Some of you might remember that I painted my XD wheels on the van in a bronze color. I like it, but not in love with it. It's too gold for my taste. It has gotten a little better now that it has some brake dust on it, but every time I clean them, I'm a little weirded out by the goldness.
I recently picked up a System One roof rack for it and I plan on painting it or powdercoating it before I install it. First thought was to match the bronze on the wheels, but I think that will look like a teenager from 1984 picked the colors. I could do black since I'm blacking out the chrome soon, but I thought if I could find the RIGHT bronze color, it might work.
Can anyone think of a paint code that looks more brown-bronze? Then I can paint the wheels to match next time I have tires off. Examples:
Could even go a little more charcoal bronze like this:
In my experience the colors always come out a little lighter than they looked when viewing from a screen.
The guy I know that powder coats has a MASSIVE chip chart. It has both his powder recipes and paint recipes for a large paint supply company that was once associated with a champion race car driver. It's the best resource.
Also. Rustoleum hammered oil rubbed bronze is my favorite
System One, aren't those the guys who have a paint that looks like fresh magnesium?
https://www.allpowderpaints.com/powder-coating-colors/sunken-treasure/
I use sunken treasure powdercoating to get a coor that is close but not perfect.
Oapfu
New Reader
9/22/22 3:56 p.m.
This is not going to be extensive enough to be useful, but I was inspired by your earlier bronze wheel painting thread and started looking into painting some Subaru wheels to put on my Mk4 Golf TDI. I did some test painting on a steel Toyota truck wheel, but only a few off-the-shelf colors of spray paint. This was earlier in the spring/ summer just before "inflation" hit consumer rattlecan prices, but even at 'only' $6/can I didn't have the $ or motivation for extensive testing. And I realize I should have done the test-painting on something other than an actual wheel. And I still have not gotten any wheels painted for real. Don't ask me about trying to find an OTS non-metallic slate-gray paint for my truck's front fenders (ref. Jeep "Anvil" or Audi "Aviator", something darker/bluer than Toyota "Cement").
Pix were taken facing due east in late afternoon on an overcast day, the Golf is original VW indigo, the truck is GM yellow, auto-flash on the full-car pic but not for the close-up of the wheel.
The paint:
[1] Rustoleum 7274830 Metallic Antique Brass (as used on the van's wheels now, right?)
[2] Rustoleum 286525 Metallic Dark Copper (also shown in this pic from the "which wheel paint?" thread?)
[c] narrow strip of Rustoleum 285092 satin clear coat over the Metallics
[3] Duplicolor HP102 Graphite HP wheel paint (the can I have is not older than 2014, but I don't remember when I did buy it)
[4] Rustoleum 210880 Hammered Brown (shoulda gotten hammered bronze instead, the spraycan cap looked like it had potential, but I should have known it was NOT going to be metallic at all. Also the lighting in the spray paint aisle was really bad)
[4+r] Rustoleum 214944 Reflective paint over Hammered Brown (simply looks dull in daylight, or white with a point light source)
[5] Krylon 2787 Hammered Dark Bronze (FWIW, directions say 75deg F max ambient, and I was pushing that)
Appleseed said:
System One, aren't those the guys who have a paint that looks like fresh magnesium?
I don't think so. They're an aluminum fab company that does contractor racks for trucks and vans. I've only ever seen them in bare aluminum. Looks like this:
In reply to Oapfu :
That's a great comparison!
Of those, I prefer the #2 copper, but in real life it was very reddish copper. It was too bold for me. The Antique Brass I went with had high hopes but it is just a little to garish for me.
In reply to Stampie :
The C5 magnesium is killer. I'm thinking one or two shades darker.
So I found this. It's a little too dark, and a little more brown than bronze, but I'm at least finding some stuff. The color in question is on the intake (not the valve covers)
Here's another color I dig, but I think it's still a bit light.
Oooohhh.... closer still but no description of what the color or paint is called.
Again, I like this one, but it's a powdercoat and I may not be able to afford it based on preliminary estimates.
Your intake manifold looks like Rusto "Dark Walnut" satin. It has no metalic, it is brown. It looks really good on rough castings and semi polished ones too. Does not show pad dust....
My local sources were out of stock about a month ago when I wanted some....
The last wheels are "triple bronze'
If you can still get it the Duplicolor Bronze wheel paint was really good.
My wife says gold wheels are ugly. That is the one thing she is wrong about.
QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:
The last wheels are "triple bronze'
I thought so too, but the powdercoat site called it bronze chrome... but triple bronze gives me something to search for. Thanks
Edit: Just did a search for triple bronze. Found multiple powdercoats and it might be the winner. Now how do I find it in paint in case I can't afford (or don't want to afford) the powdercoating?
93gsxturbo said:
If you can still get it the Duplicolor Bronze wheel paint was really good.
My wife says gold wheels are ugly. That is the one thing she is wrong about.
Yes. HWP105. I'll have to get a can and test it. Some of the photos show it much lighter than others. If it's dark enough I'll do it.
And I'm sure your wife is lovely... but still wrong
What about going lighter with champagne? 
Th
This is from Superwrap.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:
Appleseed said:
System One, aren't those the guys who have a paint that looks like fresh magnesium?
I don't think so. They're an aluminum fab company that does contractor racks for trucks and vans. I've only ever seen them in bare aluminum. Looks like this:
Nope, its DOW 7. They have paint that mimics raw magnesium. Its berking rad
Here's a link on the H.A.M.B. covering the DOW 7 and similar finishes.
H.A.M.B. Linky
Curtis if you look at the pic of the wheels I posted they have a black lip, that really makes the bronze pop and also gives a break from the ZOMG WALL OF GOLD that makes it look like a rattle can. The wheels you have could get the same treatment, just mask them on the very inside of the lip and you wont see the hard mask line.
The other bronze that looked decent was the Plastidip bronze. I painted the wheels on my 02 Corvette - magnetic red metallic II - basically same color as your van AKA geezer burgandy - with bronze plastidip and left the lips chrome. It held up well and was a bit more of a matte finish so not quite as bling bling or obnoxious.
I am a sucker for bronze wheels but they really need a black or chrome lip to look proper on chunky wheels.
