My newly sprayed wheels, Proxies opinion and advice request!

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I've been thoroughly poked off with the state of my standard rims since the day I drove my car home/day 1, so I decided it was time to do something about it.
My brother had his campervan wheels powdercoated in brilliant white by his local spray shop in Derby, a month or two ago, and having seen what a brilliant job they made of the rusty VW wheels (they came back looking spanking new!) I decided to take the plunge.
I was thinking about going a burnt bronze colour, because I really like the look of darker wheels on a black MR2, but having thought about resale value (should the need ever arise) I decided that a standard silver spray job would be the sensible option to replicate the standard look.

Unfortunately, the spray shop didnt have such an extensive range (which surprised me, knowing how popular silver would be) and I was offered either a metallic silver or matt looking silver finish. Initially I thought the standard colour scheme was metallic silver, but offering the two options up to my wheel revealed that the matt finish actually matched what was already on the rims (albeit slightly on the light side). So having decided my colour and dates for the wheels to be dropped off (which coincided with my trip to LeMans - which was awesome!), I was left counting the days till the big day.

Having aquired the pair of 16" wheels from "amplify!", getting the tyres removed from the front two rims, and rinsing my bank account for all its worth to pay for new Toyo rubber all round for the '2, my brother and I embarked on our journey to LeMans, already excited at the prospect of slapping the freshly painted rims and rubber back onto my '2 on our return.

<fast forward 5 days!>

Returned from France'land to find my fresh, new looking rims which my brothers girlfriend had kindly sorted for me. I was pleasantly surprised at how the paint/powercoat had come out slightly darker than I'd imagined it would, and am pretty chuffed that it pulls off that "standard yet not standard" look.

I'd heard that the Toyo Proxies were the way forward, but can be a little slippery for the first 500 miles (that right?) so I took it easy on the drive back home. Having had some Firestone tyres fitted since I acquired the car, and the crackin' reviews the Toyo's get, I was expecting big changes....
I was pretty surprised with how grippy the tyres were already, but occasionally could feel the car wasn't quite as "stuck to the road" as it perhaps should be. Road noise is dramatically reduced, and the '2 seems alot more planted to the road. Before it had a tendancy to sort of hop over the road surface and skip side to side and the steering wheel would be constantly moving, but now it doesn't do any of that, and I could pretty much point it straight down a road and cross my arms (which i haven't tried, i must point out!! but you get the idea!).

It was too dark to take pictures when I got back, but I managed to take one this morning at work without anyone noticing (and thinking I'm a touch sad!   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  ). The rims are a touch darker than they appear in the picture, but I'm chuffed with them and really love the 15 and 16 inch rim combo...

 m http://www.flickr.com/photos/39505723@N07/3632348810/ m

Now for my advice request!...

You'll notice I don't have the centre caps fitted at the moment. I was going to try and get some brasso to them and clean them up, but I'm abit scheptical as to whether the shiny chromed caps will stick out like a sore thumb next to the more silvery/grey colour scheme of the rims, but undecided whether leaving them off will a, cause the bit in the middle to rust (which I presume is part of the driveshaft or hub?) and b, make the wheels look unfinished.
Can you get plain caps to blank off the middle or has anyone created any fancy middle bits with ease?

(thank you if you've read this far by the way!!   s:D s:D  )

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(how do I get the image to appear on here rather than the link, if I've uploaded it to flickr?)

[markiii]

beleive it or not stick teh caps in teh dishwasher

[SimonC_Here]

I don't think you can direct link with flickr.
Still. we can see the pic anyway.
You're right it does looks pretty stock.

Why not stick the centre caps in and see what you think of them?

[Wabbitkilla]

Like this?

[DannyN]

You need to put link inside IMG brackets by clicking the Img button  ie

[SimonC_Here]

The wabbitkilla cheated and took the image location from the all sizes -> large image on the flickr site.  s:D s:D

There isn't an easy way to do it like you can on photobucket or the like!

[roger]

The wabbitkilla cheated and took the image location from the all sizes -> large image on the flickr site.  s:D s:D

There isn't an easy way to do it like you can on photobucket or the like!

That's how I do it. Quite easy when you getthe hang of it.

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I don't think you can direct link with flickr.
Still. we can see the pic anyway.
You're right it does looks pretty stock.

Why not stick the centre caps in and see what you think of them?

I've given it a go, but im not sold   s:? :? s:?

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Just used the search function to hunt down some option so what I could do with the hub caps, but no joy.
could some kind soul point point me in the right direction please   s:) s:)