Hyper Silver wheels

[RevNev]

For those probably too old like me to appreciate the modern trend of dark coloured and black wheels and prefer some "old school" bling, a colour known as Hyper Silver is the brightest and most reflective silver seen on some Mercedes AMG, Porsche, BMW, BBS and some aftermarket wheels that'll rarely fit Commodore's, but no one in my experience refurbishing wheels can ever produce the unique Hyper Silver effect and those who get close, won't tell you how it's achieved and what paint they're using.

After years of researching silver paints and trying different silver wheel refinishing, I finally cracked the Hyper Silver mystery and it's not hard to achieve with the right paint and preparation process. From a Mercedes AMG shadow chrome wheel paint code, I discovered it's the same paint a special effects Glasurit tinter called Velvet Silver 55-9190 painted over a light grey or silver base coat and then clear coated. It's a bright silver effect in direct sunlight with an almost polished alloy effect in low light.

Here it is under LED lights showing the reflective effects.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Is that a wheel you painted up or did you have someone do it? Or do you work for a business doing it?

 

[RevNev]

Is that a wheel you painted up or did you have someone do it? Or do you work for a business doing it?

They were raw wheels bought unfished (bare alloy). I prepped them rubbed them down with 400 and a mate of mine (a retired painter) etch primed them and sprayed them with a 2K white primer. I then wet rubbed them with 800 and he sprayed them with a PPG silver tinter basecoat(D770). The Glasurit Velvet Silver including a hardener was sprayed over the silver basecoat and then coated with 2K clear.

It took a while to do it and source the paint but it was done as an experiment to see if it worked with right Hyper Silver effect I was after. The colour and effect is magic and now I know how to re-produce it, I'd be inclined to seek someone in the trade who's good at painting wheels and has the knack, supply the paint and instruct them how to do it. We often hear that Hyper Silver is sprayed over a black basecoat, but over black on a test panel, the overall effect was darker and lacked the bling that a translucent silver has over a light coloured base coat. Over black it had more a shadow chrome effect unless you sprayed 20 coats of Velvet Silver to fully cover the black.

Here's the raw wheel (Forgestar CV5) on a test fit. Rears are 20x11 ET52 with 295/30 tyre. Fits perfectly scrape free with a guard roll or lip trim.

 

[ephect]

Omg that is amazing. On the cards for my next set of rims

 

[Fu Manchu]

Absolutely love those.
Looks one hundred times better than my comparative shitty effort on my wheels.

 

[NORTI]

looks fantastic

 

[Commo64]

Looks awesome.... While I do like black wheels on some cars, on others the lighter colours actually look way better

 

[losh1971]

Silver all the way, although I could be biased.

 

[MrBags]

Well if the wheels on the SS ever need a repaint I think I found a plan!!

 

[MrBags]

Also I work for an Automotive Paint store so that’ll help.