Help needed with Gold Pepperpot wheels quest

[Ferruz 13732]

I have been on the lookout for some proper Kyosho pepperpot style gold alloy wheels. Something genuine, whose color shade looks as close as possible to the golden Option House parts included in the rere Turbo Optima kit.

Here is a perfect example:

This is exactly what I am after 

The above photos are also included in the fleabay listing from Pargu. The name itself has got a great reputation amongst the RC community so, after asking the guy just to be sure whether it was the same gold as Kyosho and getting a resounding yes as an answer, I clicked on buy thinking I'd found what I wanted. I also added the nerf bars, which on the listings look just as stunning.

The parts came in the mail a couple days ago. While the quality of the pieces is absolutely top notch, unfortunately the color is nothing like the pictures on the listing. 

It is too saturated and it veers towards orange, resembling more the color of a gold pan RC10 rather than the light gold of the Kyosho parts.

At first, blinded by the fantastic quality of the items, I thought whatever, I'll get over it, and this is something I can "work with" after all, it will "grow on me" and so on. But I am starting to change my mind. I do generally settle at some point and don't make a big fuss about things, especially in the case of a hobby, right... but if I have to be true to myself and to the vision I have of this project, I should try and get what I actually want this time instead of settling for less. I am going for an "ultimate shelf queen" kind of look here, so there shouldn't be much room for compromise in the aesthetics department or it will easily defeat the purpose.

If I look at all the gold parts at once like in the below photo, my eyes have to do a little too much gymnastics to tie them all together with the wheels. This doesn't happen with the decals and kit's parts alone. 

It's too bad really, given the fantastic quality of the items, but by now I think these wheels need to go. I contacted Pargu with a polite complaint to see whether by any chance he can dye another set for me in the right gold, but I don't expect to even get an answer. Fortunately, it appears I can just simply return the items which is likely what I'm gonna end up doing, although this is only going to get my money back without solving the situation (better than nothing, of course).

Reason why I have asked him if he can anodize a lighter gold is, apparently Pargu's wheels used to be bang on color wise, at least until sometime not long ago. While researching I have found a few examples online of happy customers sporting pepperpots of exactly the hue I want, and they were from Pargu. I wonder, where did those wheels go? What happened in the anodizing process that made him shift from that almost perfect light gold to this coppery/amber thing I am holding today?
By the way, I know his products are great and all, but if I may vent for a moment, I find it not very nice that in the listing he conveniently left the photos of what I now assume was his old, light colored stock instead of updating it with something that portrays the actual duller item. Not cool. I am aware that I may have set the bar pretty high this time and that others would be perfectly fine with this, and I really hope I won't come across as unreasonable or too hard to please here, but I work with hues and colors every day and well, this is no small detail.
I am going for great results so for this time I am ok spending relatively big bucks on a set of alloy wheels, but at least they've got to look the part. Anyway, enuff with the rant now and back to problem solving.

Again, this is the look I am after: 

It's at this point that I started falling deeper into this sort of gold plated rabbit hole. Upon further research last night, I got the impression that these wheels are nowhere to be found nowadays, at least not in the light shade I am after. There is a bunch of other brands out there, but none seem to really look the part: the plastic JC racing ones look gold plated but way too blingy, and any other alloy alternative has the same exact issue of mine, they actually look even darker.
Fun fact, Yeah Racing offers alloy wheels in both pepperpot Turbo Optima and "Peugeot" Optima Mid style, but they are anodized in different gold: while the first ones are sadly in the darker shade, the latter seem to be in the color I want. If it's got to come to a compromise, I might consider Optima Mid rims to go on my Turbo Optima, as long as the color is good enough.

I do ideally want the pepperpots though, and I'm still willing to go to a certain extent to find them.

Now finally on with the questions for the Optimaniacs amongs us.

Does anybody know about any good alloy pepperpots whose gold shade would be close enough to Kyosho?

Did Option House ever produce them at all, or am I after something that never even existed? They do figure online, in photos like the ones above but by now, after researching extensively, I feel as if I'm going after Unicorn poo 😅

Are there other similar alternatives you know of? For instance, I could gladly settle for something like this below if the color was right like in the photo, but after further research and comparison it seems to be yet another case of Pargu going lighter in the past vs darker nowadays.

Lastly, in the remote case anybody has a set of these apparently non-existing wheels he is willing to part with to contribute to my gold rush here, they can send me a PM 

Any help is appreciated, thanks for reading and thanks in advance to whoever wants to chime in with their knowledge or opinions. 

Cheers,

Ferruz

[Superluminal 4210]

I'd be put out by that too. Ive bought a couple of sets of Pargus gold 5 spoke wheels a few years ago for the Javelin and they were the lighter gold like in the original pics but have now noticed they are in the orangey colour on the listing which isnt the same. 

The wheels in the second pic are alloy avante wheels without the camlocks. I have a set of these also in the light gold colour which was a perfect match for the Avantes gold hicaps. But i cant find the seller now....

[Superluminal 4210]

The seller was Rc_loverr but sadly dosesnt look like he's trading anymore 

[Rinskie 1351]

What about getting all the stuff re-annodiezed? The wheels are aluminum right? Is there any reason not to send them all out to an anno shop and have them done in the gold you like best? 

