Powder Coating OEM Rims

[Billy10mm]

So I just called a well-respected wheel-repair/powder-coating shop around here to talk about the ding I put in my winter rims yesterday during a food-shopping run (don't ask, I'm still crying), and to ask about having my factory 1LE rims powder coated in satin-black (because the OEM paint job is horrendously bad). Quote for the powder-coating was $300. Per rim. That includes full chemical stripping of the old paint.

$1200 just to powder coat seems like a steep prospect. At that cost, I can actually buy myself a second-hand oven and powder-kit, and might actually be able to do the job myself for less.

Anyone ever get a quality powder-coating job done before on rims? What did it cost?

[ozzy1le]

Locally where I am it is 50-75 a wheel

[Billy10mm]

Originally Posted by ozzy1le

Locally where I am it is 50-75 a wheel

What is the quality of that? Are the wheels chemically stripped prior to coating, or do they just rough up the surface with sand paper. There is a big difference in the outcome between those two.

Personally, I don't want to spent $50/wheel, as I wouldn't expect that job to hold up on a daily-driver for more than a year or two. But $300 is far too steep.

[cornerspeed92]

Hey Billy, that sounds way too high. I had a couple set's of the standard 5 spoke rim's done. They walnut shelled them and powder coated for $300.00 total. I know you said they were reputable, but i would look some where else.

[URTOSLO]

You have to be careful powder coating rims. The normal powder coating process heats up the wheels too much and weakens the material, causing wheel failure. There is a low heat powder coating that you should be using. Better ask around.

[Billy10mm]

Originally Posted by URTOSLO

You have to be careful powder coating rims. The normal powder coating process heats up the wheels too much and weakens the material, causing wheel failure. There is a low heat powder coating that you should be using. Better ask around.

Standard powder coating is done between 375 and 450 degrees fahrenheit. I've never heard of that temp damaging aluminum. Do you have any references?

[WHAMMO]

^^I've seen a Boss at a local track with powder coated GT500 rims and he almost crashed his car between 2 short sessions; after 2x4 laps, the rims where cracking from everywhere!! VERY DANGEROUS!! WOULD HAVE BEEN UGLY !!
I would never powder coat stock rims.

I'm planning on repainting stock wheels myself with paint spray can.

[Ragnar]

Billy, I might have an option for you. My car is my DD and I think I prefer paint. Here is why. Your going to get scratches from small rocks and things like, 'SOMEONE HITTING YOUR CAR WHILE IT IS PARKED WAY OUT THERE AND DRIVING OFF. NO NOTE, NOTHING, NO BIG DEAL, JUST $2000 DAMAGE. My tough a** wheel had paint transfer, I wet sanded the portion of the wheel that was damaged with 600 grit sandpaper. Then found a paint that matched. I can't even tell where I painted it, blended right in. So now I can easily repaint/repair my wheels. I also here that powder coat can change colors over time. Good luck with your decision.

[Billy10mm]

Originally Posted by WHAMMO

^^I've seen a Boss at a local track with powder coated GT500 rims and he almost crashed his car between 2 short sessions; after 2x4 laps, the rims where cracking from everywhere!! VERY DANGEROUS!! WOULD HAVE BEEN UGLY !!
I would never powder coat stock rims.

I'm planning on repainting stock wheels myself with paint spray can.

Okay then. I'm still surprised, but I guess I'll heed the warning. Repaint then it seems.

Does anyone know if the stock rims are clear coated over the satin paint? Matte clear I would assume if they are. I love the stock sheen, and prefer to keep stock appearance, just want a better quality job that *heaven forbid* should extend all the way through the entire barrel and not discolor as bad as mine have.

[Billy10mm]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Billy, I might have an option for you. My car is my DD and I think I prefer paint. Here is why. Your going to get scratches from small rocks and things like, 'SOMEONE HITTING YOUR CAR WHILE IT IS PARKED WAY OUT THERE AND DRIVING OFF. NO NOTE, NOTHING, NO BIG DEAL, JUST $2000 DAMAGE. My tough a** wheel had paint transfer, I wet sanded the portion of the wheel that was damaged with 600 grit sandpaper. Then found a paint that matched. I can't even tell where I painted it, blended right in. So now I can easily repaint/repair my wheels. I also here that powder coat can change colors over time. Good luck with your decision.

I have some experience with powder coating, and even did a bit of it myself back about 18 years ago with a free oven I picked up off the curb of a neighbor's house.

Using quality powder, it shouldn't discolor. Anodizing definitely discolors under UV light (the sun), but good powder shouldn't.

A good powder coat is STRONG. The small rock chips you get on paint should NOT happen with powder coating. The flip side of that, is that wheel repair becomes much more expensive since it takes much more prep work to strip a wheel of the previous coat.

