I have already had powdercoated wheels and experienced what it can do to them. I had to replace two of them because the spokes cracked during driving over the course of 2 years or so. I have read multiple threads about powdercoating weakening the wheel integrity and I guess I found out the hard way. I have since replaced my wheels with Volk RE30's which are forged. I really like unique wheels and want to paint them. Is there a different way to powdercoat that doesn't weaken them or should I try having them painted. I have limited edition wheels but I really want 1 offs. Also because they are forged maybe I won't run into this issue. Any help is appreciated.

 

It sounds like they used too high of a heat to speed up the powdercoating process. Tell them to bake them at low heat, and you shouldn't have an issue. I have had three sets of Evo wheels powdercoated with low heat, 250 degrees and under and have not had a single issue. I based this temperature based off of what Enkei told me. Good luck.

Aaron

 

Nice thanks. Did you use low heat for off gassing when the aluminum is bare metal too?

 

Most of the powder coat guys I have talked to said pretty much the same thing. Keep them at low heat and you should be OK. There was a metalurgy guy on corner-carvers forums a while ago and I believe he said for aluminum wheels its important to keep them under ~400 degrees to prevent the aluminum from breaking down.

That might limit your choices for powder coat finish though as the different powders don't all cure at the same temperature.

 

Thanks I just found a good local guy and he said that he has had engineers come in and test to try and find out and he saw nothing that showed any metal changing. He said the same thing about the temp being 400 not more.

 

I've powder coated 30+ wheels sets and none have had a failure. As it's been stated you need to keep the temp under 400. Most powders flow out between 375-400 degrees at which point the temp should be brought down to something less impactful on aluminum. A part shouldn't see this higher temp for more than 10 minutes generally. I think the problem starts with people being lazy. They crank the oven up and never decrease the temperature after initial flow out to speed up cure times.