Wheel powder coat advice

[northstar34]

Okay, got a spare set of rays wheels, in a bit of a sorry state.

Need to get them refurbed and did a bit of research on powder coating.

The obvious plus points for P.C is it is much cheaper and more durable, to mention a few.

Issue is, the wheels have to be cured ona low bake or you run the risk of weakening the rims.

Have had a chat with Leoministerpowdercoat.co.uk (anyone had any work from them) the owner has said that he is using powder coatings from the states which cure at 160c.

Not sure if this is the ideal temp for forged rays wheels to be baked at.

Others have said to make sure that who ever does the powder coating should be checking the hardness of the wheels before and after the low bake powder coating to make sure the forge has not weakened.

Need expert advice on this as l may flush the best part of £1500 down the drain if l mess these wheels up!!

[wildboy]

I had my lmgt1's powder coated with no apparent Ill effects over a year ago

[tonigmr2]

Interesting. I had my TE37s powdercoated around 2+ years ago now, never heard of these issues and never had a single problem. I told the refurbishers they were forged, and indeed they had definitely done several sets before because they commented that they had previously tried to match the bronze anodised finish and couldn't.

They are still mint after 2+ years as well!

[Fil]

Originally Posted by northstar34

Okay, got a spare set of rays wheels, in a bit of a sorry state.

Need to get them refurbed and did a bit of research on powder coating.

The obvious plus points for P.C is it is much cheaper and more durable, to mention a few.

Issue is, the wheels have to be cured ona low bake or you run the risk of weakening the rims.

Have had a chat with Leoministerpowdercoat.co.uk (anyone had any work from them) the owner has said that he is using powder coatings from the states which cure at 160c.

Not sure if this is the ideal temp for forged rays wheels to be baked at.

Others have said to make sure that who ever does the powder coating should be checking the hardness of the wheels before and after the low bake powder coating to make sure the forge has not weakened.

Need expert advice on this as l may flush the best part of £1500 down the drain if l mess these wheels up!!

I'm no metalurgist, but I would have thought that a well made top quality forged rim would be able to stand 160 degrees of heat.
I've been using Leominster Powdercoating to do some bits off my bike (including a pair of wheels that I'll be picking up on Saturday), and they've done a good job so far. They specialise in this kind of work, not big batch jobs. What you will probably find though is that you will struggle to get the metallic bronze colour. This is what I wanted for my bike wheels, so I went for gloss black. They have started doing wheels in 2 pack paint over powder base, so it may be possible to get a suitable colour this way. Mark & Ben will do their best to sort you out.

[GT-R Glenn]

Just to clear something up here, 160° is less than half the temperature that most aluminiums are tempered at ....
So put simply,
It wont effect anything.
Ive had 2 sets of R33 wheels powdercoated, never had any issues and wouldnt expect to.

[rb30r34]

^What he said...........

[Sub Boy]

H3ll my brakes prob make the wheels hotter than that! haha!

[northstar34]

Different powder coaters are using different temps to apply powders.

Thought l'd focus closer to the Westmidlansd as it is closer and found a place that cures there powder coating at 200celcius

The owner has work from quite a few local main dealerships and he said that is what the motor vehicle manufacturers recommend is safe.

One last time (sorry for being a pain) will another 40celcius make a difference, cause l'm egging to give these rims a new lease of life.

Cheers inadvance.

[RJT]

The only problems ive ever heard of is when the place doing it bakes the wheels first at an insane tempreature to burn the old pant off. So make sure they dont do that!!

And also not powder coating over the mating flange. As when in use, the heat from the brakes softens the coating and the wheels can work loose.

[gillsl500]

Originally Posted by tonigmr2

Interesting. I had my TE37s powdercoated around 2+ years ago now, never heard of these issues and never had a single problem. I told the refurbishers they were forged, and indeed they had definitely done several sets before because they commented that they had previously tried to match the bronze anodised finish and couldn't.

They are still mint after 2+ years as well!

Did they powder coat yours in a different shade of bronze then?

[gillsl500]

Just found this, apparently a close bronze match to that of the rays wheels?

Comes in aerosol and powdercoat?

Rays Racing Bronze

Is the Rays bronze the same as Volk bronze?

Cheers

[infamous_t]

Originally Posted by gillsl500

Is the Rays bronze the same as Volk bronze?

Probably, its the same company, I can't imagine they'd be bothered to mix a slightly different shade just for shits and giggles