Tesla Model X with Black 20-inch wheels - here's what it looks like

[goneskiian]

So awesome! Thanks! Apparently I need to spread some rep around more before giving you more. Sorry! ;-)

 

[MrBoylan]

So awesome! Thanks! Apparently I need to spread some rep around more before giving you more. Sorry! ;-)

You're welcome.

 

[BryanJ]

Thank you, Mr. Boylan

 

[Aljohn]

Just ordered Titanium with Black 22" Looks really great

 

[goneskiian]

Um, OK. Why did you put that in this thread again? ;-)

 

[fderheide]

Any chance you could do a gold or bronze wheels on the red and black? I'm considering aftermarket wheels.

 

[Aljohn]

I would imagine you could do any color after market that fits your taste. I considered getting the standard wheels and tires, selling them and buying after market. The math didn't work for me, and I like the Tesla rims.

 

[MikeL]

Looks so good. I would want mine to match paint, or near thereto, as opposed to black. (Dark Grey) you'll see the red brakes from a mile away

 

[MrBoylan]

Any chance you could do a gold or bronze wheels on the red and black? I'm considering aftermarket wheels.

That exceeds the scope of my Photoshop skills unfortunately. Sorry. With the dark wheels, I was able to extract the wheels out as objects with some work using the PS selection tools, then just adjust the brightness of the wheel layers. But even then I had to do some manual tweaks with the paintbrush to darken some areas that wouldn't darken with the standard brightness/contrast tools. I'm sure someone could do a better job on this than I and may be able to adjust the color balance of the wheels to turn the silver to gold (sounds like transmutation to me).

- - - Updated - - -

Looks so good. I would want mine to match paint, or near thereto, as opposed to black. (Dark Grey) you'll see the red brakes from a mile away

I'm sure there are all kinds of color options when you powder coat. I don't know if anyone would be able to do an exact color match but they can probably come close. And speaking of red brake calipers, some folks do this coloring via powder-coating as well (it's a whole lot cheaper than the $20K for the "P" upgrade)!

Do make sure that the place you choose doesn't bake the wheels at over 500 degrees in order to remove the previous finish, though. If aluminum is heated up too much, apparently the structural integrity can be damaged. Some shops remove previous coating with chemicals or with something like sand-blasting, but with tiny metal pellets. These methods should work to prep the metal without damaging its strength. And if you just want to experiment, PlastiDip is probably a better option as it is completely reversible (and even protects the underlying finish). It's also apparently pretty easy to touch up.

-CB

 

[stephendb]

Add titanium?

Thanks for posting this. I'm about to put in my order for MX so this is very useful. Could you post a titanium color w/black 20" wheels?

Also, I'm asssuming these are true black and not the actual "carbon" color offered by Tesla? If you can do their "carbon" that would be awesome.

 

[MrBoylan]

Thanks for posting this. I'm about to put in my order for MX so this is very useful. Could you post a titanium color w/black 20" wheels?

Also, I'm asssuming these are true black and not the actual "carbon" color offered by Tesla? If you can do their "carbon" that would be awesome.

These are black. Tesla only does Carbon in 22-inch currently. So getting black or carbon 20-inch wheels would have to be aftermarket wheels or after market powder coat to the stock wheels. I'm sure some of the actual aftermarket wheel providers will start posting pics of Model X with various optional wheels once there is more of a market for these. But for now, here's Titanium with 20-inch black wheels, courtesy of Photoshop.

Regards,

-Chris

 

[Plinck]

Ask and you shall receive. And here are the rest of the colors too. I didn't do Signature Red because I don't have access to that, but if someone wants to send me a full resolution screen shot of the sig red with 20-inch wheels (full side view), I'd be happy to do that one too. Would need to be someone who has access to the Signature or Founders design studio.

You can move your mouse over each of these to see the color and click to enlarge to full size.

