Well as no-one posts on this site anymore, I may be talking to myself, but that’s fine. I’m good with that.
Anyway, a while back, I bought a set of NA2-R wheels from another long-time forum member. I didn’t have a master plan, but I thought I’d just get them powder coated in the elusive washi grey and have an extra set of wheels for the next car. Whatever that is.
So I bought some grey NA2R wheel centres from Amayama and started looking for the correct colour. That became a massive PITA because pretty much every piece of info on the net is inaccurate. Nothing matches. Which means; 1. The wheel centres are not quite washi grey. Or 2. I just haven’t found the right colour yet. Personally, it annoyed me because if Honda cared about it’s customers it would have made all the paint codes available. But they do not and it’s not the only one. It’s obviously a first world problem. But why shroud it in mystery. Please don’t right in with paint code suggestions. I’ve painted them white now!
So what are the differences between standard 02 wheels and R wheels. One of the new NSX replica wheel manufacturers would have you believe there is no difference. But I’ve weighed mine and they are lighter.
NA2R wheels also have their own prefix F = RV720, R = RV721. Standard 02 wheels are 718/719.
When a wheel is powder coated, it is dipped, then shot blasted to give the paint something to adhere to. Each time this is done, you lose a bit of detail. Whether it’s the sharpness of a design or the serial numbers. My wheels needed painting, but I was reluctant to lose the serial numbers and I wanted a sleeker finish that powder coating can’t quite provide.
I’m probably splitting hairs, but if you can find someone who can paint wheels, wet painting definitely has it’s advantages. Rhe disadvantages are that they probably won’t wear quite so well. But we’d have to use them for that to matter.
So, the wheels came back today. They look fantastic, the colour matches the original CW centre caps and you can see the numbers.
It’s not the be all and end all, but as these cars become more and more valuable, this stuff begins to matter a bit more. Or maybe not 🤔