[Killajb 1705]

Very insteresting issue..   I have the Turbo Optima Re-Re and also went with Pargu's gold wheels.  I bought them right after the kit was re-released and the gold anodized color is only slightly darker than the kit's gold color.    If I were at the junction, I would try an experiment:

I recently picked up a used kit with lots of Tamiya blue bling that looked nice in photos, but when it arrived I discovered all the blue alloy was much lighter shades of blue and it was apparent that the car was left out in sunlight for quite some time.  You could try leaving the wheels somewhere where they will be exposed to sunlight for awhile and see if the color starts to lighten up.  Or maybe I was outside staring at the sun too long yesterday..

[Ferruz 13732]

10 hours ago, Rinskie said:

What about getting all the stuff re-annodiezed? The wheels are aluminum right? Is there any reason not to send them all out to an anno shop and have them done in the gold you like best? 

It's definitely an option, thank you for the imput. I thought about it this morning actually, and even found a place that does anodizing even in small quantities. I am definitely going to inquire for an estimate with them, although I don't think it will come cheap which is why I was hesitant in the first place. I wouldn't want to end up paying double the price for the wheels, and counting that they would also have to remove the existing anodized surface before re doing it it would probably be the case. But yes, let's see what they say: if the color can be done to match the other parts, it could be well worth it.

[Ferruz 13732]

@Killajb thank you for the bold idea. Leaving them out in the sun might work, but I am afraid that whatever result I get wouldn't be consistent enough around the rim, and there's four of them 😅 I am tempted to do it anyway.

No reply from Pargu yet, but not surprised lol

[Ferruz 13732]

Wow, this is funny. And a bit weird.

I just came home after a couple days away (I wasn't here when I started the discussion, and only had the photos to look at). I went to the hobby room to look at the Pargu parts again, and... well...all of a sudden they don't seem so bad! I don't know what to say, maybe it's just me. Most definitely it's just me 😅 but anyway, whilst not the same as the kit's parts, they now look to be just a little darker (like @Killajb said) and calling them Orange was a bit too much.

Even in a photo they look better (same light, same everything) 

I am so confused 😳 I never thought that alloy wheels could start acting as some reverse portrait of Dorian Gray.

Better just sleep on this whole thing for now. But hey, if tomorrow they still look like this, it is something I could work with.

[Wystan Withers 658]

As much as I've sworn off social media years ago for the cancer most of it is, if you happen to still use (can't believe I'm going to say this) Facebook, check to see if there is a local Airsoft contingent in your area. Those guys do all sorts of wild stuff with custom anno and usually 'know a guy' who does small batch work and can put in more attention to detail than a big commercial shop. Run into this a lot in BMX world- modern 'gold' anno is much more orange than the yellow gold of vintage parts and lots of guys get their hearts broken when their stuff comes back not at all like the color they were expecting.

[Ferruz 13732]

@Wystan Withers thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Unfortunately, just like you I am not much of a social media person. I never had Facebook, though I know I'm missing out on all sort of stuff, and will not start now.

That being said, I'm still going to exoplore the re-anodizing route. Today I contacted that company I found yesterday and inquired for an estimate, curious to see what they say. I think I would be ok to spend some extra coins on these wheels, provided the result is good enough.

Ps can't wait to be home from work and see how they look today, after the weird feeling of them looking better last night.

[Ferruz 13732]

Double post. Will update later.

[Killajb 1705]

Quite the rabbit hole of information.. but I'm intrigued now..https://www.anoplate.com/news-and-events/why-does-anodize-fade/

[Ferruz 13732]

Pretty interesting, thanks for sharing! 

[Gebbly 875]

A quick question, is this going to be a runner or a shelf queen? If it were a shelf queen perhaps you could get the perfect matching paint and paint the wheels?

[Ferruz 13732]

@Gebbly thanks. For the first -and likely last- time I am building the kit primarily for displaying purpose. It may see some light indoor running, but that's probably it. Painting would generally work, but I want the specific look of anodized aluminum in this case, so not an option I'm afraid.

[Jourduson 35]

I bought my gold rims from Yeah Racing for my Turbo Optima build, knowing very well that the anodising might not be spot on. But surprise! A tad darker, but still within the tolerances and great look.

What I did find though, was a bottom screw cap of the gold shocks to be way darker than the rest of the kit. The other three are just fine and in the finished build I don't see it disturbing me.

[Wooders28 5147]

On 6/24/2024 at 7:54 PM, Ferruz said:

While the quality of the pieces is absolutely top notch, unfortunately the color is nothing like the pictures

Are they these?

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/yeah-racing-aluminum-cnc-8-spoke-rim-set-kyosho-optima-gold--1351540

[moffman 6101]

I got mine from yeah racing they do all the Kyosho wheel in alloy in gold and silver a bit on the expensive side but quality is superb the optima mid wheels in gold are a lot lighter in colour strangely but quality is equally as good 😊 

[Ferruz 13732]

3 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Are they these?

