Hi
I have a MK3 with standard wheels , ( Enkei ? ) but they are looking somewhat tired, and at some point I would like to remove them one by one , clean off any corroded areas and maybe re spray them as they look like they have a paint finish, or maybe I need to go to Specsavers.
My questions are : are they painted, and if so does anyone know the colour ? theyâre not unlike the colour of my car which is Sunlight Silver.
Thanks
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Boz
I see this question asked over and over about lots of cars and I havenât seen anyone who can answer it. Even dealerships seem to be in the dark on this too. You could try picking a colour that is nearest to the colour they are now but, remember any paint removed back to the aluminium will have to be sprayed or brush painted with an etching primer first before repainting them. If you know how to use a spray gun you could use a two part paint to put on the wheels.
Iâm sure alloy wheels are indeed painted, on the outside face anyway, otherwise you wouldnât be able to get them in so many different colours.
On my car, they are black, which has chipped off in one or two places following the odd instance of curbing - not by me of course !
The chips show though as a natural alluminium colour - so painted they must be.
Just touch them in with the nearest colour you can find.Â
When I originally bought mine, the wheels were not particularly concourse.
For the insides, I rubbed them back with production paper and sprayed them with a cheap alloy wheel silver.
They turned out ok to be fair.
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One had a small kerb rash.
I gently smoothed this out with a dremel flap wheel, then touched in and built it up with a small brush using paint taken from a can of Sunlight Silver.
In all honesty, I couldnât see where Iâd touched it in.
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NC 2.0l Sport by the way
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Also, may I add, that mine is a summer toy, so two winters ago I put it up on axle stands and had all four powder coated at a cost of around ÂŁ35 each.
Although I did have to have them balanced afterwards.
Total cost about ÂŁ170
Hi, and thanks for the tips.
Although the car is garaged, there is no room to work on the wheels, so it will be a Spring/summer job on the drive, Iâll try touching them up first before going the whole hog and spraying them, thatâll give me some time to find a near paint match.
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Cheers
Boz
There is no specific paint as they are not painted when they are made. They are powder coated.
As others have said you can touch them up with a similar colour touch up paint and if you are careful you may get away with it some on here have, others I know have not.
A local paint sprayer I know paints up alloy wheels for a car dealer with scraped alloys as he does that for a lot less than it costs to powder coat the wheels.
Donât for a minute think that powder coating a used wheel is the perfect answer as in the past there have been powder coated wheels that cracked their spokes.
The powder coating process needs the wheels to be cured in an oven and some wheels get stress cracked and that may not show for some months.
Therefore do your best but the repair may not last too long as my sprayer friend found after some months or you may be lucky.
This is not true, many, many wheels are painted, in fact I would say most wheels are painted from new.
RAL9006 is often used for wheels - RAL9006 has a strange history as it was technically a protective finish and not a âcolourâ Might not be what youâre looking for, but a good starting point.
I have a spare set of 16â alloys if anyone is interested, in good condition, sprayed black at the moment but could be useful if you want to spray these then get them fitted, then sell your old ones 
A belated thanks for your info, Iâll look into those options,
Boz
Many thanks for those words. I was thinking of powder coating my wheels, but now I think I will just go for a repair (minor) and re-spray.
I used Ford Stardust Silver on the wheel I refurbished yesterday, pretty much a perfect match for the original silver, top picture is an untouched wheel and the lower is the one I used the Stardust (and clear lacquer) on. The old wheel is on the rear and the painted one on the front in the other photos.
Do you still have these black alloys for sale? If so how much are you looking for and where from?
Thanks in advance!
I have a set of OEM wheels in factory silver on my 2011 NC and exactly the same stock wheels but powder coated in a a bronze / gold finish. Sort of swap them as I feel like it.
Would love to see your bronze / gold wheels 
