My Z51 order goes in later this week. My final remaining decision was wheels. Don't like the standard silver paint or the chrome. The black is OK and I like the machine-faced best. I don't understand why it costs $500 to paint the wheels black instead of silver or another $1000 on top of the black to shave some of the black paint off, but that's life in Corvette option-land.

Recently, I saw another forum member post his newly powdercoated wheels. I thought they looked great, better than anything else I've seen, and only cost a few hundred dollars. All I had to do was find a good local powdercoater and I'll just order the standard silver wheels, get them powdercoated, and save $1000 in the process. It's what we all dream of.

I searched the web for more info on powdercoating. I came across a thread in the 6speedonline forum, linked below. Two "experts" debate the safety of powdercoating alloy wheels.

You can read and make your own decision, but I believe the safety risk of powdercoating wheels is not worth the benefit of better aesthetics. I decided to pay the $1500 for the machine-face wheels and not worry about possible/probable structural weakening of powdercoated wheels.

The Cliff Notes version is powdercoating wheels can be done safely but the expertise/equipment required is beyond the typical powdercoater. There is no way for the consumer to know if the average powdercoater has that expertise/equipment and even if he does, whether that was effectively applied to your particular set of wheels.

They also question the safety of aftermarket chroming of wheels (OEM is fine). There is a test, which most powdercoaters are likely unaware of (as was the "expert" powdercoater in refrenced debate), to verify the structural soundness after powdercoating. Even if they are aware, does a powdercoater really want to possibly fail the test and have to buy you another set of $3000 wheels?

Others may feel differently about the debate. I am not an engineer and therefore I am not part of the debate so hold onto your flamethrowers. I am just making you aware of the debate on another forum and telling you my decision based on that debate.

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/w...pros-cons.html

 

I've removed powder coating from welded structures several times and found cracked welds that were hidden by the coating.

The potential for the PC process weakening the aluminum coupled with the ability of the coating to hide a crack makes powder coating aluminum wheels a definite no-no in my book.

 

Black wheels look good, silver looks ok. I decided to go with the standard silver version on my C7 convertible. Couldn't justify the additional cost, no real benefit. Standard wheels perform just like optional versions. I went with optional wheels on the C6, after a year or two really didn't matter. This time I saved the money.

 

HRE, Forgeline, CCW, BBS, Honda, Toyota, etc. all powdercoat their wheels. Find a powdercoat vendor who has OEM contracts like TPJ (Technical Painting Jacksonville) and you're good to go, it's that simple. 4 new wheels powdercoated with whatever finish you want is $300 at TPJ and they are coated on the same line with OEM Honda, Toyota wheels as well as Enkei wheels.

Would I trust a guy who is baking someone's patio furniture next to your wheels, hell no, but that doesn't mean powdercoating is not applicable to alloy wheels.

There's lots of FUD out there, do your homework and don't put a lot of weight on Internet bluster.

 

I don't really see the problem either. Just like everything else when you hire somebody, you do due diligence to figure out if he knows what the heck he's doing. I think that applies here. I know here in Fort Lauderdale there are two excellent powdercoaters that do great work and Coat all sorts of Corvette wheels with no problems.

 

I happened on one of those for-OE-carmaker powdercoater/chrome shops. Obviously, they know their stuff. But what the OP is saying is far more than just good shop/bad shop for powder coating or chrome. I would bet if you took a poll on THIS enthusiast site, or any of the CF generation sites, not even 50% would know that there is a potential issue w/ powder or chrome shops and what happens to the end product.

Good find, BIC.

 

Have 60k+ miles on my C6 OEM comp gray wheels that were powdercoated after Corvettes of Houston trashed them. It is a daily driver and I haven't seen any issues. I know the powdercoaters didn't do anything special.

 

Anecdotal stories of not having any noticeable problems with powdercoated wheels is analogous to the current situation with the Takata airbag recall. Only a relatively small handful of people have been fragged and killed or maimed by their Takata airbags out of the potentially defective millions of airbags out there.

If your car potentially has one of the defective airbags, are you not concerned because nothing has happened yet to you or 99+% of the population? Even if you've been driving that car for ten years? The structurally weakened PC wheel may never manifest itself until you curb it on a track at 150 or hit a pothole on the street at 60.

I do agree that if the PC is done by an OE manufacturer that would probably be of little concern.

 

Lots of FUD, not a single example of a wheel failure caused by PC.

If done by an OEM then there is ZERO concern, not "probably little".

Just do your homework, like you would if buying aftermarket wheels and the sky will not fall and your wheels won't fly off the car.

 

The business next to my business does powder coating. I have yet to see a problem. The 300 degrees of the oven won't damage any welds and they do welded parts all the time. If the welds were cracked, they were probably cracked prior to the powder coat. They powder coat a lot of wheels and many of those are on cars that do a lot of auto crossing, both low and high speed.

They also do a lot of outdoor furniture.

 

This is the first I have hear of failure issues with powdercoating wheels.

I have a very good friend that powder coats many items for his business as well as MFG like John Deere. He has powdercoated other peoples wheels. No one has ever complained about the quality of his powdercoating,

I also have a friend who deals with heat-treating items. I'm going to ask him about this issue of heat from powdercoating potentially damaging single piece aluminum wheels, especially forged ones.

 

I am getting my wheels powdercoated in the spring, I did my due dillegence. I can tell you that I found a professional near me who was very forthcoming about how important it is to do it right. He does wheel coatings for race teams locally competing in Porsche Cup and Tudor racing. Wheels that make it through multiple seasons of racing. For me it is worth the 25% premium he charges to get it done right.

 

Exactly right. I read a bunch of information, talked extensively to the guys that did my work and made the decision to have it done. I found it a little disconcerting that a lot of the negative information I read was by people in the aftermarket wheel SELLING business. A lot of chicken little covering what "could" happen, and a lot of opinion.....

JMO, with so many wheels getting powdercoated (the guys that did mine are BUSY), if powdercoating wheels truly made the wheels dangerous (wheel failure), one would think you would hear about these wheel failures. Fact is, I didn't see ANY report, ANYWHERE, showing a wheel failure caused by powdercoating (not to say it hasn't happened, but I didn't find even ONE).

Jimmy

 

Powder coated by winter wheels Carbon flash, happy to have no machined lip.