Ok this is my last question on wheels and tires

I have Silver X Lites but wished I had bought white

Is is worth getting them powder coated white if so what woudl be the cost and who around MI does anyone know of who woud do a an outstanding job

Many thanks for any help you can give me

 

I have no idea about pricing in your area. A shop here in town would do mine for $30 per wheel. Powder coating is a VERY sturdy finish. I have had great luck with powder coated finishes in the past. I did the nerf bars on my blazer with silver almost ten years ago and they still look good. I am considering doing mine in indie blue.

 

Spaner,

I'm in the same boat as far as contemplating powder coating, but for what price.

Darsky, $30 per wheel is awesome. Here in San Jose, a wheel store that specializes in restoring or painting rims are asking for $120 per wheel with dupont brand powder coat. Isn't that crazy?

Under $65 per wheel would be reasonable even with the best brand at least for me.

 

100+ is about what you should pay to have a wheel powdercoated right.

 

Be carefull powder coating high tech wheels! (like SSR's) The heat needed to set up such finnishes can alter the strenth of the alloys, specifically if they have allready been heat treated.

Alex

 

i was thinking that some S-lites would look sweet powder coated black!

 

I thought I would share some powder coating info since I've been spending more time than I care to admit on getting my new wheels powder coated.
I recently received from The Tire Rack a fabulous set of OZ Crono Evolutions that I planned to have powder coated white. Tha day after I received the wheels I noticed Alex's (Tire Rack Guy) post about powder coating so I immediately went into research mode. The last thing anyone wants to do is ruin a brand new set of $1,000+ wheels.
First I called the powder coating guy and asked him what temperatures the wheels get baked to, he said 400 degrees. Next I called OZ and asked them about powder coating, the Tech Guy at OZ said I would loose the warranty on the wheels if I powder coated them (no big deal there) However, the OZ Tech Guy went on further to say that 400+ degrees (off the record) would not harm the wheels at all. Than I realized that a heavy brake application could get them even way hotter than 400 degrees so that made me feel better. Also, the silver coating on the wheels is powder coated anyway.
That all said, powder coating is actually a several step process carried out by two different vendors.
Vendor 1 - Bead Blaster/Stripper this guy bead blasts the wheels down to bare material. In Bridgport CT we are lucky to have one of the best American Dry Stripping (Gary Jones 203-336-9187) Gary does work for Paul Newman and Newman Haas so you know this guy is good.
Vendor 2 - Powder Coater Once your wheels are beead blasted clean the powder coater adds a heavy layer of undercoat, next the color, but that's not all, you do need to get the final painted surface clear coated and the clear coating is extra.
So when comparing prices and overall costs take the following into consideration:
Bead Blasting $50 to $70 per wheel
Powder Coating $60 to $70 per wheel
Clear coating is extra and I didn't get a price for that yet.
These prices are for Southwestern Connecticut, prices in other areas will certainly vary.
So, at this point I decided to do an experiment, willing to sacrifice one wheel I dropped it off at the American Dry Stripping for the bead blasting and will take it directly over to the powder coater for painting and coating. Hopefully I should have the test wheel back by the end of next week and I will give a full report on the results.

 

We decided not to powdercoat the wheels because the local guy thought he might ruin the wheels. We just sanded the wheels, and had our body guy paint the wheels. They look AMAZING. I'll get some pics of them this weekend, and have them on my car soon.

If any of you get yours powdercoated, please show some pics.

 

Hank: Please let me know how it turns out.

Thanks,

X2

 

X2Board:
My 'experimental wheel should be ready for review by the end of next week, I hope! I will give e full 'pictorial report when its complete!

 

so was the powder coating a sucess?

I am still pondering this for my silver 16 X Lites but...