If I learned anything by powder coating in my backyard all those years ago, it was that surface prep was everything. Cornerspeed, you were mentioning walnut blasting to strip the rims of paint. That's a common tactic, but I find the results to be terrible unless the blasting is followed up by a chemical bath to remove the oil left on the rims from the walnut shells (not to mention whatever other solvents that the walnuts failed to remove).

The heat breaking down aluminum is, as I mentioned surprising. I've never actually powder-coated car wheels before, but I've had motorcycle wheels powder-coated as have a few friends of mine and no one that I know has had any issues with that. Thinking about it though, motorcycle wheels don't have to endure lateral forces like a car wheel does, so the wheel's barrel gets to work in conjunction with the spokes for load distribution under heaving braking and cornering (unlike a car wheel, which translates much of the lateral load to just the spokes).

Okay. Will have to think this through some more. I REALLY wanted to go with powder, but maybe I'll just do paint and pay the shop to throw on a few extra coats of clear to make the finish a bit stronger.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

[Billy10mm]

Well. Just whipped out some of my Google-Fu and yeah, it looks like powder-coating temps CAN damage certain types of aluminum (ironically, better quality 6061 aluminum). So I'll stay away.

From the Internets:

'A word of caution regarding the powder coating of aluminum.

Forged alloy wheels are desirable because they are known to be both strong and lightweight. To achieve these characteristics, they are typically manufactured from 6061-T6 grade aluminum. At some time during the manufacturing process this alloy must undergo a two-step thermal process in order for it to attain the desired mechanical properties, which include high strength and resistance to fatigue. These thermal processing or heat treating steps are known as solution treatment (985°F) and artificial aging (350°F). With forged 6061 aluminum, the artificial aging step requires the material to be held at 350°F for about 8 hours.

The majority of powder coating materials require a cure temperature ranging from 300 to 400°F with a cure time of about 1 hour. Since this overlaps the temperature of the artificial aging step, the powder coating process has the potential to "overage" the aluminum causing embrittlement and reduced fatigue life.

Recent advances in powder coating compounds have brought about lower cure temperatures of 250°F. These new powder coating compounds are more desirable, since they do not impact the prior thermal processing steps for heat treatable alloys such as 6061-T6 aluminum.

When considering powder coating of heat treatable aluminum alloys (6000 and 7000 series), it is always advisable to confirm that the temperature of the part will not exceed 300°F. Ignoring this fact may result in a sudden and unexpected failure of a critical component. A critical failure in a forged alloy wheel could ruin not just one, but possibly the rest of your days.

Before allowing someone to powder coat your forged aluminum wheels, ask them to use a lower cure temperature (250°F) compound and to maintain the temperature below 300°F at all times while they are processing your wheels.'

If you can't find someone who can use the lower temperature you can always go with paint.

[vinman]

This is great info as I was considering it when tires were shot

[LT1Zob]

Here's my experience, judge for yourself:

As most of the factory finishes on these rims are garbage (missed spots and overspray), last winter, when I put my car away, I took my rims to a friend of mine who is an amazing painter. He repainted all 4 rims and they came out looking better than any painted surface on any of our cars. They just looked like black glass.
Took the car out in April and all was fine til my first track day in June. I want to be clear here, before anyone jumps in and says it was his prep job at fault here, his prep on the rims was above and beyond most shops' prep on high dollar paint jobs. Saw it with my own eyes.
So after about 2 hours off and on the track, the paint around the center hub on 2 of the 4 rims began to develop bubble looking bumps. After more time on the track, the other 2 began to look the same way. You probably guessed by now based on the location of these bubbles, its was due to the very high temps created by the brakes at the track. since the center hub is the only location on the rim that touches the rotor.
My buddy offered to repaint them free of charge but when we talked to a PPG rep, he told us that the only permanent solution was to powdercoat them, especially if I was planning on going to a track ever again. I had them powdercoated, tracked the car a few more times, never had an issue. Most rims are powdercoated by the manufacturer, never seem to have issues. Now, for those of you talking about rims breaking on the track, I've seen this a few times myself. Every one of the broken rims I've come across or heard about, have been cheap aftermarket knock off crap, not a factory rim. This is why I pass on $800 zl1 or z28 knock offs.
OP, you should be able to find a quality powdercoater for between $125-$150 per wheel. Paint is a temporary solution, especially if you track the car. Just my 2cents

[hawk02]

Last winter I did a lot of research on the pros and cons of powder coating vs painting wheels. In my search, I came across a post on Rennlist.com from someone at Forgeline that finally convinced me to powder coat my OEM wheels instead of having them repainted.

If you can get past the photo of Kate Moss in the post above, post 6 is the argument from Forgeline as to why powder coating produces a better finish than paint.

http://rennlist.com/forums/996-gt2-g...ls-please.html

BTW, Wheel Medic here in Columbus and mentioned in the Forgeline post charged me $150 a wheel, and that included outlining the bowtie on the center cap in red and painting a red stripe on the outer edge of the rim. Otherwise it would have been $100 per wheel for the powder coating only.