1:24 17 inch BMW Styling 18

The cross-spoke pattern of the nineties

Spokes laid in a cross are among the most recognizable elements of Bavarian cars of the nineties. The Munich carmaker designates its individual wheel designs with sequence numbers, and the 18 is one of those that are still sought today for garage conversions. Seventeen inches works out in 1:24 scale to a rim roughly 18 millimeters in diameter, that is a size that comes across credibly under a model and calls for no cutting into the body.

A look into the wheel

The cross-laid grid has a narrow but open window between the arms. It is precisely through it that one sees backward on a finished car, onto the wall of the dish and onto what is behind it. The casting bears that quality in mind and the inside does not end in a partition. An injection-molded wheel from a box, by contrast, tends to have its bottom seated right behind the face, so that in the view from the side the wheel looks shallow and the area behind the spokes shines with a uniform color.

Without shoes

In this size the tire from a kit can be kept to advantage, because a seventeen-inch wheel comes close in profile to what tends to be in the box. The set deals only with the discs and leaves it to you whether to keep the original shoes or to obtain a lower profile.

Preparation

Wash the discs in lukewarm water with a detergent before spraying and let them dry. Silver shades reveal every impurity, so it pays to prime thinly and in two layers. Leave the polished edge of the barrel until last and separate it off with a narrow masking tape, otherwise the metallic pigment will run into the hollows between the arms and the pattern will lose its crispness.

Try the hub on the pin before the paint. If there is no clearance, widen the hole with a drill held in the hand, never in a machine.