does powder coating rims weaken them?

[bullithollywood]

Sounds like Enkei is just giving CYA answers, but I don't blame them. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave the same response if asked about plastidip.

+1!

I guess heat damages anything, but sounds to me like people want to know to what degree does powder coating degrade wheel performance/durability. Those in the know (in the wheel industry) surely must have some hard numbers from studies/tests?

Flow forging of aluminum to increase its structual properties takes place at close to 1000 degrees to change the molecular grain of the raw aluminum. No way heating them to 300-400 degrees for a few minutes is going to realign the grain created in the original forging process.

 

[A.S. Motorsport]

Personally I'm not that big of a fan of powder coat.
If you damage it will flake and you can't touch it up easily.

Although powder coat does look nice.
Personally I like to paint wheels.

 

[GBL1]

Flow forging of aluminum to increase its structual properties takes place at close to 1000 degrees to change the molecular grain of the raw aluminum. No way heating them to 300-400 degrees for a few minutes is going to realign the grain created in the original forging process.

I think that Enkei, and any other wheel manufacturer, is just trying to cover their ass from God-knows-what a customer might do to a set of rims verses what they might lie and say they did in order to get a set replaced for free.

Some people have a lot of trouble accepting responsibility for their own irresponsible actions...they want someone else to eat the cost of their mistakes.

.

 

[bullithollywood]

I think that Enkei, and any other wheel manufacturer, is just trying to cover their ass from God-knows-what a customer might do to a set of rims verses what they might lie and say they did in order to get a set replaced for free.

Some people have a lot of trouble accepting responsibility for their own irresponsible actions...they want someone else to eat the cost of their mistakes.

.

Most likely your right on both counts. :wink:

 

[cantdrive55]

Its not easy to chip the powder coating finish off is it? I only do maybe up to 6 track days a year and weekend driving

 

[angus]

There are a huge range of types and quality of powder (but not a huge range of colors) if you get an inferior powder, it'll chip and also be eaten by brake dust and chemicals - brake clean for sure.

I always advocate painting because there are so many more choices of color and it has zero effect on the structure -

The wheels you have are painted now - did you find it did not hold up well?

Your car is painted too - any desire to powdercoat that?

Also to the OP - plastidip is a great idea for higher end wheels because you will not effect the resale value

 

[rebelsoldier1860]

just powdercoat your wheels.. you will be fine. they will take the same amount of abuse before and after...

 

[ProOnThaSnow]

I daily drove a set of SSR's I had refinished (and powdercoated white) for a couple of years with absolutely zero adverse effects. They are still on some kid's car rolling around town and our roads are far from excellent.

I've got plenty of friends who have powder coated wheels over the years too. You will be absolutely fine powdercoating your wheels. My buddy has done it to the CE28's on his Evo IX, as well as the TE37's on his JDM Front Integra and never had any problem - he had the TE's done after someone clipped the front of his car and the new wheel they sent that was supposed to match the ones on it, was actually a different shade of white.

 

[BATMANs]

if the heat from power coating weakens the rims the what's the pistons made of?

 

[Frank Spano]

After reading this thread I have decided to have my wheels re sprayed rather than powder coated!

 

[OKI-BOY]

There are a huge range of types and quality of powder (but not a huge range of colors) if you get an inferior powder, it'll chip and also be eaten by brake dust and chemicals - brake clean for sure.

I always advocate painting because there are so many more choices of color and it has zero effect on the structure -

The wheels you have are painted now - did you find it did not hold up well?

Your car is painted too - any desire to powdercoat that?

Also to the OP - plastidip is a great idea for higher end wheels because you will not effect the resale value

I had mine powedercoated gold but did not like the outcome, it looked more like a flat peanut butter gold with metallics when the sun hit it. So I had them painted in my current gold which looks 10x better.


I had these dipped in cf, striped in red and cleared.

For more options,quicker,easier, cheaper repair process, I would paint them.

 

[N-Wing]

It's good to know about the effect on warranty's. I cannot imagine there is any real impact on the wheel. It won't slow me down from powder coating my wheels this winter...

 

[Hugh]

Any other suggestions on what everyone thinks looks best on a red/black 93

These look great on a red/black '93. You can grab them here.

 

[docjohn]

lol..... Hugh spamming prime with his wheels

 

[ProOnThaSnow]

He's not lying though, they do look good! lol

 

[Hugh]

lol..... Hugh spamming prime with his wheels

You know you want them! LOL

 

[MugenNA1]

Personally I have powder coated wheels and would never do it again.
Here's some info I'll share after reading the other comments.
Not all powdercoaters are equal. The less you spend the less proper job you'll get.

