I bought an MR a little while back, and the wheels were pretty beat up, so I brought it to a local place that fixed all the dings and painted them black. Looked great, everything was very smooth, but I'm now having issues.

This started by taking the car to get some new tires mounted / balanced, and the tire shop managed to scrape the wheels slightly, chipping some of the paint off. This got a lot worse over the following several weeks. I've driven pretty hard on a number of roads where there could be a loose pebble here or there, but no hardcore rally driving or anything.

I'm afraid there's not much that can be done but I'm going to see what the shop that did the job has to say, and if anyone here has run into a similar experience. Here are some pics of the dings... click on the links below for the full res pics, and you can see a lot of little tiny dings / scratches if you look hard, but there are a number of dings that are visible as you're walking up to the car. The wheels have a little dirt here and there in the pics, but you can get an idea where the scratches and dings are, especially in the full res shots.









Full res versions:
http://www.trevornelsonphotography.c.../i-h5NFTzn.jpg
http://www.trevornelsonphotography.c.../i-vZmMPmc.jpg
http://www.trevornelsonphotography.c.../i-tBjDdzR.jpg

These shots are with a macro lens, so it makes it look a lot worse.

Trevor

 

Belle tire just recently scratched my RPF1s and after 2 months they said that they got approved to pay for powder coating, but I still have not received a check.

 

ehmmmm rally car think of it as battle scars

 

I'm pretty sure this shop did a full paint job on the wheel, would powder coating work better? I'm very unfamiliar with painting / powder coating wheels, so please forgive my ignorance... Any tips are appreciated!

 

powder coating is much more durable than paint.

 

I run a set of black powder coated wheels on my weekend driver. They have been on the car for probably 7-8 years and they still look very good. There are some divots and markings in the surface of the powder coat from road debris, but no chips or damage of any kind. Have your wheels stripped of all the old paint and then powder coat them. Powder coat is way more resilient and durable than regular paint. I'm thinking about doing my BBS's as well.

 

Cool, thanks for the replies, it is much appreciated...

So it sounds like powder coating is the better way to go... How much do people typically pay to strip and powder coat a wheel? Of course wheels are always prone to hitting stuff, but this paint just seems cheap and easily damaged.

 

$450 - $600 locally for me.

Do some research on powdercoating. There is some contention that powdercoating weakens aluminum wheels, even forged ones. If you DO get quotes on powdercoating, I'd make sure it is low-temp powdercoating.

I'm going with paint, but I'm a road-warrior.