Well school starts for me this thursday and I really want something new. During this summer i've gotten 5% tint, my dents removed, the rest of my stillen body kit, and a 5-speed conversion...but i've got the bug BAD and I am getting tired of mee rims

I REALLY love the way gunmetal/dark rims with polished lips look on black maxima's. I was thinking since I already have the polished lip, why not just powercoat the rims a dark gunmetal? But ever since I got 17's deep down I have a small regret for not getting 18's..with a lip the rims look even smaller and I would love some 18's. I don't have enough $$ for 18's, I only have ~400 bucks so far to put towards my max so far. How much would it cost to powdercoat my rims gunmetal? (minus the lips). Or should I just go the distance for 18's?

 

you know what im gonna say Twin Brotha!!

Ant

 

Go 19".
-Cyrus

 

Cyrus...you bein' sarcastic? 19's are way too big for me and are way outta my price range...besides tires would be rediculously expensive and I care about performance as much as I do about looks. 18's fit our cars perfectly but I am a poor bastard

 

I am very serious. If you get 18" in a few months you will regret it as well. Either stick with the 17"s or go 19"s. Honestly the weight difference between 18" and 19" isn't that big, it's much larger from 17" to 18". You'll live with the potholes when you get the looks. Tires aren't too expensive if you buy cheap ones. Otherwise powercoat the Caffines the color of your car, that would still be very unique and .
-Cyrus

 

Well I have to disagree with you...I think 18's look perfect. 19's look pimp but you KNOW they will kill my thrust off the line!

Any idea of how much powdercoating my 17's would cost?

 

If you get it done locally it should be less than $100/rim. I would expect about $80/rim as a fair price.
-Cyrus

 

imo you should take your rims and sell them and put that with the 400 bucks and get something different. Sounds like you just want a change. Get something in 17 without a lip so they look bigger

 

I like your rims the way they are now, they're nice. Where do you get all your cash for mods Craig?, I would think you'd be broke after the conversion

 

CM, I honestly think you shouldn't do it if it's your last $400. What if some emergency come up. I personally would not do it and I have "mod" money... I think if you opened up your headlights and painted the inside black ala "AE headlights" and maybe add some eyelids that would look sick!

 

go chrome or go home

 

Go home

 

$100 PER RIM???

I know a place that does it for $100/set. Call around to some powdercoating places, they are in the yellow pages.

 

get a digi cam!

 

hmmm go with 18"s 19"s are a pain... I have a set

the 19"s look great but the 18"s look good... if you have $$$$ go 19"s if you have a budget stick with some nice 18"s... I'm looking for a set of 18"s for the same project as you hehe too bad the rims I want cost about 4K

 

go 18's craig. besides the fact that your rims are kind of played out (no offense - just stating the obvious) i think that even if you powdercoat them you'll want more... you said it yourself, you really won't be 100% happy unless you get 18's. sell your rims, run with the stockers for a month , and buy some used 18's.

 

forget 18!s just run with stockers paint them black and u can be a super racer too!

 

Your rims look pretty good, even though I too would rather have 18's (I have 18x8) I wouldn't just go and get them since you already have aftermarkets. The slight difference isn't a big deal. At the same time, 18's are not expensive. I lucked out and paid $129 each and regret not picking up a 5th one just in case and they're gone now. But you can still get 18's in the $169-$199 range I think. With cars having them right from the factory, the prices are sure to drop.

I would say save your money for now, maybe go for 19's if the price comes down. Otherwise just keep your 17's and enjoy the sights as you go back to school!

 

Your car is already tight leave it alone!!!!! Save that 400.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Reichmax, I sold LOTS of stuff on ebay and have been working my @ss off for mods.

Anton, Check your PM's!

Nealoc, are you SERIOUS? $100 for a set? Why does Cyrus think it'd be 4 times that expensive? If indeed it is THAT cheap i'm definatally gonna powdercoat them. I love those mustang GT special edition rims that are powdercoated with the polished lip and that's the look i'm going for. $100 for powdercoating sounds alot better then $1300 for decent 18's/tires. I also need a cell phone BAD and if I buy one with a decent plan per month I can't get 18's. Besides I don't have my stock rims anymore (sold them long ago) so my current rims are all I have to go on.

Also, where in the phone book would I look under and how long a job is it? I'd have to get it done tommorow (wednessday) cause thursday morning hell a.k.a. school starts.

 

I agree with you.

