Well, the anodizing path is a fail...
Luckily they ran a sample of a "cast" aluminum part (which is what the wheels are) before doing my wheels, it turned out more of a crap brown than gold with a very dull finish...
Back to the drawing board...
So I went to the plating shop that did the black nickel plating on my upper triple clamp and asked them about options that would work for a gold color. They said I could do them in real gold... (yes I was intrigued) but the cost was gonna be about $1200, so I opted not to go that route.
The other option they mentioned is doing them in an electroless nickel and then a yellow zinc plate.
Hmmmm... Ok, let's try it! The cost will only be about $150 for the set, it will be more like the gold of the inner fork tube of my Ohlins forks, a little more "blingy" than I was originally thinking but I'm gonna give it a shot. It wont damage the wheels and I could always paint or powder coat over top of it, so I thought why not!
Here's an example of some parts they had there with the yellow zinc to give you a feel for the color.
Wish me luck, round 2!