Do not paint, it chips too easy. You can get all four of your wheels powdercoated for a flat price of $135 a wheel at wheels america. They do amazing jobs on wheels and even offer a lifetime warranty on the finish. If your wheel has curb rash or any damage they will repair that too. Trust me my brother had his beaten up AC Schnitzer type III racing wheels redone with them and they came out brand new. The powdercoating work was flawless. All the bends in the wheels were gone and it looked like a brand new wheel. Check wheelsamerica.com to see if they are located near you.

x5driver214,

Can't talk to powdercoating vs. painting. I had decided to go the paiting route.

I had my 214 wheels painted a metallic ferric grey (custom color) by Alloy Wheel Repair Specialist (who does all repairs for the local BMW, Porsche, Nissan, ... dealers).

He did a really fantastic job. He claims that my finish will be hardier than the original paint finish. I obviously have no way of knowing that's true or not (but it sounds good)... This particular metallic mix, that he did, catches the light so well -- especially in the early evening.

I haven't had a chance to wash the car for weeks so have not posted pictures yet. May be able to get to that today.

I've finally got around to taking some pics of my newly painted "metallic ferric grey" wheels. I am REALLY happy with them.

The first two pictures are BEFORE and AFTER pictures of the car. The second two are BEFORE and AFTER pictures of the wheels.

The newly painted wheels
1. don't look as "washed out" as the original wheels
2. have more definition of the edges and the wheels look "sharper" but still OEM
3. they suit the car color much better than before (they are still quite different to the "Space Grey" on the car)
4. the metallic in them gives a great reflection in the early evening (don't have pics of that yet)

I have a black saphire and I need your opinion!!
Do you recommend painting my current 19" star spoke (ferric Gray)? or buying 20" Y spoke and painting them FG?

The grey will not look good with the black, go with satin black.

Grey will totally look good with black!

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...bbs-wheel.html

Scroll down to the bottom...

Thanks so much,,
currently I have 212 style similar to this one
FS: 2010 E70 212 Wheels & Tires - XBimmers.com | BMW X6 Forum X5 Forum
just 5 months old and 10,000km on it.

willing to sale or trade with Y spoke (20 or 21 in).
Any one interested to trade or have y spoke for sale???

there is no comparison between powdercoat vs paint , the powder is 10x's stronger !!

for anyone who gets carwashes often you'll be seeing what i mean !!

did you have them finish the entire wheel, including inside the wheel and around the inside of rim edge?

Not the inside of the wheel. Don't know about inside of rim edge; we didn't specifically discuss that but it's finished as far as is visible.