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I bought gunmetal OEM-style 18" winter wheels to contrast the 19" silver summers. After one winter, I can't really say I'm a fan of the stormtrooper look with a white car, though I know it's really popular.
So one test wheel got dipped today in bright aluminum (four coats base, two coats metallic). I previously dipped the side mirror, front spoiler lip and rear valance in bright aluminum so it all matches now. A cheap cosmetic mod especially when I got the base grey dip colour on sale for $3/can. Before I started, I used the dip cleaner, and covered the rubber with dip release. I sprayed the fresh, clean wheel with dip sealant to tough it up and make it smoother.
before and after
19" OEM versus 18" dipped (though the 18" always seems to look bigger)
I agree that the dip looks amazing! I've watched a ton of videos and they make it look very easy, but I just know I'll find a way to mess it up. :-)
It's really hard to mess up! If it's not warm outside, keep the cans themselves warm in a bucket of water to keep the paint flowing well. I taped about 1" away from the rim because it made clean up easier when there is less dip to remove from stubborn bits on the rubber. It takes some trial and error to figure out how far away and how fast to spray the regular dip and the much thinner metallic paint. I find a wet coat dries smoothy built up during spraying is the best but it's a fine line to the point where it might drip. And if you do get a drip, just peel and start again. The dip coat spray afterwards makes the paint slick and hard. I'm in no hurry for winter to try out the new wheels. If you do a search for Iain on the board, you will see his glacier white TTS with the five-spoke two-toned machine-faced wheels in 18".
It's really hard to mess up! If it's not warm outside, keep the cans themselves warm in a bucket of water to keep the paint flowing well. I taped about 1" away from the rim because it made clean up easier when there is less dip to remove from stubborn bits on the rubber. It takes some trial and error to figure out how far away and how fast to spray the regular dip and the much thinner metallic paint. I find a wet coat dries smoothy built up during spraying is the best but it's a fine line to the point where it might drip. And if you do get a drip, just peel and start again. The dip coat spray afterwards makes the paint slick and hard. I'm in no hurry for winter to try out the new wheels. If you do a search for Iain on the board, you will see his glacier white TTS with the five-spoke two-toned machine-faced wheels in 18".
I see from your signature that you have both Unitronic tunes on a 2016 model. Do you run into any issues in terms of warranty support/maintenance because of those?
Re: the tunes - I love 'em. Makes the car what it should be and the DSG tune really helps. Maybe there will be an intake at some point, but the car hasn't even seen it's first birthday yet.
I've only brought my car into the dealer once for a soundaktor problem since I got tuned at 5000 mi (I'm at 9000 mi now). It takes about 30 min (longest 30 min of my life) to refresh the car back to stock with the unitronic software before I pay a visit to the dealer (10' for DSG and 20' for ECU). I have not had problems flashing the car from a Windows 10 bootcamp partition on my MacBookPro although Unitronic says they will only support a bona fide windows PC not running Apple drivers. I have one of those too (an el cheapo Acer) but the Mac is just nicer/faster/convenient to use.
Next time I flash to stock, it'll be for my audicare regular service interval at 25000 km. So not for a while.
I asked Unitronic about extra maintenance. For example, more frequent oil changes, or different spark plugs, or anything else. They said they designed their tune to work within OEM service parameters so I don't need to do anything different. I use PetroCanada (Sunoco) Ultra-94 because that's what's near me. The tune limits the maximum performance of the car until it's warmed up so you can't just start it up and go wild which is a good thing when considering the longevity of the car, anyways. But once it's warm... watch out !
Grey67: I noticed that in your .sig, you're car is wrapped. Do you have before/after pics?
I was sorta in your 'hood during my road trip in January (leaving Princeton NJ towards 295 before I headed north again)
It is being wrapped this week. The wrapper said they'd take lots of pics, which I am planning to post. I have not even seen the matte film laid out on the car. They asked if I wanted them to send pics as they wrap but I told them to surprise me with the finished product.
The really nice thing is that they are throwing in (clear) lens protection film for the front headlights plus they added side windows tinting for only another $100. I am going a bit crazy not being able to see this but I'm told by everyone that it will look sick when it's done.
04-29-2017, 08:12 AM
winter wheel dip
