What colour should your wheels be?
A refurb is the one chance to pick the finish the factory never offered. 13 colours, each in gloss, satin or matte — 39 combinations before you even get to diamond cutting. Start here for a direction, then come and see the swatch panel, because every screen lies about metallics.
Done in our shop
Colours with a photo behind them
Anyone can put a colour swatch on a website. These are the ones where we can show you the wheel it came off — swatch on the left, our own photograph on the right, all shot at the unit.
Black
GlossThe one most people come in for. Shrinks the wheel visually and lets the bodywork lead. Gloss is the classic, satin is the quiet one, matte is the statement.
Evoque wheel we did in gloss black
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Anthracite
SatinDark grey with depth. Hides brake dust far better than black and reads factory on almost anything German.
Dark grey wheels with blue calipers on an M4
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Factory Silver
GlossThe metallic silver most cars wore out of the showroom. The safe call, and the one that keeps a car looking standard — which matters if you are selling it.
Porsche set returned to factory silver
Book this finishThe colour wall
Same colours, three different finishes. Flip the sheen and watch what it does — it changes the look as much as the colour does.
Gloss. Full shine. Reflects the sky, shows the shape of the spoke best, and is the easiest of the three to keep clean.
Gunmetal
Warmer and a shade lighter than anthracite. The old reliable on silver, white and grey cars.
Available in gloss, satin, matte
Shadow Grey
Mid grey — light enough to show a spoke design, dark enough to stay discreet. Good middle ground if black feels too much.
Available in gloss, satin, matte
Racing White
Motorsport white. Brilliant on a dark car and completely unforgiving about brake dust — you will be cleaning these.
Available in gloss, satin
Bronze
The modern performance colour. Superb against white, grey and dark green; fights with most reds.
Available in gloss, satin, matte
Rose Gold
Warmer and pinker than bronze. Rare enough that people ask about it, subtle enough not to shout.
Available in gloss, satin
Gold
Rally gold. Made for blue cars and small hot hatches, and completely wasted on anything else.
Available in gloss, satin
British Racing Green
Deep enough to read black at a distance, then reveals itself in the sun. Understated and very British.
Available in gloss, satin, matte
Midnight Blue
Near-black navy. The subtle way to put colour on a wheel without committing to colour.
Available in gloss, satin, matte
Signal Red
Full-fat red. More often chosen for the calipers than the wheels — we can do either, or both.
Available in gloss, satin
Coded To Your Car
Mixed to your manufacturer paint code so the wheels match the bodywork exactly. Quietly the most expensive-looking option on this page.
Available in gloss, satin, matte
Diamond cut
Lathe work rather than paint. Sharper than anything a powder can do, but it is finite — each cut takes material off the wheel, and once the lacquer is chipped, moisture gets under it and the face goes milky.
Diamond Cut
The face machined on a CNC lathe to bright bare alloy, colour in the recesses, lacquer over the top. What most premium wheels wear from new — and a wheel only takes two or three cuts in its life before it is too thin.
Diamond Cut & Black
Machined face against gloss black recesses. The highest-contrast finish there is and the one that flatters a multi-spoke most.
Diamond Cut & Anthracite
Machined face over dark grey. Softer than the black version and far more forgiving about brake dust.
Polished & specialist
Hours of hand work for a finish that rewards someone who enjoys cleaning wheels and punishes someone who does not.
While the wheels are off…
The wheels are already off the car, so the calipers are the cheapest they will ever be to do — in a contrast colour, or coded to match.
Every screen lies about metallics
The swatches on this page are approximations rendered by your monitor. A metallic changes with the angle you stand at, a machined face changes with the light, and a matte looks completely different in the sun than it does in a photograph. Use the wall to narrow it down to two or three, then come and hold the real samples against your car — it takes ten minutes and it is free.
Your Street, Your Town AB1 2CD · 0161 000 0000
Finish questions
What is the difference between gloss, satin and matte?+
It is the amount of shine in the lacquer, and it changes the look as much as the colour does. Gloss reflects the sky and shows the shape of the spoke best. Satin has a soft sheen and is the most forgiving — it hides light swirls and brake dust better than either of the others. Matte is completely flat, looks superb on the right car, and cannot be machine-polished if it gets marked.
Can I have any colour in any of the three?+
Nearly. Most powders are made in all three sheens, and each card on the wall lists which ones that colour comes in. A handful of metallics only really work in gloss or satin because the flake needs some depth of lacquer to read properly — we will tell you if the one you want is one of those.
Can I have any colour I want?+
Effectively yes. Powder coating runs to thousands of colours across the manufacturers, and anything we cannot buy off the shelf we can mix as a wet coat. This wall is a direction-finder, not a limit — bring a photo of anything and we will find the nearest powder to it.
Why don’t you list powder brand names or RAL numbers?+
Because the exact powder for your job gets picked off the physical swatch panel in the unit, where you can see the real finish on a real sample in real light. Screens shift colour with brightness and white balance, and a metallic or a machined face photographs nothing like it looks. A swatch on this page is a starting point, never the contract.
Which finish lasts longest?+
Powder coating, comfortably. It is baked on and it can be stripped and redone as many times as you like. Diamond cutting looks sharper but sits under a lacquer that will eventually let moisture in at a chip, and each recut takes material off the wheel — most wheels take two or three cuts in their life.
Does the colour change the price?+
The colour does not — the process does. Standard powder coating in any sheen is the baseline. Diamond cutting costs more because it is lathe time. Mirror polishing costs more again because it is hours of hand work, and two-tone costs more because the wheel gets masked and coated twice.
Can you match the wheels to my car’s paint?+
Yes. We mix to your manufacturer paint code, and because our bodyshop is on the same site we can do the calipers and any kerbed trim in the same visit so it all ties together.