Hi Ant,
For me its a no brainer. That polished wheel looks brilliant. But that is IMHO

I don't think it looks Gangster, but what if it did , just a little bit. You would be talk of the steamy, as we say up here.

 

Next thing to start thinking about are centre caps, and tyre valves

I've see some aftermarket centre caps which ate made in alloy with the gold & red crested badge - I'll have to check the quality of them, but think I might buy some of them and polish them up too

Now, what would you do about tyre valves?
I've got metal bolt-in valves at present

Should I keep what I have, or should I fit something else?
Are the rubber ones a no-no?

I've seen flush fitting valves with a screw on/off adaptor
Has anyone any experience of these?
I've heard they oxidise to the point where the adaptor can no longer be fitted
Anybody got any views?

I had thought about filling in the hole in the outer rim where the valve goes, and drilling a new one in the inner rim/barrel, but I think you'd probably see where the alloy had been welded

Anybody got any pictures of wheels where the valve is fitted to the inner barrel?

 

I think I would have considered getting the centers bead/sand blasted to give it a cast/textured look and then clear coating. The polished lip contrasted by the textured alumimum center would have looked nice.

BTW I believe the valve stem needs to be mounted in the drop center (the valley of the wheel barrel that allow the tire to drop down, so it can be mounted). Snce you have a stepped lip your drop center is on the lip side of the wheel and that is why your valve stem is located there. If you have a reverse lip wheel, the drop center would be on the inside of your wheel and the valve stem would be mounted on the inside, extending outward to the face of the wheel center.

Later, Steve

 

Excellent info as always Steve - Thanks!

Out of interest, do you have any cast items which have been clearcoated?
I'd love to see some examples

 

I don't personally have any, but I believe someone on this forum did a set of wheels that way. You may want to search sandblasting.

I will see if I can find anything.

Later, Steve

 

Just painted the inner barrels on one of the wheels

I decided to paint the centre caps too to see what they looked like before I bought some alloy ones

They actually look ok painted - I was expecting too much contrast and for them to look out of place

I've removed the porsche crests as they were looking sorry for themselves too
I've started stripping them down, and will refinish them aswell before refitting the centre caps

I've started to think I might fit rubber tyre valves now
They don't mark-up like metal ones can, meaning they always look new
They're not all that great to look at, but at least their appearance never deteriorates

 

Polished lip with painted centers IMO

 

Ok guys

I've done another wheel
It's nowhere near finished......I just did it quickly to compare to the fully polished one

Whast do you reckon?

 

Totally option #1, looks awesome!

 

1st one with the painted centers... exactly how I ordered my wheels.

 

#2 is too much. #1 looks like your're using the spares. If you can powder coat the center to black, it will go well with your car. just MO.

 

#1 with a nice colored Porsche crest as centerfold :-)

 

+1 on black centers, but if it's not a 3rd option then I'd go with option 1.

 

Thanks so far everybody!

Seems like a painted centre is easily the most popular so far

I'd like to do something other than silver, and I think black might be a little too much on my car

Has anybody ever seen the split rims on the 993 GT2?
They're kind of seal grey, I think that could look good, I'll try to find some pictures

 

Looks good on a silver car, but what about on my black car?