Picked these rims up pretty cheap... Did they come from Mazda originally painted gold or did someone paint them gold after the fact?

Thanks!

 

Those were originally available on the 79-80 LS (Luxury Sport) model SA's. Factory gold center paint, with polished rim. They were also available in all-silver paint with polished rim.

The 'rare' one's you're thinking about were the waffle pattern like these, but with holes cut out from within the waffles - those were available with the SA model run, but only on limited basis. HTH,

 

to make a correction to the above statement, the wheels you bought are painted "Solar Gold", color code M4. they were only available in 1980 on the LS model. LS stands for Leather Sport. 2500 LS models were produced and were available in Solar Gold, Brilliant Black, and Aurora White. all were fitted with Solar gold wheels. here is a picture of the LS that i recently sold:

 

nice find. Rare to get. Even rarer in decent shape. Hope they compliment whatever color your SA is...

Stu Aull
80GS
Goldie Waffles

 

Ok, I was wondering how rare they were. I don't think I'd like the look on my 85 "Tender Blue" and was thinking about blasting them and having them painted a different color, but it doesn't sound like I want to do that. I'll probably put them up in the classifieds for someone who can use them on an SA.

 

good plan! yeah blue with gold wheels.... not visualizing that
world is drowning in silver waffles. post them on the FS forum here or ebay. its a fairly slim market but def better than stripping them!! I paid $100 for mine at a Pik-n-Pull. Had to leave my nice silver waffles at a dumpster since I was driving thru Reno at the time!
obv no competition at a wrecker's yard tho.
tell the world!

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska