Paint or Powdercoat.

Thinking of having my SSR GT1's stripped and painted or Powdercoated Volk Bronze. Has anyone had their Rims painted or Powdercoated if so what was the cost and how did they turn out. Also if you have a close up picture that would be great.

Never had either re-done but owned painted and powercoated wheels.

Painted wheels were the worse of the two.. scratched easily, started peeling due to brake dust and heat.. needed care just like the rest of the car..
If you are very diligent about caring for your wheels, this would work for you.

Powercoated wheels were stronger than the painted ones for sure.. brake dust came off very easily and didn't need any special care except the occasional wash.. When I dinged 2 of them (long story) things got bad quick.. they started to peel and crack.. had to dump them..

hope this helps.

Of the two options, you should choose powerdercoating. Like blknsxnoc noted paint will be too delicate. We powdercoated a customers set of rims in the past, and the finish was amazing. Not to mention is more resistant to scratiching than the paint. Its been a while but I think it was somewhere in the $85-100 per wheel range.

powdercoat. its looks great. my friend did that one his m coupe. looks really good

doesnt brake heat to the wheels cause spider cracks in the powdercoat?

I think powdercoating a dark color for the track is ok, but light colors will melt in a bit of brake dust eventually. (remember Tony's red powdercoated Koenigs Steve?)

my friends car is kind of a show car so, ya know. but he got them powercoated gunmetal it looks real clean. my other friend with a 350z track has his done to and he autocrosses his car, never heard of any problems though.

Autocross related heat is not indicative of what a set of wheels will be put through at a track.

T Bell said:

I think powdercoating a dark color for the track is ok, but light colors will melt in a bit of brake dust eventually. (remember Tony's red powdercoated Koenigs Steve?)

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Yes, my once bright silver powdercoated track wheels are now a darker splotchy look.

Has anybody just tried sandblasting a set down to the raw aluminum and clearcoating for track wheels?

Bob

NeSX said:

Autocross related heat is not indicative of what a set of wheels will be put through at a track.

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ya, good point

Don't you have to be careful when powdercoating wheels? I heard the heat treatment if too high can weaken the wheels. Is there a certain temperature the treater should stick to to keep the wheels from weakening? Yes I brought this thread back.

Yes, exposing forged alloys to traditional powder coating methods (too high of temperatures and/or too long of duration of time) can accelerate the aging process, making the aluminum too hard and brittle. Some say the temperature should not exceed 300 F for no longer than 20 minutes, but it's highly dependent on the material. There are powders and equipment designed to cure at low temperatures for this very reason.

http://www.parkerionics.com/new-technology-allows-powder-coated-aluminum-wheels/

i personally am going painted... not worth the risk of putting wheels through heat cycles and potentially weakening them. seems like a personal decision.

I would suggest powdercoating, only if it is done correctly. Most manufactured OEM colored wheels are powder coated. Thing is your coater must control the amount of heat the wheel is exposed to so that the integrity of the wheel's strength is not weakened. My advise it to find a professional wheel powdercoater that uses chemical stripping and understands how to properly coat wheels.

I talked to a local wheel refinisher (who does powdercoating) about my peeling chrome OEM wheels and he said it is extremely difficult to get the chrome off and they have to end up hand removing it which makes it un-economic. Would be much less of an issue with non-chrome wheels. He wasn't trying to sell me on any other approach .. just that it was likely cheaper for me to buy new than to try to have them refinished. Anybody had their chrome wheels stripped and powdercoated?

Justinthecoastie said:

I would suggest powdercoating, only if it is done correctly. Most manufactured OEM colored wheels are powder coated. Thing is your coater must control the amount of heat the wheel is exposed to so that the integrity of the wheel's strength is not weakened. My advise it to find a professional wheel powdercoater that uses chemical stripping and understands how to properly coat wheels.

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Seems easier said than done. I heard that it should be lower heat, but longer bake time...now on Prime I am hearing low heat, short time...Is there numbers that I should be listening out for?

NSX2398 said:

I talked to a local wheel refinisher (who does powdercoating) about my peeling chrome OEM wheels and he said it is extremely difficult to get the chrome off and they have to end up hand removing it which makes it un-economic. Would be much less of an issue with non-chrome wheels. He wasn't trying to sell me on any other approach .. just that it was likely cheaper for me to buy new than to try to have them refinished. Anybody had their chrome wheels stripped and powdercoated?

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Yes, your best bet would be to have them chemically stripped as media blasting would run the risk of pitting the aluminum underneath. I've had four wheel centers chemically dipped at Linco Industries down in SoCal and it ran about $80.

Nukem said:

Seems easier said than done. I heard that it should be lower heat, but longer bake time...now on Prime I am hearing low heat, short time...Is there numbers that I should be listening out for?

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Not really, I've had a set of rims on my S2000 completed correctly within 3 days. It's my auto-x monster since 2008, zero cracks, and I remove each rim after each event. And yes, it depends on the metal used to make the rim. Anything heated over 450 degrees is very bad. I believe in the 300 degree heat range is ideal.