Powder coat

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Tommy

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Hi has anyone had their wheels powder coated I am trying to match the lupin blue metallic to a ral powder, any help would be a great help thank.
 
I was looking at this recently when I got some wheel damage repaired. Its come back looking good enough for now, so waiting a bit before I make the call to repaint my wheels. I wasn't sure if they needed powder or paint, and I've seen mention of people doing both on this forum. Your post reminded me to put this up for discussion - a local company have a section on their website about thy one should paint not powder, wanted to get some reaction. Thought it might help the OP..

http://thewheelwizard.ltd.uk/powder_coating.html
 
Ricks post sums it up for me Tommy, I was told by some very experienced painters who also did powder coating NOT to do any bike wheels in powder due to metal fatigue. Some folks might have had it done and been fine but I don't see the point in introducing doubt into my ride.

Bikepaints in Cuparmuir did my wheels in metallic red and then back to Lupin blue and they are like brand new when they give you them back.

JimmyMac
 
Re: Powder coat on wheels

Hi I was asking if anyone had their alloy wheels powder coated instead of wet paint. Wet paint colour is lupin blue metallic I need to know what the nearest colour is for ral powder coat if anyone knows it would help me out.
 
Ral colours are mostly solid colours. You need a pearl effect .

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the feed back guys I understand what your saying Jimmy the guy has been doing this for over 30 years he worked for dymag on magnesium and alloy wheels I have been to his workshop and he talked me through the procedure.
 
A word of caution regarding the powder coating of aluminum. Check the curing temperature they use.

Forged alloy wheels are desirable because they are known to be both strong and lightweight. To achieve these characteristics, they are typically manufactured from 6061-T6 grade aluminum. At some time during the manufacturing process this alloy must undergo a two-step thermal process in order for it to attain the desired mechanical properties, which include high strength and resistance to fatigue. These thermal processing or heat treating steps are known as solution treatment (985?F) and artificial aging (350?F). With forged 6061 aluminum, the artificial aging step requires the material to be held at 350?F for about 8 hours.

The majority of powder coating materials require a cure temperature ranging from 300 to 400?F with a cure time of about 1 hour. Since this overlaps the temperature of the artificial aging step, the powder coating process has the potential to "overage" the aluminum causing embrittlement and reduced fatigue life.

Recent advances in powder coating compounds have brought about lower cure temperatures of 250?F. These new powder coating compounds are more desirable, since they do not impact the prior thermal processing steps for heat treatable alloys such as 6061-T6 aluminum.

When considering powder coating of heat treatable aluminum alloys (6000 and 7000 series), it is always advisable to confirm that the temperature of the part will not exceed 300?F. Ignoring this fact may result in a sudden and unexpected failure of a critical component. A critical failure in a forged alloy wheel could ruin not just one, but possibly the rest of your days.

Before allowing someone to powder coat your forged aluminum wheels, ask them to use a lower cure temperature (250?F) compound and to maintain the temperature below 300?F at all times while they are processing your wheels.
 
Jesus Christ JamieMac you should take up writing horror stories you scared the shit out of me.
 
Jesus Christ JamieMac you should take up writing horror stories you scared the shit out of me.

Sorry wasn't meant to be like that... :suspicion: It's just worth thinking about things before you change how it was origininally created. Wheel's are either painted or anodized, I've never heard of original wheel manufacturers powdercoating.

A bit like back in the 90's when anodized aluminium banjo bolts were all the rage till they worked out the copper banjo washers reacted with the aluminium bolts and they snapped, especially with a bit of salt from the roads thrown in.

If you want to be scared, watch air crash investigation.... As humans we're always making mistakes and learning from them. Changed rotor blades from aluminium to carbon... Fab, much lighter and stronger.... Til they get struck by lightning and explode.
 
nice to read this post as I thought of getting my gloss black wheels painted in the Lupin Blue to match panels on my 2016 model....
there was a couple of things that put me off,
#1. the paint on my wheels is immaculate so its a shame to re-coat them at the moment.
#2. afraid of aftermarket paint not being as good as factory paint and it chips off when having tires replaced in the future.
 
nice to read this post as I thought of getting my gloss black wheels painted in the Lupin Blue to match panels on my 2016 model....
there was a couple of things that put me off,
#1. the paint on my wheels is immaculate so its a shame to re-coat them at the moment.
#2. afraid of aftermarket paint not being as good as factory paint and it chips off when having tires replaced in the future.

Hi Gaz, I had my original blue HP4 wheels painted metallic red for a couple of years, the only folk that damaged the paint were BMW doing a tyre change, everyone else was fine as they took the correct care when doing it.
To be honest BMW would have knackered ANY paint or anodising the fitter was brutal, the dealer offered to pay for the rim to be repainted and took full responsibilty. I declined but have never bought tyres from them again.

The new paint is just as good as the original, I've now had them put back to blue but wouldn't hesitate to change the colour again, maybe gold? for some future scheme.

If you fancy blue, go for it but let someone like @Budgie do it, you won't be disappointed.

JimmyMac
 
@jimmymac thanks for that kidda.. yeah my mate has his own paint company "northeast customs" I'm Hartlepool.. he offered to do them for me a few weeks ago... might drop them off for him to do as I'm away for 3 weeks next month so won't be using bike..
 
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