I recently decided I wanted to change the look of the car, so I picked up a set of 5 spoke polished stockers with the intention of powder coating them a Comp Grey color so I would have a unique combination that isn't exactly stock, and it doesn't have the bling of the polished wheels.


My dilemma is this. a friend recommended a powder coat shop. I took the wheels over there to see if they would take the job, but they refused it based on the factory coating. Turns out they have had a few mishaps where the media blaster had to be used with malice aforethought and warped the metal.


so should I bite the bullet and find some aircraft stripper and prep the wheels and hand paint.

take the wheels to a body shop for an automotive finish.

find another coat shop.

say eff it and find a place to prep and black chrome them

 

I find that strange but........stripping is apparently not that big a deal. Walmart stripper seems to work. Just for info check the suggestions here:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...he-wheels.html


Might look for another powder shop or maybe strip your wheels and take them back to the first shop and try again. Good luck.

 

I painted mine gloss pearl black ice and clear coated the paint, thinking i would be good. but went over a gravel road for a mile or so and the rears got chipped. I just retouch them

before


after

 

So here is what I am gonna try. Walmart Aircraft Stripper and prep them myself. and take the wheels back to the coating guy to have him try it.

 

I'll wave the BS flag here. I dont understand how media blasting can warp cast alm wheels? I would shop around for another coater.

 

I would stick to the coating for sure. I drive a tow truck so I know the guys in the body shops around my area. I went to the guy i'd trust the most with my car and asked him to paint my wheels for me, he said he would but i'd be better off to go else where and have them powder coated.

As far as that first shop you went to with the blasting issue idk what to tell ya...

 

I believe he has a very aggressive blaster and the warping is more of a surface distortion than warping the entire wheel.

I picked up a couple of cans of aircraft stripper to prep these myself, I need to fix some of the curbing that previous owner did anyways so might as well get dirty...

 

Had mine powder coated comp. grey locally. They look great and don't hold on to the brake dust as much. Very worth while.

 

That is my thought - get brake dust colored

 

Status Check...



I spent a few hours on the rims this weekend... beegezus... this clear coat is not coming off. Next weekend I will try a different gel based stripper. I went thru 3 cans of the aircraft stripper this weekend.

 

Stop wasting your time...take it to a different powder coating guy because the guy who initially gave you advice is a imbecile. I had brand new chrome rims that I wanted powder coated black and they had to etch them by media blast to get the powder coating to set, but it turned out flawless, so YES, it is possible, and NO, the metal is going to warp. He just doesn't want to do your rims in case you don't like something then he's liable.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...and-after.html

If you still want to go it your route you need a high grade aviation stripper. Usually professional automotive shops will carry it, not walmart, k-mart, or any other store with "mart" at the end of it. Just be careful an wear gloves and goggles. The stuff is extremely toxic and it makes a mess.

 

I am leaning towards another coating guy. One of my associates mentioned his guy - I just have to call to see if he has a media blaster to hit the outside of the lip where the last little bit of clear is stubborn.

 

Stripping the coating off is very easy

I will copy a recent thread where the OP shows it step by step...

vetfever

 

Here you go - this guy did his wheel barrels, but the materials and technique is the same for removing clear coat...




http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...ghlight=barrel

 

One of the best ways of protecting and preserving your wheels is with proper powder coating! It's an extremely tough finish and very low maintenance. Other than curb rash (nothing stands up well to curb rash) the finish is supposed to stand up great! it's why high end car mfg use it for many styles of wheels.

As for deforming the wheels with bead blasting... highly unlikely from what I know about the process.

It's a 7 stage powder coating process to get the desired finish and color.... I'm hoping to have them this week with the new tires installed also.

What I liked about this finish was almost zero maintenance but still produces a nice looking wheel....

Here are a few pics of the FINISH/COLOR but not the exact style of wheel I'm purchasing from CCW.

If anyone is interested I'll post up some pics after I get them installed on my victory red coupe..

 

I saw this thread over the weekend - I used the Rust-Oleum based aircraft stripper first, but the barrels in the stock polished clear seem to hold the finish better (worse? ) than the chrome in that post.

So I spent some time chatting with my buddy at the office today - I will be calling his coating guy and see what he recommends.

 

so spent an hour prepping the remaining rim with a dremel wheel to clean off the outside of barrel, and then dropped the rims off with a second recommended "friend of a friend".



The guy has a stock color that is close to a comp grey metallic. He will be powder coating then clearing the wheels. Should take a couple of weeks (he has some Audi and Porsche guys to finish up) so I may have these in time to buy new tires for the rears...


These will be the most expensive second hand stock wheels "evar"

 

I opened this thread to expect to see a list of powder coat bashers and was happy to find our forum is educated to the merrits of powder coating. In the past I have seen every thing posted from 'heating the wheels weakens them' to 'they wont seat on the hubs properly if you powder coat'. You wouldnt believe the non-sense some experts post about things they 'read about' on the 'net.

Powder coating is 9 times as dense as automotive paint and will far outlast the finish of painting. Parts that are already powder coated on your car include the sway bars. Powder coating can stretch on items such as sway bars and coil springs.

Typical PC is about 400 which includes stripping 4 wheels of the old finish which does not warp wheels. Some specialty colors like translucents and similated anodize colors can cost more because they are actually 2 different colors (a chome-like coating with a translucent over it).

I do some powder coating in my garage with great success and I can tell you that any place that takes 4 weeks to do the job is just backlogged because it takes me 1/2 a day to do 4 wheels and thats doing them one at a time in the oven. If you see the process, you will feel you got ripped off paying 400 bucks for it. Its way easier than painting.

 

I'm a fan of PC...I did it to most of my motorcycle parts, and also my rims on my vette. I'm curious to know how you did it at home. I'm sure it's not difficult as long as you have all the right tools. If you don't mind sharing it with some of us DIY guys, I'd love to hear what you need...IE: specific spray gun, compressor (specific PSI), material, etc...

Thanks!

 

I have seen the comments on the "effects" of heating forged rims (versus the stockers that are cast) and would 100% not risk PC on a good dedicated track day set of forged rims. But for a typical daily driver with a few HPDS days or AutoX I would PC forged wheels.


My estimate for the PC includes:
touching up the stripping I did with a light media blasting.
Gunmetal (that has a metallic pear)l coating
Clear coat on top to add depth to the pearl

Cost ? $460.


The guy is recommended and for the people in the area he does seem more reasonable compared to a few quotes I had for single coat...

I am just commenting that the 800 dollar set of wheels (albeit complete with sensors and decent tires). I then added 40 bucks to dismount them, and 100 in materials (aircraft stripper, scotch pads, dremel bits) to strip them at home. so we are at 1400 for the wheels "complete." Of course I could sell the originals I have complete for 700+ so this may be a wash in the long run when compared to buying a set of Z06 knock offs from tire rack, but my CFO doesn't understand that