Powder Coating or Painting wheels

[nachob]

So when we last left this thread, I stated that at the very least find someone that is dedicated to wheel powdercoating if you are going to do it. I also personally came to the conclusion that I would not powdercoat forged wheels at all but several of my peers had it done successfully to non-forged wheels so I figured I would try it out. I took my 18" ZHP wheels to be powdercoated and found the highest rated wheel repair specialists in my city. Left them the car while they powdercoated the wheels is supposedly factory silver. The wheel looks nice but it doesn't have the smooth shine and "pop" that factory silver has. I have seen in the past with powdercoats but that was the smallest problem. The real problem now is that they powdercoated the hub bore and they installed the wheels on the car. Guess what happens when you add material to a hub bore and force tighten the wheel on the car?

Yes, wheels are frozen on the car! Brilliant! I only noticed because I drove home from the shop and wanted to take the wheel off to repaint my wheel bolts and put a new ///M decal on them.

the funny part is I just replaced the entire suspension with new control arms, shocks, bushings, etc. I'm worried now about the amount of force to take off the wheels damaging something. So lesson learned. Even these so called Wheel specialists don't know what they are doing!

So if you feel compelled to powdercoat, make sure to tell them not to powdercoat the bolt seats or HUB BORE! Don't assume that because they specialize in wheels, they will do that.

Good luck.

[VMRWheels]

That is a minor inconvenience but you will still be able to get the wheel off. It's just going to take a bit more force of course. Nothing a little sand paper or a wire wheel on a drill can't solve.