1. Not all powder coaters sandblast the original paint off wheels. Many do chemical strip and hot wash which is the right way to go to strip no matter which painting process you chose. I don't know about sandblasting causing micro cracks but I do know it will round off the sharp edged details of the wheel.

2. Powdercoaters use heat to melt the powder paint into liquid form. Many claim they they use baking temperatures that are safe and will not change the integrity of the wheel structure. From my experience they will all tell you they bake within a safe temp range to get your business but who knows, they just want your business.

3. Most powder coaters will not mask, or even inform you that you should mask off the lug areas. This is because most of the customers just go with the cheapest powdercoater they can find and they're not going to offer masking for free. Powder coat is thick, hard and durable once cured. Lug areas are critical not to powder coat. I learned the hard way. I tried to torque lugs on wheels I had powder coated and could not get the lugs to seat and torque properly. I kept getting a slip and grab feeling instead of a normal smooth turn to specified torque click when turning lugs.
Personally I say if your set on powder coating your wheels, look at pictures of past work and if the lugs are not masked look for a more responsible shop. To me it's just unethical to let any wheels go out on the street like that.

4. Because powder coat is thick you add some weight to your wheel as well as lose some defition in the details compared to painting.

5. Depending on how you drive you may or may never have a problem with powder coated wheels. It all depends on your driving habits. I'll use the snap ring issue as an analogy, it's not a problem until it's problem. The guy who drives 30mph down the strip on the weekend may never have a failure. One guy may have a failure in a week while another takes 12 years.

 

[ProOnThaSnow]

My best advice is to bring them to someone who knows what they're doing. A lot of wheels are powdercoated by the mfgr....

For instance, I just pulled this from 6SpeedOnline.com;

Also, LA Wheel &Tire powdercoats wheels all the time with a 5 yr warranty and posted in the same thread that they'd

 

[BATMANs]

I've powder coated ALL of my wheels on ALL of my cars.

First one was back in the late 90's.

I guess I'm a ghost annoying people since my wheels apparently failed from the heat and I crashed and died.

 

[cantdrive55]

I totally forgot about this thread lol. I powder coat my wheels s while ago. I'm happy with them. The shop did an outstanding job.

 

[BATMANs]

Yep. None of my wheels came apart.

I've NEVER seen ANY evidence (just unscientific rice science) that powder coating compromises the wheel structure. None.

 

[greenberet]

Metals can be heat treated to increase their hardness. Think of how Samurai swords were made. If you heat a metal to a certain temperature for a certain amount of time and then “quench” it – immerse it in a cool liquid such as water to reduce its temperature rapidly – it will become harder.

Metals can also be “annealed” in order to make them softer so that they can be more easily worked and formed when cold. This can be done by heating the metal to a certain temperature for a certain amount of time and then letting it cool slowly instead of quenching it. Have a look at the website of Avcorp, a company that manufactures aluminium aircraft parts, for a description of the processes: http://www.avcorp.com/heat-treatment-of-aluminum.asp

When you powder coat a wheel, you heat it to a certain temperature for a certain amount of time to melt the powder and then you let it cool again. The process is similar to annealing. The temperature past which a metal will start to permanently lose hardness depends on the specific alloy being treated but there is an interesting article on keytometals.com with some information about 1100 series aluminium alloys. To quote the article, “Generally, some property change can be detected at temperatures as low as 200 to 250°F (90°C to 120°C); the change increases in magnitude with increasing temperature.” You can find the article here: http://www.keytometals.com/Article139.htm.

I don’t know what alloys forged or cast aluminium wheels are made of, whether or how they were heat treated during manufacturing, or to what temperature you’d have to heat them to start annealing them. Maybe some powder coatings are applied at low enough temperatures that no softening occurs. Maybe the alloys used in aluminium wheels have to be heated to such high temperatures to anneal them that they shrug off powder coating without any change in their properties. But before I’d take my aluminium wheels to an aftermarket powder coating place, I’d look into the alloy used and the temperature it can be safely heated to before it softens.

 

[BATMANs]

I suspect that the NSX pistons, 3.2 sleeveless blocks and heads must be annealed by now.....

 

[greenberet]

Personally, I suspect that wheels and pistons have different annealing temperatures. But maybe I’m wrong and maybe wheels can handle the same temperatures as pistons so any backyard powder coater can refinish our wheels without compromising their structure.

Since Enkei revoke the warranty if you powder coat their wheels they don’t seem to think so and I believe BBS powder coat their wheels in a specially-designed low temperature process.

There is a science behind heat treating metals to make them harder or softer. I’d look into it before I let some guy, who might not understand that science, throw my wheels into his oven. But hey, to each his own.