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/yeah-racing-aluminum-cnc-8-spoke-rim-set-kyosho-optima-gold--1351540

No, mine are from Pargu. The color is very much that one though

[Ferruz 13732]

After further research, I'm not so sure about the re-anodizing route anymore: local companies only do huge industrial batches, plus there seem to be way too many factors and variables in the way of a good result first try, which would translate into way too much money thrown into this. 

Too bad, as the thought of anodizing the rims in my exact shade of choice was enticing. 

At this point, I could choose to be less picky and just keep things as they are as it's really not that bad, but given the vision I have of this project I still feel like trying to achieve a better result. I may return wheels and bars back where they came from, and look into the Yeah Racing alternatives. About that, thank you @moffman  for these photos, I was really curious to see especially the lighter Mid rims mounted on a car

4 hours ago, moffman said:

I got mine from yeah racing they do all the Kyosho wheel in alloy in gold and silver a bit on the expensive side but quality is superb the optima mid wheels in gold are a lot lighter in colour strangely but quality is equally as good 😊 

Jackpot for me would be the Turbo Optima rims done in the lighter shade of the Mid ones, as that is what I had in mind in the first place (plus the decals are also that exact hue). Strange indeed such color difference, but both sets look fantastic 😍

What's your opinion Moffman on the Turbo rims? They seem to match nicely in the photos. Do they feel orange-ish in any way (which is what mostly bothers me about mine at certain angles)? 

Right now I am veering towards the Mid wheels, color is spot on and they wouldn't look bad on a Turbo. What's stopping me is just that I like the pepperpots so much, they are likely my favourite vintage rc buggy rims ever... after the ones that grace the Marui Samurai.

[moffman 6101]

6 hours ago, Ferruz said:

After further research, I'm not so sure about the re-anodizing route anymore: local companies only do huge industrial batches, plus there seem to be way too many factors and variables in the way of a good result first try, which would translate into way too much money thrown into this. 

Too bad, as the thought of anodizing the rims in my exact shade of choice was enticing. 

At this point, I could choose to be less picky and just keep things as they are as it's really not that bad, but given the vision I have of this project I still feel like trying to achieve a better result. I may return wheels and bars back where they came from, and look into the Yeah Racing alternatives. About that, thank you @moffman  for these photos, I was really curious to see especially the lighter Mid rims mounted on a car

Jackpot for me would be the Turbo Optima rims done in the lighter shade of the Mid ones, as that is what I had in mind in the first place (plus the decals are also that exact hue). Strange indeed such color difference, but both sets look fantastic 😍

What's your opinion Moffman on the Turbo rims? They seem to match nicely in the photos. Do they feel orange-ish in any way (which is what mostly bothers me about mine at certain angles)? 

Right now I am veering towards the Mid wheels, color is spot on and they wouldn't look bad on a Turbo. What's stopping me is just that I like the pepperpots so much, they are likely my favourite vintage rc buggy rims ever... after the ones that grace the Marui Samurai.

The turbo wheels are more of a sharper gold (not orange in any way but I can see your concerns) they are more copper colour than the mid wheels which are probably what you would expect gold to look like

[mtbkym01 4918]

2 hours ago, moffman said:

The turbo wheels are more of a sharper gold (not orange in any way but I can see your concerns) they are more copper colour than the mid wheels which are probably what you would expect gold to look like

Looking at this pic, the shocks on the Turbo seem darker than the Mid ones, matching the wheel shades on each kit? Maybe this is why Yeah Racing have different colour anno on each set?

[Ferruz 13732]

1 minute ago, mtbkym01 said:

Looking at this pic, the shocks on the Turbo seem darker than the Mid ones, matching the wheel shades on each kit? Maybe this is why Yeah Racing have different colour anno on each set?

I know, they both seem to match!

Man, this game of matching gold shades is killing me, even if I work with colors I'm getting more and more confused 🤯

@moffman thank you for the extra photo. And well, at this point...I can hardly believe I'm asking you this, but here goes...  if it's not too much of a hassle, would you mind posting a photo of the Turbo wearing the Mid's wheels, just to see how it looks with them on? I don't mean to take advantage of your kindness, and I would TOTALLY understand if this is too much to ask in which case forget it 😊 but if you do, it would help me a lot in this quest as right now I feel pretty lost 😅 thanks again in any case.

[Wystan Withers 658]

Glad to hear about he YR wheels. Have had their Hotshot wheels sitting in my eBay Wishlist constantly debating about pulling the trigger. Always seems to be something else more pressing...

[moffman 6101]

9 hours ago, Ferruz said:

I know, they both seem to match!

Man, this game of matching gold shades is killing me, even if I work with colors I'm getting more and more confused 🤯

@moffman thank you for the extra photo. And well, at this point...I can hardly believe I'm asking you this, but here goes...  if it's not too much of a hassle, would you mind posting a photo of the Turbo wearing the Mid's wheels, just to see how it looks with them on? I don't mean to take advantage of your kindness, and I would TOTALLY understand if this is too much to ask in which case forget it 😊 but if you do, it would help me a lot in this quest as right now I feel pretty lost 😅 thanks again in any case.

Looks ok actually