Searched many times and couldn't find a definitive answer so here I am...looking for some advice on how to best refinish and repaint color-matched wheels to stay as close to OEM as possible.

I have a 997.2 TTS in Meteor Grey Metallic with factory paint-matched RS Spyder wheels. Tire shop took a chunk out of my wheels and is offering have all 4 wheels refinished/repainted, but I'm somewhat reluctant to take them up on the offer as all they've promised is to "get as close as possible" to matching the OEM color and I'm trying to keep the car as close to original as I can. All 4 wheels have some nicks from 12 years of use so it's worth doing all 4 (especially since it's free) so they all match, but as this is my first time having to repaint wheels to match a body color I'm out of my element. Any advice on the best way to ensure we match the OEM color as closely as humanly possible?

They've offered to either powder coat or paint, my choice. It's my understanding that Porsche paints their wheels. If so, is it safe to assume that painting is the best option to keep them as close to original as possible?

And if anyone has a wheel refinishing/paint shop they'd recommend in/around Scottsdale, AZ I'm open to suggestions...

Thanks!

 

Powdercoat is more durable but also has to be done with low temp powder and curing to not damage the structure of the aluminum wheel. The draw acknto powder is that they have to use pre-determined colors so may not be able to get a perfect match. With paint, they can shoot the color with their camera and mix a perfect match, but it's not as durable. Honestly, I'd use a powder that's as close in color that they have resulting in a nice durability upgrade to your wheels.and no one will really know they're 1-2 delta Es ighter or darker than OEM when looking at the car. It's usually about $200 per wheel to powdercoat them so that's a nice $800 service they're offering you.

 

I would go with Powder coating and take advantage of the shops offer. (Increased durability over paint)

You can check out some colors that are offered through prismatic powder, they are one of the biggest powder coat suppliers.

https://www.prismaticpowders.com/sho...coating-colors

 

A few years ago I took my 997 to a wheel shop for refinishing. The shop owner knew the Porsche paint code off the top of his head. They did an excellent job right at the price Petza mentioned. His insight on powder coating is probably spot on too.

 

what color?

If your car is black or silver it's hardly color matching - now if your spyder wheels were a shade of blue or something, then I'd ask very closely about PC matching the color. Otherwise PC all the way.

 

Thanks hex. The color is meteor grey metallic. I agree if they were black or silver it'd be less of an issue, but I'm a tad concerned about the closest PC color not matching the body color and the wheels standing out like 4 sore thumbs. I'm probably overthinking this but with my luck it'll be far enough off from factory to drive me crazy.

 

Thanks Petza, I had heard about the low temp vs. high temp so I'll be sure to ask the shop how they'd plan on doing the powder coating.

Thanks for that tip, I called Prismatic and they were able to give me a few colors that'll closely match meteor grey metallic. I'll pass that info along to the shop and we'll see how close they are.

 

Thumbs up on Prismatic Powders (if you go the powder coating route) - they were recommended to me by my local powder coater, but you'll find they have a good rep on these forums. Specifically, you can search up Arum Gold, Watts Gold, Spanish Gold and see some great examples of GT3 wheels in their finishes.

 

I would paint not power coat myself.

 

Rather than trying to match the OEM silver wheel color or your Meteor Grey metallic, I might suggest going in a different direction where color match won't matter. With meteor grey, a brown (not gold) bronze color would look stunning - something in this color family. If your interior happens to be cocoa would tie it all together even better, but would also look great with a black interior.




Just an idea. I was so close to doing this on my Foregline wheels when ordering as my wheels also have machined accents between the twin spokes and I think it would have looked awesome, but I caved at the last minute and went brushed silver. The accents would have really popped with this color surrounding them and I may still do it at some point.

 

I vote with the guys suggesting paint. You've lived a dozen years with painted wheels and already know about the durability.

A failed attempt to color match with powder coating (even with white, black or silver) is a big risk, unless they will pay for more than one- and they have already put in a caveat about that. You may well end up with butt ugly wheels- 4 of them.

No picture of your wheels, but Spyders don't come in 5-bolt.
Used near mint Spyders in neutral colors have sold for < $3K on RL/BaT/PCAR.
Lots of options, including taking the $800 (?) and apply towards buying a CL wheel set with proper offsets to fit flush with the well lips. I will be selling an extra set of OZ Ultraleggeras in black with proper offset next month, BTW.

The Spyders are so hard to clean and are relatively heavy for forged wheels. I'm saving mine for any resale but won't ever re-mount them on my GTS.

Whatever you do, it's great to run it by the RL forum "experts" before diving into a quandary like yours.

 

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions, I learned a lot and wanted to (kind of) close the loop...although the resolution will be pretty underwhelming for now.

After talking with the shops the wheel place had planned to use (and a long convo with the dealer and top wheel guys they use) I've decided to just touch it up the best I can for now and reevaluate in the future after doing more research on local shops and picking my own place to make sure it's done 100% to my liking. Based on what I've learned from you guys here and those over on the 997 TT board I just wasn't confident in the answers those shops gave me and decided it wasn't worth the risk and frustration of not getting it right the first time. On the bright side, I guess I can now be less annoyed when I pick up new rock chips since I know I'll be redoing the wheels at some point in the future...