Wheel Colour Change - Help Required!

[dubber36]

Silver gets my vote.

[SRGTD]

Why not use two colours so as not to lose the design? A tungsten spoke on a black wheel?

The CS wheels feature silver spokes on a black dish.

The two colour look is almost always achieved with a diamond cut finish - the Clubsport’s Belvedere alloys are diamond cut.

For a wheel refurb company to achieve a two colour painted / powder coated look rather than using the diamond cutting process would probably be expensive. Once the wheel has been painted/ powder coated in the first colour, it would be necessary to very carefully mask off those areas that are to remain the first colour before applying the second colour to get a diamond cut look. The masking up of the wheel would need to be very accurate to get a good end result, so would probably be quite time consuming - and time costs money.

IMO, wheels with wide spokes like Austins fitted to the mk7 GTI don’t tend to look good in a single dark colour. An option the OP could consider is to get their wheels refurbished in a dark colour and then get the face of the spokes vinyl wrapped in a chrome or silver coloured vinyl. That way, it would be possible to achieve the two tone look similar to the original OEM diamond cut finish without the issue of white worm corrosion.

I can't see vinyl wrapping working very well on wheels on a daily driver

That’s s fair point. There are on line retailers that sell vinyl overlays for the spokes on VW Austin alloys though - Badgeskins sell them, but only in black - to apply over the existing diamond cut surface. Link;

https://www.badgeskins.com/store/p168/VW_-_18%22_Austin_Wheel_badgeskin_set.html

[mikegti77]

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I think you have talked me out of a dark colour. I need to see the tungsten colour again, silver also an option.  I seem to think the Canadian market got solid silver Austin’s from factory rather than diamond cut due to the salty roads? 

I do agree the Austin design (wide spokes) is not the best design in a dark single colour.

I have 36 hours to decide, tick tock...

[barrym381]

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I think you have talked me out of a dark colour. I need to see the tungsten colour again, silver also an option.  I seem to think the Canadian market got solid silver Austin’s from factory rather than diamond cut due to the salty roads? 

I do agree the Austin design (wide spokes) is not the best design in a dark single colour.

I have 36 hours to decide, tick tock...

I've had nearly every colour you can get over the years from candy red to sparkle silver to Kawasaki green due to a mate being a powdercoater and the silver always makes them look better in my opinion

[SRGTD]

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I think you have talked me out of a dark colour. I need to see the tungsten colour again, silver also an option.  I seem to think the Canadian market got solid silver Austin’s from factory rather than diamond cut due to the salty roads? 

I do agree the Austin design (wide spokes) is not the best design in a dark single colour.

I have 36 hours to decide, tick tock...

I seem to remember that in some markets, the standard wheels on the GTI were a 17” five spoke silver painted / powder coated alloy (Brooklyn) that was very similar in design to the 18” diamond cut Austin alloys.

If you do a google search on the part number (5G0601025AR), you’ll find lots of pictures of the Brooklyn’s, that’ll give you a good idea of what your Austin’s will look like if you have them refurbished in a silver / lighter colour.

[mikegti77]

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I think you have talked me out of a dark colour. I need to see the tungsten colour again, silver also an option.  I seem to think the Canadian market got solid silver Austin’s from factory rather than diamond cut due to the salty roads? 

I do agree the Austin design (wide spokes) is not the best design in a dark single colour.

I have 36 hours to decide, tick tock...

I seem to remember that in some markets, the standard wheels on the GTI were a 17” five spoke silver painted / powder coated alloy (Brooklyn) that was very similar in design to the 18” diamond cut Austin alloys.

If you do a google search on the part number (5G0601025AR), you’ll find lots of pictures of the Brooklyn’s, that’ll give you a good idea of what your Austin’s will look like if you have them refurbished in a silver / lighter colour.

Thanks, useful

[Jim_mk7.5]

Shadow chrome would be my vote.

Not Austin but this should give you an idea.



Found them via a google search on an old Mk5 thread - https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=726.0

[mikegti77]

Thanks all for your input on colour.

I went with silver (powder coated) in the end - boring yes, unexciting yes, but it suits the car colour and looks fairly oem.  The wheels have lost some of their 'mojo', but they look a lot better than flaking lacquer and white worn.

I'll try and throw up a photo at some point in case it helps someone else in the future.

[Exonian]

Silver is good.
Easy and cheap to repair too when the time comes.