TheSamba.com :: View topic - painted or polished or chromed Porsche phone dials

Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:55 pm

does anyone have a picture of a set of phone dials painted? ive seen black but im talking body colors...like white as i would want. How about a picture of some polished or chromed on a bug. just picked up a super cheap set and im trying to decide what to do with them for my bug

Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:42 pm

dont get em chromed... polishing is much better, it will not pit and it does not add extra weight to the wheel. Plus if they are clear coated they wont fade.

are you looking at full polish or polished lip and painted centers?

White wheels may look kinda funny unless your goin for German look IMO

Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:02 pm

yea i agree about chroming...seem to be a real pain in the end. Im not sure but now that i picked the wheels up i think white would be out of the question. the factory silver is nice but fully polished wouldnt be bad either...i love the red lip you did around your cookie cutters...how did you do it if you dont mind me asking

Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:19 pm

How is chroming a pain in the ass. I would rather wipe off the wheels before the show instead of having to polish them. IMO a polished wheel looks good untill you put it next to a chrome one

Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:23 pm

vdubmax wrote: How is chroming a pain in the ass. I would rather wipe off the wheels before the show instead of having to polish them. IMO a polished wheel looks good untill you put it next to a chrome one

if you have it clear coated after it is polished you wont run into that problem. the issue with chrome is that in the long run it will start to chip

Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:33 pm

Sorry for the long post but its detailed and all I had to do was copy and paste from a pm I sent a while back

Actually the red line your seeing is not paint... but tape.

my first attempt at making the redline was done in paint (first 2 pics). painting took way longer than the tape because you had to mask off two sides of the stripe, and you had to be ALOT more detailed in laying out the mask. plus I didnt really wanna paint my brand new rims (and im too cheap to pay someone else to do it Wink) thats why I tried it out on my "old" rims. plus with taping and then painting any little spot you messed sticks out like a sore thumb, and its hard to keep it a true circle. plus i didnt like the finish/color of the paint.

so behold the miracle worker... 3M pinstriping tape, available at most paint supply stores. the stuff I bought is 3/8 inch red. this stuff is meant to be applied to the exterior of cars and LAST. only problem is they mostly only carry 1/16 inch and 1/8 pinstriping so i had to special order it, $25

ok installation of this stuff is REALLY simple
1. clean your rim, get off all the dirt that will cause it not to stick.
2. cut a length of the tape to make it all the way around the wheel, about 55-60 inches
3. peel back 6-8 inches at a time and slowly stick the stuff down to the outer edge of the rim, this stuff is designed to stetch so one piece will make a circle
4. take you time, make sure your press down really hard when doing it

this process took me about 30 minutes the first time but each one after that was only 15 mins.
this stuff holds up great and if you even decide you dont want it, or if you do a bad job, its easy enough to peel off, clean up the residue and do it again

Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:34 pm

and then of course you need the matching center caps

Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:42 pm

Maimas13 wrote: and then of course you need the matching center caps

Great job, they look awesome. Makes it look like you have redline tires..i love it :D

Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:35 pm

yup :D similar looks but a fraction of the price, and this way I wont have to pay for really expensive tires everytime I buy a new set, the line stays with the rim

Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:07 am

Nice work those came out perfect! :wink:

Sat Nov 08, 2008 10:12 am

1303 sb wrote: Nice work those came out perfect! :wink:

agreed =D>