I am in the process of painting my OEM wheels... I took some heavy duty stripper to them and found that there was a plastic like coating around the lip of the wheels... I rubbed it off and found that the lip of the wheel is polished. these are the 7 spoke wheels, does anyone know if they are all polished like this or maybe I got lucky and someone had them polished before I owned the car?

 

I will put some pics up when I get home... before, after, and painted.

 

nice i got to paint mee wheels soon,good luck i actually cant wait to see so i have something to look forward to.

 

I think the 1.6 alloys look excellent with some paint and a polished lip.
Here's pics from a set done for a locost. (click the right arrows for more)

 

sorry I didnt get the pics up my camera has gone missing again... all I have is my phone and you cant really see the polish from the pictures it takes... they look alot like this pic right now though: http://www.cheapsportscar.net/flip.php?x=554 (thanks m2cupcar)
I take it they are all polished like this then?

 

Polished lip looks great, i'm just about to order my Rota Slipstreams in 16" with a polished lip and Gunmetal grey inners.

I've sanded and re painted my stock iS 15" wheels in a Gunmetal grey, look good on a black car

 

my wheels are going to be a dark gunmetal (almost black) with a polished lip once they are done. my car is red, I am going for a black and red theme

 

Looks nice. I repainted mine black with white miata writing. Cheers to you friend!!!

 

I know this thread is old, but the origional question was not answered. After stripping 5 wheels all of them had the polished lip under the clear coat. I'm pretty sure they all have it. The hard part is finding wheels clean enough to not have wheel weight marks or curb rash on them. After using aircraft stripper on a clean wheel, should only have to paint the center if your after a polished lip.

 

it depends on the wheel...it looked dope on my daily:




yes, my daily tucks rubber all the way arround. hehe, and yes I have 2 sets of black wheels. One speedline, and one bbs.

 

Sorry, I meant all daisy miata wheels. But yeah most any aluminum wheel will have one, I assume from how the wheel lips need to be formed. IMO the daisys are too small to look good with a polished lip. Makes them look like cheap aftermarket wheels.
Your car looks sweet. Looks good with just the spokes painted. Not usually a fan of the black on black thing, but the lip has an interesting shape that makes me focus on the wheels. And split 5 spoke wheels are awsome!

 

they aren't awesome to clean though. Here are some examples...and I think daisy's won't look good with a polished lip.


all black is better:


The polished lip thing is starting to get kinda old.

 

Yeah I agree, daisys must be all black. I did mine semi flat black. I removed the center caps tho. Painted the dust cap and rear nut silver.

 

how does your hood close???


here is a sample of mine so far.... I dont think they look bad, the color wasnt exactly what i thought it would be... but I still like it

 

lookin' good

that is my next project exept for bronze

 

thanks, I still need to get the struts and springs though, wayyy too much wheel gap.


when I got the car these wheels were bronze, with a silver lip.

 

The air filter thing is a LONG story. It's fixed now. Good job on the wheels. Do you plan to clear coat? What paint did you use? Do you plan to run center caps?

I used this wheel cover paint from walmart. Had some ugly triangle wheel covers on the front of the can. No clear coat and paint has not chipped at all. Comes in a few colors, would recommend it.

 

I used some sort of duplicolor, that I purchased from autozone all I remember is it said "excellent metal adhesion" so I figured it would work. I gave it about 5 coats, and then gave it a clear coat of duplicolor wheel paint.

Here is a pic with the center cap on, I was bored so I painted the “MAZDA” red.
I don't think I will put them on, they look better without them IMO.

Keep in mind these are pics from my cell phone, so they arent of the best quality.

 

that looks pretty good.

 

YEA REAL NICE, WHAT paint did you use and how many cans did you go through?