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View Full Version : Some wheel powdercoating info...


Mark_H
11-24-2007, 10:00 PM
Hey guys, I just wanted to pass along some info regarding my current wheel coating capabilities. If you have an aftermarket wheel such as a Konig, Enkei, or even Rota I cannot currently strip them sufficiently enough for proper powder coating. If you have such wheels polished or if you have the desire to put in the 10-12 hours of work to strip them I will gladly sandblast them and coat them for you, thats no problem at all.
The powder business is ALL PREP WORK. Thats where my time and $$ goes to coat wheels. I just can't invest 10-12 hours into a set of wheels for $130 and conversely nobody will want to pay me $500 to take 12-14 hours to prep and coat a set of wheels for them.

The problem with these wheels:
The aftermarket wheels tend to have 2 coats of varying variety. Typically something like a basecoat of some kind of coating followed by a clearcoat. These two coats are VERY hard to remove. I have one of the best sand blasters money can buy and use high end media and it barely scratches the surface. I tried the super common Aircraft stripper and it doesn't dent this stuff. I did some research and some folks have good luck with aircraft grade gasket remover...nope, no luck there.

I happen to have a Konig Tantrum that I've been working on, trying to find a reliable way to strip it and have had no luck at all. I have 3-4 hours in this wheel between blasting and stripping and below are the current state of the wheel.
If/when I find a magic cure I'll offer my coating services for such wheels.

Oh yeah, if you know Pang ask him about stripping a set of 17" Rota's. He started the process and gave up after doing some stripping with Aircraft stripper and some polishing. I finished the job for him and had over 8 hours invested in his wheels just sandblasting them.

What I can coat:
If your curious if your wheels can be properly prepped and coated by me please shoot me a PM with any questions.
I CAN coat any OEM wheel on the market, I have not ran across these issues on any OEM Wheel I've dealt with so far. Older aftermarket wheels seem to work as well. If you have a wheel that is polished or chrome I can do those too.

Pics of the Konig I'm experimenting with. This is between 1-2 hours of sandblasting, 3 coats of Aircraft Stripper and 2 coats of high grade gasket remover and lots of scraping with a metal putty knife. As you can see, it's a hell of a hard job and I will have 3-4+ hours in it just to get it completely stripped:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7cf05b3127cceb0d99cd6254c00000026100AbtW7ho1ZOG IA
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7cf05b3127cceb0d99cde254400000026100AbtW7ho1ZOG IA
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7cf05b3127cceb0d99cc6255c00000026100AbtW7ho1ZOG IA

Kwando
11-24-2007, 10:03 PM
great info mark. question, my stock wheels are made by Enkei. Will that be a problem?

Mark_H
11-24-2007, 10:13 PM
great info mark. question, my stock wheels are made by Enkei. Will that be a problem?

No Sir, your wheels are blasted and ready for powder as soon as we figure out what your gonna go with.
Thanks.

Evil_SpeedRacer
11-25-2007, 12:00 AM
Man, that looks frustrating as hell. Is there some kind of acid you could use? What about hitting it with a sander or wire brush or something?

zakkshaffer
11-25-2007, 01:51 AM
yea...now i definately see what you mean

floored4door
11-25-2007, 03:12 PM
what about if the wheel has been stripped and recoated two times? My wheels have been silver, then gunmetal/steelgreyish now black. Think that will be a problem? Coated by spec wheels.

They are Maxxim wheels, imported by Konig.

Mark_H
11-25-2007, 03:50 PM
what about if the wheel has been stripped and recoated two times? My wheels have been silver, then gunmetal/steelgreyish now black. Think that will be a problem? Coated by spec wheels.

They are Maxxim wheels, imported by Konig.

Hmm, thats a tough call. Most likely those will strip just fine. Worst case scenario would be a coat or two of stripper followed by a good blasting.