 

Craig-

Keep the rims. Your car looks very clean and classy. Getting dark powdercoated rims does look good to a degree, but your Max is kind of going for that excutive cruiser/bruiser BMW look. The dark rims would knock the looks down to a modified racer Honda look, IMO. I think 17s with a good drop are plenty big for the Maxima. I've got 16s and I think they look just right, better so than my old anthracite/polished lip 17s. I'd take that $400 and put it towards two mods that will give your Maxima an even more classy and elegant look, chrome Cefiro mirrors ($110 shipped) and a 97+ GXE/GLE grill ($70). Here's a pic of my 97 grillon my 96 SE.

http://home.earthlink.net/~thunderlt...ages/grill.jpg

Paint the side posts of the grill black and the grill looks very clean. Guess what my next mod is? The Cefiro mirrors.


Dave

 

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Dave-

I know you know the Mustang Rims I was talking about. These:





I'm sure you see them on the road where you can get a better look. I want to powdercoat my rims to that color but keep the polished lip. Do you really think it would make me look more ricey? I think they would give my car more of an aggressive look. Since my car is 5-spoked I think it would look even better. I agree with you to an extent though..my rims look really nice while rolling, darker rims probubly won't b/c they are harder to see.

As far as the chrome mirrors and grille go, I have never heard of these mirrors, I guess i'll search the org. And for the grille, yes that looks sweet but I already have mine meshed with the emblem welded on. While a '97 SE grill w/mesh would look better, this is good enough for me at the time.

 

IMO, I think the dark rim look is trendy and is dying out for the imports. On some cars it definately looks good (Mustang, Z06, Corvette GS, Buick GNX, Skyline), but the Maxima isn't two door coupe and it sure doesn't convey the image of a stoplight bruiser. Like I said, I had anthracite 17s with the polished lip and they did look good, but I think my car looks much cleaner and more German with the silver K1s. I'm really into the clean German styling and many of the visual parts of my car are influenced by the German designs. That's just me. As for making your particular wheels dark, I don't think it will look right. The design on the rim spoke is just too big. You need to have thin straight spokes to get the look right. The Stang rims don't have thin spokes, but their design is copied from an old Crager wheel from the mid to late 60s. It's a timeless design which looks quite good on a late model Mustang.


Dave

 

Thanks for the input Dave. Here's some shots of my rims up close...just double checking to see if you don't think they'll look good gunmetal:





I was talking to Nealoc and he says he knows a guy who would powdercoat his 17's for $100 for the set. Now that's gotta be a personal hook up, so I am assuming at least $40 per wheel. Still, at that price, It would be worth it IMHO if it looked good. I'll PM GTR_Rider, hopefully he'll have time to photoshop those pics with the rims in gunmetal.

 

Some extra's in case GTR is feeling extra generous

 

Go with 18s and sell me your rims

 

Craig-

I think the powdercoat shop will probably tell you they can't just powdercoat the spokes. In order to powdercoat, the surface will have to be blasted to remove all grime and to get a surface to hold powdered paint. This process alone may cause uncontrolled damage to you polished lip and the "ribs" on the inside of the rim.

I've looked into powdercoating and I've been quoted ~$50 a wheel. I may powdercoat my silver K1s to a more brilliant satin finish to get a little more shine.

Dave

 

just leave your alone it looks good as is..

 

i want to get my rims powdercoated like this guy's rims

 

That's Hiroshi's Maxima and it looks sick. BTW, Craig, he's the one who has the AE headlights with eyelids.

 

HA!! LOL... Agreed 100%.

 

So....you disapprove of the rims, or you want me to go home?

Anton, I know all about Hiroshi's car...it looks tight. But if I was him I would have powdercoated the rims a dark gunmetal instead of straight black.. Slap a 2k2 mustang GT hood scoop on there and it would look mean as hell. I know Hiroshi has clear headlight covers, and painted eyelids on them, but AE headlights? I'm not sure what you mean by that..

 

spray paint it yo

 

Someone made a post saying 'go chrome or go home' to which I replied sarcastically 'go home' and so he was agreeing. I think the post was deleted.

 

Guys, I photoshopped my car with gunmetal rims!!! Take a look and tell me what you think!:



VERSUS
























OK so I used MS Paint ...I don't have photoshop and I blow at all this computer stuff, so until GTR_Rider gets back home this sh!tty deal will have to do...lol....GTR help!!

 

IMO, since u got a dark color car, silver wheels are better cuz they provide a strong contrast and goes really well with those clears.

charlie

 

Charlie,

I know, I know...i've been thinking hard about it. I am waiting till FRI for Lukes Photoshop, it should be 100x better then my newbie crap.

The thing is, I think the darker rims make it look alot more aggressive...the silver are nice and classy, but I am not an old man..I want an aggressive look like a GT.

Decisions Decisions

 

I'm not as good as Luke, but this should give you a better impression of what they would look like. IMO it looks killer, if you could get them done like this, I say go for it!

 

CAn anyone photo shop it for you. THat way you can see exactly what it will look like and decide from there.