JR-01

People are overthinking this. He has a couple choices and both would work out just fine. It all depends on how much money he wants to spend. He can pay to get them powder coated or get the satisfaction of doing it himself and save some money. He can always go the other route later. They are just wheels after all.

raztek

Thanks ErikwithAK01.

Jeff T.

Doesn't that happen in almost every thread!

JR-01

Yes

danh52

Yes, powdercoat is very durable but even on new cars, simple paint is still used. My 13 Camaro 1LE wheels from the factory were painted using a single stage semi gloss black.

Also, it is very difficult to media blast a powdercoated part as the powdercoat is soft enough to just move around under the media blast. I stripped some powdercoated brake calipers recently and eventually gave up trying to remove all of the old powdercoat and just got a rough surface to paint on. If those rims are PC'd I'd just scuff with a red scotchbrite pad and paint. Use a good quality etching primer such as SEM and paint.

chasboy

When I had my Z, I never liked the stock color on the Speedlines. Local wheel shop stripped them, powder coated them black, then machined the face, and clear powder coated everything. The wheels were fantastic.

ErikwithAK01

Etching primer does not have a very high film build, and won't be so hot over body filler, or old paints, so I cannot recommend that. Etching primer has acid in it, and is designed to etch metal to make it's own tooth to adhere to, it has very few elastomers, which is what would allow it to efficiently adhere to previous coatings. If your using etching primer over a coated metal, you are not getting a high enough filler content to fill sanding scratches from around 1500 grit and up, that is why we have high build primers. Etching is only required when you have bare metal to start with, like when an old steel car has been bead blasted. Not only that, but it also dries up bondo, and causes it to shrink, which in turn, makes it crack.

danh52

Etch prime is to be used on bare metal and is commonly used to improve adhesion for the color coats, especially on aluminum. I wouldn't use any filler on a wheel but you could go over the etch with a sanding primer if you have light scratches to fill. On a wheel it would be best to keep the paint buildup to a minimum, thin being more chip resistant than thick.

The GM wheels on my Camaro looked like they were a single coat of semigloss black trim paint. I didn't have any scars in the paint after 2 years of DD and 5 track days so I guess it was an ok finish but not car show quality.

danh52

There's a pretty good wheel refinish video on youtube that was done by a BWM retailer. They used a 2 part epoxy putty to fill deep curb rash scratches. Seemed like a good material to use on something like a wheel considering the beating they see.

The Chev

The real question is.........

Multi-piece wheels, should they be disassembled prior to coating, or left intact?

JR-01

I would disassemble and mark them to put them back together exactly the same way.

ErikwithAK01

I agree Disassembly, refinish, new titanium hardware, and dynamic rebalancing after tires.

Tuco

cool thread, learned a lot.

66dts-v

Chem strip, phosphate wash, repowder and new ti hardware would be pimp and proper. I had a gold metal flake (24k) that I shot my R1 wheels with that would look so good on those.




<edit> That powder was bomb proof, too. Brake fluid didn't even dull the finish.

nsogiba

Bringing this thread back from the dead. Did you ever have them refinished? I just picked up a cheap set of BBS LMs that need some love.

MikeyMcFly

I'm reviewing my old threads and saw your post. I'm unfortunately likely too late, but yes, I did have them refinished. I went the scuff and spray route with a local bodyshop. They aren't perfect due to the low quality of the powercoating and the complexity of the wheel design, but they're good enough for me for the price I paid.

nsogiba

Those look great! I have only started to disassemble the rears. Plan on building a small "wheel lathe" this winter to allow me to easily polish the barrels.

leadfoot4

I also have a set of these BBS wheels, and was concerned about a couple of small chips, I assume from road debris. Since they aren't serious enough at this point, I haven't been motivated enough to have them refinished, but I happened to speak with a BBS representative a couple of years back, and he recommended that I contact a shop called Proformance.com. If I remember correctly, they're in the New York City area....

c5BlackBeauty