Hello All,

I have a Pepper White 09 MINI Cooper (Not JCW or S) and I am looking to have black wheels. I was considering two options. Taking my 15in stock rims and powder coating them (however there are some tricky logistics invovled with doing this) or buying new black rims. If I buy new black rims I am wanting to get large rims such as 16in or 17in rims however I am not 100% sure on if the larger tires would fit and what size tires to get.The powdercoating is obviously the more cost effective option but I am not sure if I would be happy with 15in rims. I almost feel as if the wheel wells look empty with the smaller tire.

Any thoughts? Does anyone have pictures of PW MINI's with Black rims, either 15in or larger.

Thanks

 

You'll want to head over to the Tires, Wheels, & Brakes Forum, there is a wealth of information plus pics. on what other MINIacs have done!!

 

Search on "Show me your Wheels" and "Peerage of the Pepper White". I have kept my 15 inch spooler wheels and shod them with 205/55/15 tires. I agree that some rubber fills the wheel well. I have thought about about black wheels too, but, it seems that it has been done before....alot! What about anthracite, grey, or gunmetal? There are many pictures of Pepper Whites with this color and they look good too. On high end cars this seems to be the new black. Just a thought.

 

You can get your stock wheels and paint them black is fine either gloss or matte finish. Be careful with powdercoating as the wheel is exposed to heat and that may affect the strength of the alloy wheel.

15" wheels are fine and so are 16" or 17" for your MINI.

16x7 is fine using 205/50-16 tires or similar
17x7 is fine using 205/45-17 tires or similar

Some examples-

 

I picked up some black wheels last week, I was looking for 17s to replace the starfish 16s that were on the car and since the tires were shot I figured I might as well replace both at the same time. So I ended up with some 18" John Cooper Works wheels with new run flats on them for a steal from craigslist. The black wheels look great on my Astro Black Metallic and I think they would look even better on Pepper white. You could powder coat your existing wheels but that would cost as much or more than new 17" wheels that you might like better. If I did not get these wheels I would have picked up a set of Konig Feathers from Alta performance at $125 a wheel. Minihune listed the right tire sizes for the larger rims, mine are 205/40/R18 tires. Tirerack.com has a ton of wheels and tire combos that you can choose from on their site as well.

Here is a shot of the 18s....