wheels. They were my favorite 996 wheels but I didn't think they really fit the car that well. And they had a bit of curb rash and needed to be refinished. So I went down a similar thought process and mocked up images on my pc. Although not nearly as nice as your pictures above I like the polished aluminum look since it adds a bit of flash but isn't as dramatic as full chrome. I got a few quotes to refinish the wheels but in the end I decided to try it myself. It was definitely an adventure. I ended up sanding off the paint on the flat surface using a ~300 grit sanding pad on my polisher. I taped the inner portions with electrical tape to protect that paint. I then proceed to polish the outer surface going from 600 grit sand paper all the up to ~2000 grit. And then switched to steel polishing compound. Most of it was by hand although I also used a dremel for some of the work. Probably around ~8 hours/wheel. I then taped off the polished section with regular household painters tape, and then sprayed on black plasti-dip for 3 coats. My original plan was to replace the plast-dip with either powder coat paint or black wheel paint but I haven't gotten around to that yet. The pasti-dip has survived pretty well for the past 2 years but it is starting to peel. I'm very happy with the results although I realize not everyone likes the look (which is fine with me because I do). They don't photograph that well because of the shiny surface so they look better in person...honest. Also the black interior is more visible in person so they look a little less like thin spoke wheels. My plan now is to polish them again since it has been a few years, and then replace the pasti-dip with real paint. Or maybe see if I can get them professionally painted since I already know I could do it myself. Pictures of the result and my progress:

I was thinking about coloring my wheels a while back...

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Great job on your wheels, and many thanks for posting pics & the detailed steps you took. That will be very useful. The finish on my wheels is still in decent shape so I won't be going to the extent you went in terms of sanding/polishing. If I can get one season without the plasti-dip peeling off I'll be happy - based on your experience it sounds like a realistic expectation. A couple of questions: - did you have any issues using regular painter's tape? - did you peel off the tape while still wet or did you wait for everything to dry?

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Green would go well with the bikini top!

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The plasti-dip should definitely last a few years. On the bright side it is also possible to touch up any issues if they occur. I definitely used painter's tape for the straight edges, but I don't remember if I used painter's tape or electrical tape for the curved bits. The problem with painter's tape is that it isn't flexible so following the curve is almost impossible. Removing the tape was a bit tricky. I removed it when the paint was wet just after the last coat. The plasti-dip will almost certainly peel off if you try to remove the tape when dry. I didn't get a perfect edge, but it was close enough for me. I debated whether or not to use a razor blade to cut the tape off but decided it wasn't worth the effort. Plasti-dip was pretty easy to work with and it isn't permanent. I was going to try it for year to see if I liked the look before committing to a full paint job. However it has been 2 years and I haven't felt the need to redo it yet

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Car you share a picture of the job you did? I'm really curious to see if plastidip is able to give near perfect lines. How many coats did you apply? I suppose if it looks bad you can always pull it off? I also wonder if any body guys in this list know of a specific tape to use when painting with plastidip?

According to this video, the trick to getting clean edges is to apply several coats one after another without any drying time in between, and then to peel off the tape immediately. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kBWaSDmj0g

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I looked for a while, and found this DIY from Magnus Walker http://magnuswalker911.blogspot.ca/2...finishing.html The DIY points to 3M vinyl tape: https://www.amazon.com/3M-Vinyl-Tape-PN6408-Pack/dp/B000P1ALOO https://www.amazon.com/3M-Vinyl-Tape-PN6408-Pack/dp/B000P1ALOO I'll give it a shot when I do my wheels; seems to be the right product for the application. Thanks again for the pointers.

This was the result of my painting 2 years ago. I followed the approach mentioned above of spraying 3 coats close together and removing the tape almost immediately. Electrical tape seemed to work okay, but I wouldn't be surprised if thinner tape resulted in a better line. But the tricky part is bending the tape around the wheel. I'm happy with the result, but it would probably be better with real paint. Mental note I really need to polish the wheels again

The Darker option looks good (I had mine down in gloss black on both cars. When they are dirty they look like i planned on them being a matte back. Win win)