Powder coating wheels

[Palazzo 477]

I bought some spare 20” wheels for the X5, they had been painted (badly) and were pretty rough.

Decided to powder coat and got them sand blasted, then powder coated, result is below. Note, due to a combination of laziness/desire to get it over with and some indecision over the alloy wheel filler I had standing up to the powder coating oven, they got a quick file of the worst bits, so there are some ripples on the edges, but the powder coating itself is mint. Ironically, the worst damage (3rd wheel from the left) happened on the way to the powder coaters in the back of the car.

Stuff I learned  @aramoana

Sandblasters aren’t equal. I had one guy do one as a test. He moaned about how hard it was and would only take $100 in cash. The second guy charged $80 + gst a wheel, pulled themselves up at not getting them perfect and redid them, then laughed at the other effort and redid that.

Powder coaters aren’t equal. One company gave me a quote, then told me it was all too hard, they didn’t have the colour, wouldn’t order it and to try somewhere else. As a sales pitch, unbelievable.

BMW wheels have some god awful rubberised coating on them that is difficult to remove.

Make sure your wheels can’t move in the car, alloy is surprisingly soft…..

The powder coating guy recommended stripping the paint before sand blasting. He also recommended against chemical stripping as they have had the chemicals “get into” the alloy and then ruin the powder coated finish. Make sure the wheels are as clean as possible and try not to touch the face once prepared.

If you buy cheap centre caps from TM, you will get what you pay for. I thought the fake carbon ones that came with the wheels were rubbish, the stickers on the new ones aren’t even stuck down properly.

Be patient.

Im really happy with the result, they did a great job and were $30/wheel cheaper than another place I tried, not the one mentioned above.

[aja540i 1906]

is it just a gloss black? Seems odd that a powder coating place wouldn't have gloss black! 

As with painting, prep is the key to good results, the only other step I would recommend is a chemical treatment to coat the bare alloy  before powder coating, if the place you use does a lot of aluminium they should be able to do it for you, we have tanks that we dip everything in to pre treat.

[Palazzo 477]

Dulux colour, Metropolis Coal Dust Kinetic.

Prep is absolutely the key. If I’d known you did this, would have come to see you.

Just trying to help anyone who goes down that road. Some of the advice was poor, the service laughable and some of it was top notch. The place I used does a lot of commercial work (railings, verandas etc) as well as wheels. I told them this was the first time I’d done this and they were spot on with advice and communication.

I’m happy with the result, aim was to get a serviceable set of wheels to avoid 21” tyre tax.

[aja540i 1906]

I did a set for my e39 540i touring in coal dust, it is an old colour now but I chose it because the brake dust doesn't show up on it!! 

We really only do our own product but it is a mix of galv steel and aluminium, and we have the pre treatment tanks for both, so I would be lying if I said I hadn't seen a few sets of wheels going through

I usually dip strip or sand blast (depending on the finish of the wheels) then run them through the pre treatment process, I am currently doing a set of style 66s for the 530d but I am going to wet paint them as I couldn't find the exact right colour in powder coat.

[Palazzo 477]

I want to replicate the finish on my 21” factory wheels, apparently Prismatic Powders is the best bet. 
They are like a black chrome with blue finish. I’ve found a few colours that are close, but nothing in the Dulux range.