How to make steelies look good?

[AntiRiceDevice]

Recently got wheel caps for my steelies. But it's rice to me so I want to get rid of em. I would love aftermarket rims but I'm young and don't have money for that yet. What color would go with grey? If I decided to paint my steelies. Here it is now. I'm probably gonna gloss it up and paint the trim grey. If anyone can give tips it would be nice.

[irishkev90]

If you're going to paint the steel wheels, I'd go with black. Personally, I think any other color, even gray, would look ricey and out of place.

The trim around the windows is black. I just redid one of my doors and instead of the gloss black that Mazda used, I used a satin/semi-flat black and it looks great.

I say stick as close to stock as possible, anything else is rice.

Edit: if this was my car, I'd paint the window trim/frames, side mirrors and wiper arms satin black. I used Krylon Rust Tough Semi-Flat black on top of Krylon Rust Tough Zinc Enriched gray primer. No clearcoat, as that will cause it to be glossy, unless you can find a semi-flat clear, but I like it with just three or four layers of black. It's actually fairly durable.

And about the wheel covers, not all of them are rice. The ones you have aren't bad. But the chrome, fake spinner, star-shaped crap is as ricey as it gets, in my opinion. Again, stock or close to stock would look best.

If you're looking for alloy wheels, I'd say no bigger than 16 inches on these cars. If your car has 4-lug hubs (I can't remember if these are 4 or 5), then try to find some Miata wheels. They're actually quite sought after, I think.

[concealer404]

Get rid of the covers.

Then polish the lip of the steelie, paint the inside color of your choice.

Swag.

[MazdaNoob]

to be honest they are steelies ... do whatever you fancy to them no one will mind

[CODY004WD]

If I can be honest for a minute... When I was your age, I was doing the same thing as you... What can I do to my car for super cheap?! I had to learn the hard way not to keep blowing my money on cheap crap for my car. Anything worth doing to your car is going to require some saving. **** like paint, hub-caps, exhaust tips and neon lights add up and are never-ending.

Just live with your car the way it is right now. Save some dough, make a list of priorities, and then start upgrading. Do you want better performance, or better looks, or maybe a bit of both? If the wheels bug you, $300 is all it really takes to score a nice set of wheels and tires on Craigslist. And they'll make 10x the difference compared to a can of paint.

[Racerboy]

I'm in the same boat as you, antiricedevice. I don't have any money for aftermarket rims either. But I'm with cody. I just left mine alone. The stock black looks good with my silver paint. I would think it would just as good with your grey paint.

[CODY004WD]

I gave my little brother that advice, his first car ended up being an ugly 1st gen legacy turbo that could almost hang with evo's and sti's. A cool sleeper, and fun as hell when it was finished being built. He has had several fun cars since then, and the only part he ever bought that was rice, was a pair of racing seats that fell apart. One mistake... I had 3 full mistake builds under my belt before I really learned anything. Slow down, make a plan, and stick to it.

[AntiRiceDevice]

Thank you guys very much for your opinions. I worried about all the engine stuff first. Got my muffler taken care of (rusted no tail pipe got a thrush turbo). Got my clutch replaced (previous owner burned the hell out of that thing.) Got my throttle cable and belts replaced. I have no more money left after all that crap. I'm trying to save for rims but it's very hard. Have a needy girlfriend. Thanks a lot guys might go with the polished/black inside.

[AntiRiceDevice]

Really thinking about doing this what did you use to polish the rim?

Get rid of the covers.

Then polish the lip of the steelie, paint the inside color of your choice.

Swag.