Anyone Ever Have Their OEM rims Powder Coated?

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Jul 2, 2007
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Is it a reasonable action if you want to change the look of your vehicle, instead of swapping out the OEM rims for after market ones, to instead have your OEM rims powder coated to the desired finish i.e. anthracite or black, etc., if the OEM's are alloy? Is this a risky endeavor that invites problems getting the wheels to balance out smoothly and you start having vibrations or steering wheel shimmy? Possibly it depends on the equipment, experience, and expertise of the shop doing the powder coating.
 
I've had countless sets of rims powdercoated and had no issues. The dealers that offer to "repair" your wheels often send them to a shop that can straighten, weld, and then powder coat to match color.
 
Originally Posted by NO2
Can the 'repair' get rid of corrosion on aluminum wheels? Mine look terrible.


Yup. Even easier if its only surface corrosion. That'll be gone with the sandblasting
 
I'm thinking about having it don't for my Genesis, the clear coat is fading on the wheels. I don't want drastically different color, maybe a little darker silver.
 
Corrosion....that's where I am.

My wheels, 5 wide spokes with a large section in the middle where the spokes converge, are heavily corroded in the center.

I'm just wondering if I can "polish" that deeply.
 
I used to own and operate my own powder coating shop and wheels were a big part of my business. I never once heard a customer complain about anything regarding balancing or other issues. I would completely chemical strip and media blast the wheel down to raw substrate, then apply a generous 4-5MIL thick coating so it was strong and would last. They would cure at 400*F for about 2 hours.

To get rid of corrosion on aluminum wheels they will need media blasted and completely recoated. The blasting usually takes most of the pitting and corrosion out, the best thing about powder is that its so thick it fills the small voids and pitting well.
 
I had aftermarket "mini-lite" wheels powder coated charcoal gray color. It looked pretty good, with a matte finish and held up well. However, it was not easily repairable, after a few bent rims and scrapes from a poor driver (,,,me,,, ) I stripped them, had them repaired at "first place wheels in Jupiter, FL" and painted them an automotive charcoal gray metallic.

The paint looked 100% better, with a deep shine that gave the car a new look. Touch up's matched easily. Also, I was able to fill a few dings and scrapes with epoxy prior to painting. So they looked perfect.
 
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Not personally done on my wheels, but I've PC'd by calipers.

Just take note, some [heat-treated aluminum] wheels can fail if they're heated too high (example: everybody's favorite RPF1s.) But most OEM wheels are cast anyways.
 
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I have heard the curing process of powder coating to mess with the metallurgy of a heat treated aluminum wheel, later causing possible structural defect and/or failure. I have no experience with this, and I am just regurgitating warnings I have heard other drivers in grid.

Can anyone smarter than me support or refute this? A quick google search found numerous examples, but I don't want to go off of that alone.
 
Originally Posted by MacManus99
I have heard the curing process of powder coating to mess with the metallurgy of a heat treated aluminum wheel, later causing possible structural defect and/or failure. I have no experience with this, and I am just regurgitating warnings I have heard other drivers in grid.

Can anyone smarter than me support or refute this? A quick google search found numerous examples, but I don't want to go off of that alone.


Yea, RPF1s and other Enkei/Koeing wheels that use the same manufacturing process have a big issue with this - although it doesn't seem to be consistent with every wheel. I had a friend's crack within a few months of just DD while another lasted as long as he had the car + a few track days. The one that did crack was done at a well-known powder-coat shop. The one that didn't crack was done by another friend that just got into powder coating but was very meticulous and he did my brake calipers too.
 
95% of most all powders out there cure at 375-400*F so that should not hurt any aluminum wheel. The only time I can see damage occurring is if the powder guy doesn't have good control of his oven temps and lets them drift upwards of 500-600* then you start getting into the territory that can upset metallurgy of aluminum.
 
Originally Posted by Pew
Originally Posted by MacManus99
I have heard the curing process of powder coating to mess with the metallurgy of a heat treated aluminum wheel, later causing possible structural defect and/or failure. I have no experience with this, and I am just regurgitating warnings I have heard other drivers in grid.

Can anyone smarter than me support or refute this? A quick google search found numerous examples, but I don't want to go off of that alone.


Yea, RPF1s and other Enkei/Koeing wheels that use the same manufacturing process have a big issue with this - although it doesn't seem to be consistent with every wheel. I had a friend's crack within a few months of just DD while another lasted as long as he had the car + a few track days. The one that did crack was done at a well-known powder-coat shop. The one that didn't crack was done by another friend that just got into powder coating but was very meticulous and he did my brake calipers too.

Mac and Pew:

I've long heard the same story - that is is unsafe to power coat an aluminum alloy wheel.

One of the posters said they heated the wheel to 400 degrees and cured the power coat for two hours. This is far, far hotter than a wheel normally gets. I've had rotors steam and spit when sprayed with water. But I've never had the center portion of the wheel where it bolts to the hub spit and steam. That means the hottest part of the wheel, the hub area, is under 212 degrees (a wheel is a giant heat sink).

Also too, 400 degrees would destroy the bead of the tire. Said another way, how do you think your tire fair in a giant 400 degree oven for two hours. Would it be ruined? I think so.

In other words, wheels never reach 400 degrees in normal circumstances, not even close.

Another thing, the BBS wheels I have come from the factory "varnished" (their terminology). And the BMW Style 225 wheels I have have a distinct orange peel pattern on the inner barrel. To me that means they were spray painted, not power coated.

Given all this, I wouldn't power coat an aluminum alloy wheel. FWIW.

Scott

PS Just looked up the temperature that a tire is cured out during its manufacture. 300 degrees F. To me that means the bead of a mounted tire is not engineered to survive 400 degrees, which means the rim area of a wheel never reaches that temperature.
 
I would think that one powder coats the wheel without a tire so rubber never makes it to the oven.

KrzyÅ›
 
Originally Posted by krzyss
I would think that one powder coats the wheel without a tire so rubber never makes it to the oven.

KrzyÅ›

Lol.
 
Originally Posted by krzyss
I would think that one powder coats the wheel without a tire so rubber never makes it to the oven.

KrzyÅ›

You miss my point. But you are free to do as you wish.

Scott
 
I think that temperatures listed were F not C.
My oven get's higher than 400F for hours but it is not made from aluminum.

KrzyÅ›
 
The OE finish on one of my Lotus' wheels started flaking off. It is a mist or translucent silver finish, forgot the buzzword, that is hard to match so I did both on one side. Did a bit of research, found someone a few towns over w/ a good rep (high end dealers use him), and they are fine going on 5+ years. Oh, his color match was good enough where, except for some orange peel like texture, you cannot easily differentiate between the original and refinished wheels. I want to say he mentioned curing at the low end of the range for these wheels.
 
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