Paint or Powder coat Wheels

Would like opinions weather to paint or powder coat my smoothie wheels. They are new steal wheels in the box.

 

powder coating will hold up better.after buying everything to do a correct paint job on them you will have just as much as if you powder coated them. paint if you are trying to match a color.

 

Does your local powdercoater have a color that you like in stock? Tiger just charged me $30 a pound for a small order to match a customers existing parts. It's cheaper in 50# boxes & most jobs are priced better if the coater keeps popular colors in stock. Powder is pretty tuff and holds up well unless your back east, you see powder does not flow into recesses and the gap between the center & the rim is difficult to cover. The salt on the roads eats under the coating and looks like hell. In Apple Valley they should be good for years. Around here most wheels go for between $40-60 ea. Some colors like silver, require a clear coat and will be 25-50% more. When I put 15's on my '40 Merc I rattle canned them red, look good. When I got my white walls I put a heavy silver base with red candy, looked great. So if you've $200 have them powdercoated, if you've got $20, grab the spray bomb. If your wheels are "steal", paint them quick before somebody recognizes them.

 

plus, if you are sure you will never change your mind on color powder coat is the way to go. have never had the $$ to use that process. can get a "steal" of a deal on rattle cans, which work just fine for me.

 

powder coat definately......

 

powder coated mine and dont have a single regret. paid 50$ per rim

 

I have a new set of steel WV smooties, 15x6 and 15x7 that I am going to have powder coated in a cream color.

The powder should stand up better to the 41 caps and trim rings.

 

Les Schwab Tire center will sand blast and powder coat your wheels that you bring in for $25 per wheel. Its a little known secret.

 

I'll second that-Somewhat limited color selection but all the popular ones. Quick turn around and good work. Did my reversed steelies in gloss black and a friend did his wires in bright red. A shop in Renton did mine and other shops results may vary.

 

I find that rather hard to believe. A tire shop that has a powder coating system and an oven to bake them in ?

They would have to send them out for a proper powder coating.

For $25 you are likely getting a quick trip into a bead blasting cabinet and a good rattle can recoat.

I don't know anywhere you can get a wheel blasted and powdercoated for less than $75 per wheel minimum.

 

I have had at least 8 sets of wheels powder coated and the cost was $25.00 per wheel Of course I always go black... Also have painted over the coating with not a problem

 

Sorry but I don't need to fabricate stories. I heard about it and so I called them up. I dropped 4 stock rusty 1940 Ford 16" rims and within a week I got them back at $25 a piece plus tax. They even shipped them to their Oregon shop to do them. After I got the 4 back, I decided to buy 2 aftermarket Wheel vintique 6" wide 1940 Ford 16" rims for the back and again sent them in and the cost for the 2 $50 for the pair. Down in the States there are still some good deals.
Now the last quote you said actually makes you a liar as you already know where you can get rims done cheaper than $75 . Les Schwab does your rims and tires for $25 for the second time, not $75 Minimum.

 

No you didn't!!!!! Didn't you read that Blue One says you can't get them done any cheaper than $75 or they are just spray bombed!!!
Crazy Canadians!!!
LOL!!!

 

We've had the last few sets of wheels we have done powdercoated and I will probably never paint another wheel in my life. You drop them off, they blast them, prime them, and coat them the color you want, and about $ 35 a wheel later you pick them up. I can't prime and paint a wheel that cheap with quality paint and the powercoating gets down into spots that paint can miss.

Don

 

Hey-BLEW ONE- I just TOLD you where to get them done. Seattle area Les Schwab tire centers SEND THEM OUT TO CONTRACTORS for that price. Sorry if you don't believe that. Your loss eh?

 

I paint mine, but im a cheap *******. I blasted them at work for free, and then picked up some paint that was expired off our shelf that would have gotten disposed of. Cost= my time.

ive never powdercoated wheels, but ive heard that once they chip you cant touch it up, paint you can. Thats my only thought on it.

 

Dont powder coat wire wheels they flex and the powder coat will crack ,rust and eventually flake use a good old fashion enamel

 

Check out the thread Steps for painting steel wheels? (Technical). After reading it I'm going to try painting a pair of series 13 smoothies.

 

Powder Coat

 

Powder coat cleans up so nicely. Ask them to powder coat both sides to fill around the wheels best. Mine show some rust in the wheel slots. Good luck with your project. ~sololobo~

 

"Powder" can be many things, there are just as many powder formulations as there are liquid coatings formulations. A TGIC polyester is most likely what you will get because it covers most of the bases very well, flexibility, abrasion, uv resistance etc.
One of the problems with powder has been talked about already here by the second reply redo32. He talks about flow, I know what he's talking about and I agree. Powder actually "flows" very little and it is a little bit more of an application issue. It's a powder coater’s kryptonite called “faraday cage effect”.

The powder is going to be sprayed on your wheels and the powder particles are going to be charged electrostatically to help the powder cling to the wheels temporarily until the wheel can be baked which basically melts the powder particles into a paint film over your bare steel.


