With so many people interested in blacked out parts, even the exhausts are being painted black. The natural color of raw aluminum and steel is siver or gray in nature but is it possible to dye the metal or would it weaken it? for example, we spend 150-200 dollars for a nice powder coated aluminum wheel, only to have the black scraped off on the rocks revealing the silver underneath. If the metal was darker or preferably black, you wouldn't even need to paint it. Maybe its been tried but I thought I'd ask the question as I'm certaintly not sure of how the manufacturing process works.

 

A lot of people rattle can their wheels so when they chip they can just spray them.

I've seen some bedlined wheels on here and from what it seems it looks like they hold up pretty well with scratches.

 

Aluminum can be anodized to virtually any color, (think those colored dollar carabiners at home depot). It is an expensive process and could potentially scratch through the anodized coating since its only thinly dyed into the metal. I'm not sure if steel can be processed in the same way. Rattle cans are cheaper either way.