I wouldn’t get your brake calipers painted white - they’ll very quickly get coated in brake dust and just look dirty, even if you clean them every week / two weeks.
Personally, I’m not a fan of black alloys - IMO maintaining them is a bit like maintaining a black car - they’ll only really look clean just after they’ve been washed. After a few miles motoring, brake dust will start to build up on them and they’ll look a dirty, dull dark brown-ish colour.
If you get your existing alloys powder coated, I’d go for an anthracite / gun metal grey colour, which IMO goes well with most colours of cars. Hides the brake dust pretty well too. You can usually find examples of specific cars with your preferred colour of wheel on the internet (e.g. white
mk3 Seat Leon with gunmetal alloys), so worth having a look before getting your wheels re-powder coated.
If you replace your wheels, you’ve not said if your were thinking of buying used or new. If used, I’d do the following;
- Check the bolt pattern of the wheels is correct for the car the wheels will be going on. If the wheel’s centre bore is too large, it can be reduced by fitting spigot rings or reduce the centre bore to the correct size.
- Get the seller to confirm they’ve not been damaged/repaired, and they have no cracks or buckling from pothole (or similar) damage.
- If they’re being sold as genuine OEM wheels, check the rear of the spokes to confirm this - the following info should be on the rear of the spokes; part number, wheel manufacturer name, car manufacturers logo, size/offset details (e.g. 7.5J x 18 ET51) and a quality / safety certification mark (see next point).
- Only consider buying wheels that have TUV, ABE, JWL or equivalent certification, which is a sign of quality as wheels will have been subjected to stringent safety and quality checks.
- I’d avoide Chinese replicas - new or used - that are often sold on well known online auction sites, as the quality of casting, finish and structural rigidity may be inferior to wheels manufactured by reputable well known brands such as BBS, Borbet, Ronal, Oz etc.
- Avoid diamond cut alloys (my personal preference), due to poor durability of the finish, unsuitability (IMO) for use during the winter and higher cost to refurbish,
- Ensure the fitment isn’t going to cause any clearance/ rubbing issues. There’s a useful calculator on www.willtheyft.com that’ll calculate the critical numbers (clearance, speedo error etc.) if overall rolling radius of the new wheel/tyre combination is different from the current set up.
If you’re considering new wheels, I’d check out on line retailers such as Rimstyle, Wheelbase Alloys, Performance Alloys.com, Tyre Leader. Inputting the details of your car should mean you’re only shown wheels that are suitable for your car in terms of size, offset, load limit of the wheels etc. As with used wheels, my personal preference would be to avoid diamond cut alloys.
Also, don’t forget to inform your insurer as fitting different wheels is considered to be a modification for insurance purposes.
