1:24 BMW Styling 29 17 + Stance tires

Seventeen inches, a deep dish and stretched rubber

A smaller diameter combined with a stretched tire belongs to the retro conception of lowered cars. The wheel does not come across as massive; instead the edge of the rim stands out toward the front and the gap under the fender is pulled down to a minimum. The pattern with the number 29 suits this expression, because its face is flat and not domed, so the stretched side of the rubber has something to stand out against.

Where the shape most often breaks down

A deep dish is the most demanding place for any mold and for a print head alike, because the wall there runs almost perpendicular. Run a finger around the inner circumference: excess material or the start of the parting line hides exactly here, and it then keeps the rubber from seating when it is pulled on. It is removed with a scalpel led along the circumference, never across it.

It pays to polish the outer edge to a mirror smoothness before the paint. It is the narrowest surface of the whole wheel, but it is precisely the one to which a stretched tire draws the eye, and every remaining groove on it looks like a crack.

Paint behaves differently in a deep dish than on a flat surface. The nozzle delivers less material here and the shade therefore comes out lighter. It is evened out by tilting the part and by two short passes from opposite sides instead of one heavy pass. A check against a window will show the difference sooner than the light of a workshop lamp.

A stretched side pushes on the seating in the same direction all the time, so merely putting it on the pin will not last. The joint needs a spot drop of cyanoacrylate glue and a few minutes of complete stillness, otherwise the wheel will turn slightly as it sets and the carefully set camber will go out.