Gold wheels, gold brembo, too bling?

[boggissimo]

I've just had some Brembo brakes off an Sti fitted, along with some ex-Sti wheels, on my wrx wagon in crystal grey (48w). It might just take a bit of getting used to, but they seem rather blingy after the stock grey WRX wheels.

What do you guys think?




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[Steve_PPP]

Looks good to me

You can't go back to the standard WRX wheels with the brembos anyway, and its worth having the better stopping power...

[NL03Scooby]

It looks alright, bare in mind it's how the standard Sti's look, have the wheels been refurbished in their lifetime?

[boggissimo]

Yeah, I'm not having second thoughts about the brakes, just the colour of the wheels. They need a proper refurb at some point, by which time I may be used to the gold-ness and get them redone in that colour anyway!

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[Banstead Stig]

Looks a bit jazzy with the grey in my opinion.

When it's refurb time I'd go with something a bit more subtle.

That said, it doesn't look bad by any means, just stands out!

[boggissimo]

Just driven to work in it, and the tyres (that came with the wheels) are awful! Really noisy and despite being virtually new, didn't feel very grippy either. They are Autoguard and got terrible reviews, so I will swap them back to the Kumho Ecstas I have on the old WRX wheels soon.

[Steve_PPP]

Originally Posted by boggissimo

so I will swap them back to the Kumho Ecstas I have on the old WRX wheels soon.

Check the tyre sizes as you might have a bit of a stretch.

Think the WRX wheels are 17x7J, whereas the STI wheels are 17x7.5J. Won't be much, but worth checking.

[Granby]

I had satin black STi wheels on my old wagon which looked good (to me anyway ), didn't have brembo's but would think they should look good behind a darker coloured wheel

[Frenchie]

Never been a fan of gold wheels and agree with Granby re darker coloured wheels. His satin black looks good.

[boggissimo]

Aye, looks good in black!

Will ask the tyre man about the fit. Don't really want to shell out another few hundred for four new tyres as well...but equally don't want to keep the horrible ones on the wheels now.

[Granby]

Originally Posted by boggissimo

Aye, looks good in black!

Will ask the tyre man about the fit. Don't really want to shell out another few hundred for four new tyres as well...but equally don't want to keep the horrible ones on the wheels now.

You've got the correct size 225/45/17 on them, i know you don't want to spend any more but they are the only contact between you and the road, especially with the crap weather coming up you want the very best tyre you can afford

[boggissimo]

Not to mention some track time on the Silverstone GP Circuit in Feb...

[boggissimo]

Tyre shop is asking £80 to swap them over, and says they should fit OK...
but of course for another £200 I could get the right size and new rubber as well! This is turning into an expensive upgrade

[boggissimo]

I've just had another thought - will the spacesaver spare fit over my Brembos, or do I need to get a new one of them too?!

[C. J.]

Originally Posted by boggissimo

I've just had another thought - will the spacesaver spare fit over my Brembos, or do I need to get a new one of them too?!

It'll fit over the rears but not the fronts

[Steve_PPP]

Yep as CJ says. If you get a flat on the front then you'll need to put the spacesaver on the rear first and then put that good wheel on the front...

[Banstead Stig]

Isn't that what you'd do anyway? I'd have thought otherwise the steering would feel a bit weird.

[boggissimo]

Nice one, thanks all.

Now just need to decide what tyres to get, I've gone this far so might as well do it properly. Will start a new thread for recommendations...

[boggissimo]

Had enough of the gold, so I finally got around to having my wheels refurbed.

I asked Spit & Polish in Tonbridge, and Lepsons in Gillingham, both of which wanted £350+ to do them.

Then I asked the guy in my village who has done lots of powder coating for my other project, and he did them for £210 all in. I'm not a connoisseur, the wheels aren't anything rare and it's not a show car, so I really can't see how the other places could be 70% better!

They look good to me and I much prefer the anthracite colour. Even SWMBO likes them

https://www.facebook.com/CSPPowdercoating/ if anyone else wants to give Curtis a try.

[Rdlangy1]

Looks tidy

[scotty]

Looks so much better .

[boggissimo]

Yep! Plus my family won't take the piss any more 😂

[Frenchie]

Defo a massive improvement .

[boggissimo]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Yep as CJ says. If you get a flat on the front then you'll need to put the spacesaver on the rear first and then put that good wheel on the front...

Thread revival, just to say I got a flat front tyre the other day, so swapped a rear wheel onto the front and then put the space-saver on the rear...and it locked the wheel solid! Couldn't move the car anywhere. Presume it was jammed against the caliper, and it doesn't seem possible to put the space-saver on back to front, so it must just not fit.

I have since got a new STI space saver from Matty B and put the normal wheel back on (no damage to the caliper thankfully).

They are visibly quite different, as seen in the photos.

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[Steve_PPP]

Have you put brembos on the rear as well? There should be no issue with the original spacesaver and the WRX rear 2 pots as that's how they came from the factory.

[boggissimo]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Have you put brembos on the rear as well? There should be no issue with the original spacesaver and the WRX rear 2 pots as that's how they came from the factory.

Yep, Brembos all round. The rears aren't as big as the fronts but still too big for the space-savers it seems!

[Steve_PPP]

Ah yeah if you have brembos on the back as well then your original spacesaver is no use at all! Guess you found that out the hard way!!

[boggissimo]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Ah yeah if you have brembos on the back as well then your original spacesaver is no use at all! Guess you found that out the hard way!!

Yeah, thankfully I was at home when I discovered the flat tyre, not on the hard shoulder of the M25 in the rain/dark/cold! Got a mobile fitter to come and sort it out so no big deal in the end.

[IBenjieI]

I'm loving the silver and black, I was searching for wheels for my wagon the other day and wanted something coloured like blue... the missus said it would look better in black. She's right of course...