I am about feed up with changing wheels - S-lite tale of woe
- a nasty puncture (I hate MI truckers spuking lorry inards - Baaah
- replaced run flats on 17 with Yoko - Good I hope
- Tire store dents wheel - Ba$!@%$%
- Tire store can not get white paint (germans can not label) - Bugger
- Tire store replaces wheel with new wheel - Yeah
- New Wheel is Ok color wise but does not have a good coat of white paint - The "B" surface ie back of the wheel is grey (prob primer) and one of the spokes is off white

I give up....

 

Hank...
did you get your wheels back yet?
i'm really interested in this too, i am in the same situation as you were.
i'm going to order some pretty expensive wheels and i want them painted,
nerve racking eh??

 

My experiment with powder coating the one wheel is complete and it looks fabulous! I was so pleased with the results that the remaining three wheels are now bead blasted and being poweder coated as I write this note.
The powder coater told me the wheels should be done either tomorrow or Monday the latest.
At that point I will have to take the wheels and new Yoko's to the tire/wheel mounting guy in Danbury, CT. Once the wheels are on the car and I have done a 'complete' road test I can report back as to the total story.
So far though everything looks great.

 

IIRC, there is a special type of powder that is baked at a much lower temperature, which is better for some alloys. I would imagine a good powder coater would have info about it - no firsthand experience coating wheels, myself.

 

I finally completed my summer Mini project and very happy with the results, thanks to the great support from Alex at the Tire Rack and several local Danbury, CT area vendors. And quite a project it was, we all agonize over our aftermarket wheels, but when you decide to go a bit further and customize them the anxiety level bumps up a few notches, a new set of tires and wheels ain't cheap. Here are the spec's on mine:

Wheels: OZ Crono Evolution (original color silver)
Step One: Bead blasted wheels clean
Step Two: Powder coated wheels white
Step Three: Clear coated the white powder coating
Step Four: Strip plastic center caps (orignally silver with black OZ Racing logo)
Step Five: Paint Center caps black
Step Six: OZ Racing center cap graphics created in white and applied
Step Six: Clear coat center caps
The original wheel came with a large OZ logo on one spoke of each wheel, I had this graphic made up as well, but after installing one I didn't like the strong visual it created so I left them off the spoke. My roof flag already creates a strong graphic and I don't think the car can take too much more 'signage' (except for the JCW badges once the upgrade gets installed)

Prior to doing any of this work I researched all the details about what powder coating temperaturs are, I spoke to the tech guy at OZ who said I would loose the wheel warrenty but he also said the 400 degree temperature from powder coating would not damage in any way the Crono's (this may not be true for other manufacturer's wheels, OZ wheels are produced with very high quality standards)

Prior to mounting the wheels I removed the brake pads and coated the calipers with G2 Coating Red from the Tire Rack, than replaced the stock brake pads with EBC Greenstuff, also from the Tire Rack.

Would I recommend this approach to everyone, no. It turns a moderately priced wheel into a fairly expensive wheel. White is probably not the most practical color for a wheel but my Mini is not a daily driver, its strictly a toy for me that I put less than 500 miles a month on. The five spoke design though makes cleaning the inside of the wheel a breeze because the openings are large enough to put your hand through with a rag.

Oh, I skinned the wheels with Yoko ES 100, this tire/wheel combination saved me 12 pounds at each corner. The 48 pound weight saving makes quite a substantial difference in driving perfomance and the Yoko's are a great deal more pleasent riding than the original run flats and I love the aggressive tread pattern.

Here's a first picture, I will post other photos on a different thread. Anyone interested in the costs for doing all this extra work email me directly.

 

Just testing photo size..............sorry!

 

Hank,

Looks great! You've come over from the dark side, I see that you are now "MG ear"

Can never have too many MG fans on MCO.

 

Hank or MGear, I sent you a private message about the powder coating that car looks sweet.

 

You noticed the name change, sorry about that. Actually what happened was a few nights ago while on MCO casting my vote (signature) against the evil beemers, for some odd reason my normal sign-in name of Hank became corrupted and the site would not recognize me. I had forgotten what ID and password I used to create the original account so I had to create a new one. After doing so I noticed and realized that I wound up loosing all my previous picture posting information too!