Want to become an expert on OEM finishes before deciding which wheels to buy with your car? Or maybe you’re interested in reconditioning and want to explore a brand spanking new look for your trusted original rims? Take a look at our simple guide for the most common finishes for OEM wheels and rims.


Standard Silver – Basic silver is the most common finish for all OEM wheels and rims, you really can’t go wrong, the clean, shiny metallic fits the style of every make and model. Besides a standard steel wheel, this option is most likely the next step up for the standard base model of a vehicle.

Standard silver finish

Machine – Machine looks just like how it sounds- like a machine was run along the edge, which creates a unique rugged look, which goes perfectly with trucks and larger vehicles.

Machined rim with textured spokes. 

Textured – Textured pockets are referring to the inside of the spokes which will have speckled silver, which is done with a curing process, creating a texture in the aluminum.

Hyper silver – Hyper silver is a very special kind of paint which gives the wheels a slight glow. This finish is more difficult to recreate exactly as the paint is a combination of two layers, both a dark or light first layer and then silver on top. Regular hyper silver looks much brighter and lighter, while a Dark or “Midnight” hyper has a dark shade to them. To make matters even more confusing sometimes factory brands give their own unique name to the finish to stand out, such as “smoked hyper”.

Hyper silver


Charcoal – Charcoal or “Gunmetal” is really just a fancy way to say dark gray. Again most likely an OEM company has created a specially branded name for their version of the dark or light gray, but really the color is plain old gray. Be careful when the finish comes into the picture, a gloss charcoal is going to look quite different than a matte one.

Polished face of a wheel.

 

Polished – Polished wheels don’t necessarily have color to them, they are just polished down and look incredibly shiny. Because this isn’t a color this is usually referred to as “polished aluminum”. This is most confused with chrome, but you cannot see your reflection in a polished wheel.

Chrome finish,  notice the distinctive mirrored reflection. 

 

Chrome – Chrome is the easiest to recognize because it’s basically like looking into a mirror, it's also the most expensive finish out there! Chrome finishes are commonly found on other classic car parts, such as bumpers, door handles, mirrors, etc.