Faraday cage is what powder coaters talk about when trying to get powder sprayed into tight inside corners, where the center of the wheel meets the “hoop” is going to be the area of concern. You just can’t make powder go into a crack/corner like that. You can get coverage so it looks decent but it won’t flow in there. Then you end up with this situation.




The diagram shows typical coating scenario caused by faraday effect and what it results in long term.

You can help prevent corrosion in the areas that get little or no powder with a good pre treatment that includes a conversion coating (zinc, zirconium, iron phosphate etc) and you can also have your wheels e-coated prior to powder coating (dipped).
That would be the ultimate, find someone that can properly prep your new steel wheels then e-coat them. Epoxy is the most popular formula for e-coat these days and it flat out rocks for corrosion protection. It’s a very thin film so it’s pretty delicate all by itself, powder over the top of it makes for a very good combo.

The other issue with powder though is the limitations on gloss levels, most of your powders are going to be pretty shiny after curing, if you like that then it’s not a problem. If you want a satin or matte finish you can tame down the powder gloss by spraying a liquid matte clear over the top of the powder.

Just don’t bring your new wheels to someone that’s going to wipe them down with a little solvent, spray the powder on and bake them.

(there are way more ways to screw up a powder coating job than there are correct ways to do a powder coating job)
People tend to think the powder itself has magic powers, that’s total BS, it’s a dry method of applying a paint film, nothing more, no magic.

There are all kinds of liquid coatings options that will meet or exceed the durability of powder coating.

So don’t choose powder because it’s “tougher” or because it will outlast liquid.

If you want a good coating that you can do yourself then clean the steel really well, make sure to wet that crevice where the wheel center meets the rim hoop and blow it out (solvent) really good. Then spray them with a good epoxy primer followed by the color you want.

You don’t need to spend a ton on the epoxy either, something like kirker’s 2k epoxy “europrime” would do very well and not break the bank.

Then you are unlimited on color and gloss levels.

I’d clean them, spray them with a 2k epoxy prime, urethane base followed by a clear with the gloss level I wanted or just a single stage urethane color without clear if shiny is ok.

Or have them powder coated, but remember, powder is NOT magic and it is NOT superior to a decent liquid paint job.

 

Them are fightin words I still don't know anywhere I can get wheels powder coated for less than $75 Where I live as there is no Les Schwab anywhere near here.

Since we have to pay so much for that kind of stuff it seemed a little su****ious. Crazy Americans

Seattle is still a long ways off and shipping 4 wheels gets a little pricey. Better off to pay the local powder coaters the $75 per wheel.

So it costs a little more up here obviously, but then I can afford my health care too

 

Hey blue, there's definitely someone closer to you that will powder coat wheels. Pull out the trusty yellow pages and find an outdoor sign company, they all use commerical powdercoating for outdoor signs. I'll bet they'll be reasonable because wheels are alot more fun than signs!

 

Powdercoat is the way to go if you have the money, Wheels should not me expencive like 50 a wheel, PM me if you want a good shop down in Banning they just did the wheels on my wifes ricer...

 

You probably took it to a place that farms them out. They have to pay $35/wheel to have it done, then they charge you $70 making $35 in the process. It's called a middle man...

I got mine done for $25/wheel, but that was a brand new rim so no sandblasting was involved. Ha!

 

I'm with you Don. I'm normally the type to save money and do things myself however powdercoating is a win for me. Over the years i hate to think of how many rims i've done with a rattle can and to fair they've always come out well. That was after about £60 in materials and a good weekends work.
Now i have contacts and at £30 a rim for powdercoat and about 50 colours to choose from its a no-brainer for me if the rims were going on to a decent car. I've painted on top of powdercoating with no problems plenty of times.

The way it works for me is that if its a keeper i'll find some extra money and get them coated, if its a beater for a year it gets hit with a rattle can.

 

The shops up here are powder coaters, that's their specialty. No farming out.

Even brand new bare steel wheels should be blasted to have a good surface for the powder to bond to. Powder coat like paint will bond poorly to smooth steel.

My brand new Wheel Vintiques smoothie wheels came with a light grey primer on them and also need blasting.

Another think to keep in mind that bead blasting with gl*** beads in a blast cabinet is a not an ideal prep for painting or powder coating ,better is a garnet media to give a good surface to adhere to.

 

Must be a Canadian thing, 'cause the going rate arround here is about 30.00 to 40.00 per wheel, and I thought that was nuts 'cause not too long ago it WAS 25.00 per here in Phoenix. Oh, and that's any one of 7 different places around town.

 

I had my aftermarket Artilleries powdercoated and it got into areas that would have been difficult to spray. They came out really nice ( ignore the dirty fingerprints Hard to tell by the photo but they are a nice Jersey Cream.

 

I love rattle cans - you can change color any time you want and it's cheap!!