View attachment 103277View attachment 103278
View attachment 103279View attachment 103280
View attachment 103281

I ordered a midnight with black wheels (22") (arriving late april, early may). I went in to test drive the Model X's in Atlanta (decatur actually) but the one they *told* me was midnight looked WAY lighter than what I see on the website and in the pics. I assume your top picture (#103277) in the above is correct version of midnight silver since that it exactly what I want as I didn't like the lighter one. Any way for me to confirm. I *think* they didn't have midnight and the swatches on the wall are so small its hard for me to imagine. Any idea which color would be *silver* but not as dark for comparison. It seems like Silver would be it but this one looked more gray and a bit darker than what silver looks like in the pictures

 

[MrBoylan]

I ordered a midnight with black wheels (22") (arriving late april, early may). I went in to test drive the Model X's in Atlanta (decatur actually) but the one they *told* me was midnight looked WAY lighter than what I see on the website and in the pics. I assume your top picture (#103277) in the above is correct version of midnight silver since that it exactly what I want as I didn't like the lighter one. Any way for me to confirm. I *think* they didn't have midnight and the swatches on the wall are so small its hard for me to imagine. Any idea which color would be *silver* but not as dark for comparison. It seems like Silver would be it but this one looked more gray and a bit darker than what silver looks like in the pictures

Yes, the one you pointed out is midnight silver, but that's a render from the design studio not a "real" picture. There are midnight silver and regular (metallic) silver. Silver metallic is the bright metallic silver which you see on a lot of cars. There's no mistaking that for midnight silver, which is substantially darker.

Midnight silver looks very different depending on the lighting: it's dark grey, bordering on black at night or in low lighting, but it's substantially lighter in the bright sunlight. @ohmman set up a thread for different pictures of midnight silver here:

Midnight Silver Metallic Model X Photos

Another couple of pics in the "Random Sightings" thread:

Random Model X sightings

They might have mistakenly told you that a "Titanium" one was midnight silver. One of the Tesla reps in Manhattan made that mistake. Titanium is much lighter and kind of champagne colored. Midnight silver is darkish gray but with hints of blue or purple. It's a cool color.

 

[TRS-80ModelI]

Your efforts are much appreciated. So sorry the X won't fit your driveway. I have a blue P90DL with the 20
wheels in NYC. Do you or anyone else have suggestions for powder coating the 20" wheels? I have one estimate for $1500 that seems a little spendy.

 

[MrBoylan]

Your efforts are much appreciated. So sorry the X won't fit your driveway. I have a blue P90DL with the 20
wheels in NYC. Do you or anyone else have suggestions for powder coating the 20" wheels? I have one estimate for $1500 that seems a little spendy.

I've never used them but have heard good things about these two places in Queens:
Northeast Auto Clinic Inc. - Queens Village - Queens Village, NY
AMS Powder Coating

$1500 to powder coat 4 wheels sound ridiculously high to me. Let us know how it turns out for you (and post pics!).

You might also check some of the local Tesla forums like this one (which includes NYC): Mid-Atlantic

 

[4sevens.com]

I have 20in titanium grey bbs fi's

 

[mkq786]

OK, here are most of the colors in a rear 3/4 view with a mocked up black 20-inch stock wheel, such as you can get from after market powder coating (or, in this case, Photoshop ). Enjoy!

View attachment 103745View attachment 103746
View attachment 103747View attachment 103748
View attachment 103749View attachment 103750

Thanks. Actually i just gave my 20 inch wheels to black and was wondering how this would look. You solved it. Great job.

By any chance do u have rear 3/4 Multi Coat view as this seems to be missing in above post.

 

[inconel]

I've been thinking of powdercoating my wheels in black as well, but I have heard that the heat during powdercoating can weaken the structure of the wheels. Is it true?

 

[vandacca]

I've been thinking of powdercoating my wheels in black as well, but I have heard that the heat during powdercoating can weaken the structure of the wheels. Is it true?

I took a metallurgy course in Uni and from my understanding the heat shouldn't be much of a problem.

Having said that, it would probably depend on how the wheels are made. If the wheels are forged, the process likely created a lot of stress and fractures in the metal matrix, causing the wheels to become stronger, but more brittle. Heating the wheels (annealing) can "repair" some of those stress points in the matrix, causing them to lose some of that strength, but become more malleable. I would expect that the annealing process would be fairly minimal, but I don't have a lot of experience in this area.

If the rims are cast, it probably has even less of an effect.

I've had my rims powder-coated twice now and I'm not too worried - this is a very common thing in the industry. It would be interesting to know the heat used during powder-coating (along with the time at this temperature) and the annealing temperature/time for that metal.

 

[DiamondHands]

Being that I'm still debating on whether I should powder coat my wheels or not, I thought I'd revive this thread.

Could any of you who've ended up powder coating your rims speak to whatever pros/cons you've come across? Photos would also be awesome. Thanks!