When the current tires on my black 2016 are worn out, am thinking of having the stock wheels power coated and then putting some more aggressive looking tires on them. My off road trips will be mostly on the beach in New England but would like to black out the stock wheels because I like them. Any thoughts or experience power coating wheels?
Power coat stock wheels
- Thread starter welchsoft
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
CharlieS
GOLD Star
You're probably going to get answers all over the place. Some have reported that the heat from powder coating is bad for the metallurgy. Some wheel vendors say not to powdercoat. Some have done it and don't have that concern. Some paint. Some plastidip. I've had both painted and powder coated wheels on various vehicles (including a high performance sports car) and haven't experienced problems. That doesn't mean it is "safe" or smart. But it probably isn't the end of the world.
There's a bit of handwringing with powder coating affecting the metalurgy of cast aluminum wheels, but you should be fine if you go that way, many people have. That said, with the price that I've seen folks paying to have wheels powder coated lately (upwards of $100 ea), I'd paint them with a good quality spray paint. VHT wheel paint works well in my experience, but most any good quality spray can will work well with good prep. Clean them well, prep with a light scuff with a scotchbrite pad, then spray. One trick I like is to deflate the tires and slip cardstock or index cards between the rim and the bead to mask the tires. Then you don't have to wait for new tire time to paint them, and you get a good clean paint job on the lip.
CharlieS
GOLD Star
I'm not in the camp of worrying about it, but here's what BBS says about it:
bbs-usa.com
BBS USA - Technology Through Motorsports - Braselton, GA - Frequently Asked Questions
BBS of America is the sole distributor of BBS products for the United States and Canada. The headquarters is located in Braselton Georgia, adjacent to the famous Road Atlanta race track.
bbs-usa.com
Can I powder coat my wheels?
No BBS Motorsport product should ever be powder coated due to the effects the curing process has upon the original heat treatment and structural integrity of the product. Secondly, if re-painting any BBS wheel component, special care must be taken to keep all mounting surfaces free of any coating or paint.
Sinister
SILVER Star
I did my 2011, I wasn’t and still not concerned about it.
- Thread starter
- #6
Can you provide some details on how it was done? Send the wheels out or do them yourself?
Sinister
SILVER Star
Unless you just happen to have a cheap powder coating service on deck, i'm with team spray paint. I did my wheels about 1 year ago in my backyard over a weekend. They looks as good as they did a year ago, which is to say, not perfect, but plenty good for an off road rig.
Before (they had been rattle canned black before I bought them).
After (I used a high grit sand paper (320 maybe) to smooth them out then sprayed them.
Before (they had been rattle canned black before I bought them).
After (I used a high grit sand paper (320 maybe) to smooth them out then sprayed them.
Last edited:
I had mine powder coated 4 years ago they still look great, with no issues.
bloc
SILVER Star
I believe powder coat curing temps are more an issue for forged aluminum than cast.
Just make sure they do a good job of masking off the lug nut holes AND the flat face the captive washer contacts, plus the face against the hub and ID of the bore.
Some shops struggle with these details and on some vehicles it doesn’t matter, but it does on ours. I probably spent three hours carefully removing PC in the relevant spots on a set of wheels for a previous vehicle, when if they had just masked the right spots they’d bolt right on.
Just make sure they do a good job of masking off the lug nut holes AND the flat face the captive washer contacts, plus the face against the hub and ID of the bore.
Some shops struggle with these details and on some vehicles it doesn’t matter, but it does on ours. I probably spent three hours carefully removing PC in the relevant spots on a set of wheels for a previous vehicle, when if they had just masked the right spots they’d bolt right on.
I've had two sets of wheels professionally powder coated and both came out great. Granted, neither was forged (like the BBS wheels), but I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. For reference, here in Denver the going rate (pre-COVID) was $150 to $175 per wheel, so it's definitely not cheap.
This. I posted the amount of strength loss powder coating can do at an < hour of normal baking on here somewhere, and it was a large %. This doesn't even account for the 1+ hour you should heat to outgas any impurities to avoid bubbles in the powder.
Forged wheels are coated from the factory as part of the forging process. Additional high heat is bad. At a minimum, use a low temp powder.
For cast wheels, powder is fine.
Powder coated my ZL1 wheels, $75 each cash in gloss black look better then factory
Who in Denver did you use, or would you recommend?
