I'm looking to powdercoat my track wheels. A friend of mine was also interested so h did some diggin and told me he found out that powdercoating something that was originally forged makes the wheel brittle.. I'm no expert so I'm just asking for opinions. I know a bunch of other members have done it and turned out great. Thanks in advance...

 

your powdercoater, if he is any good, should be a member of a professional organization or forum that discusses these topics. there are specifics to powdercoating forged metals, specifically (if I remember from my talk) the temperatures used. powdercoating forged parts means they should use lower temperatures.

^this is coming from memory from about a year ago, so take it with a grain of salt

but basically there is no risk if performed by a professional

 

cool thanks summed up perfectly...

 

I was wondering the same thing. Does anyone else know about this?

...2nd opinion never hurts.

 

Well ---a Forged Piston holds up to heat well........

I could research, but so could you. Wouldnt hurt to discuss it with your Powder Coater

 

1) tell them no bakeoff oven to remove the existing paint/coating - thats too hot (500F+) for our wheels, it will anneal your wheels. This is where most PC jobs go wrong. Its not really even related to the powdercoating. They bake the old paint completely off instead of sand blasting. Lazy shop, they know better. They may do it with Semi rigs steel wheels (shops get alot of these jobs), but they should never do that with aluminum. Sometimes they just see 'wheels' and dont think.

2) tell them your wheels are forged and should only get as much heat as necessary for as long as necessary, no more.

If a shop is good, you shouldnt have problems. Sloppy shops will ruin your wheels.

 

^Ah.. thanks for that. What are alternatives to powder coating?

 

I too have been thinking about this. I have Nismo LMGT4s with the NISMO stickers (ghetto IMO) on the rims. But over the years the stickers have peeled away. So i'm wondering whats the best way to get that NISMO back on the rim. I was thinking powdercoating the letters. But would painting them be better? Seems silly to put stickers as a replacement, knowing they will just peel away again over time.

Any thoughts on this?

 

The duplicolor paint gets great reviews (if applied as specified, many coats within the allowable recoat time). Then theres always professional painting/polishing and they can UV cure the paint.

Another thing about PC is that without a clearcoat, PC can fade and/or spot or stain easily. The PC colors look great in the color book.. but they will insist on clearcoating. PC needs the UV protection from the clear coat, but it will dull any metallic color you picked. Again, goes back to a good shop... mine must have put 3 coats of clear on.. I ended up with gray wheels. Shiny silver only in the most direct sunlight, but usually dull gray.

I'm tempted by the ease of PC, but I may try duplicolor next time. Its easily touched up and people say its pretty tough. for the $200-300 cost of PC and marginal results I've had, I can afford to give the duplicolor a try.

 

^^ Thanks for the informative info..

 

What about anodizing? I was thinking that was the way to go for my door handles and possibly lugs but I'm not sure yet on what the major difference is.

 

You can't anodize the door handles because they are not metal (plastic with a "metal-like" coating).

As far as anodizing wheels, it's possible, although I've read you can get less than desirable results because typical aluminum used for forged and cast wheels has too many perfections and surface irregularities to give a quality finish.

As far as powder coating forged or cast wheels, I asked our metallurgist here at work about any possible consequences. He claimed that under typical powder coating temperatures and oven times, there should be no adverse affects. Even at higher baking temperatures, as long as the time is limited you should be ok. He justified it by breaking out his materials reference book, and we went through some TTT diagrams and phase charts for the grade aluminum used. The guy has a PhD in metallurgical engineering (or something similar) so I was inclined to believe him.

 

I just talked to my Powder Coater ----He talked to the factory rep to verify. PC should have no effect on the forged as I suspected---Its only baked at 375 degrees. I believe anodizing wouls have more of an effect on the molecular structure than anything but there again, of no consequence

NOW ---Yes the door handles are plastic, but can be PCed with a different proccess using UV light to flow the coat

 

as I was saying, if they do it right, no problems. But, things dont always go well when the shops get sloppy. As for heat, they can have hot spots in their ovens, like the large walk in type.

first, they have to heat the wheels (after stripping) to 'out-gas'
them. They will be pulled out and sprayed. Then cured under heat again. then pulled out, then cleared, then cured again. each time I like 8-15 mins. At the proper temps and times, no problem at all. But alot of shops have multiple jobs going at once. the phone is ringing, people are coming in with more stuff to PC. As long as the guy is paying attention to your job, youre golden.

 

I think my heads going to pop off from all the big words!!! j/k. This has deffinitely been informative. I will probably just end up printing this and bringing it in and explaining everything to them. Does anybody know or has anyone used duplicolor to paint there doorhandles? I've heard stories of people using DP on there wheels then when they take it in to get the tires mounted the paint chips off.

 

I have used 2 part acrylic urethane on rims with good luck at the same time do your handles ---I just base coat cleared a set

I have also used the Fusion Plastic spray can paint on the handes ---but it doesnt last

 

So the consencus says... Powder Coating forged rims "shouldn't" be a problem. Another process that can be done is to duplicolor paint the rims.

So dous anyone know of shops around MD that can do this kind of work? And anyone know what the general cost is for either process?

 

Powder coating ---yes. Dupli-color, I associate with a spray can---No.

At the minimum, rims can be preped and Acrylic Urethaned with a hardnener

 

From what I've researched most PC jobs are around 200-300 for all 4 not bad considering volks go for $3k+