Powdercoated Wheels - Pros & Cons?
 

I can't stop thinking about powdercoating my wheels green to match my bodywork. What are the pros/cons to powdercoated wheels?

Here's the bike:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QWsg00m5hZg/SL...0/P7282019.JPG

Pros; long lasting, inexpensive, easy maintenance

Cons; hard to get off if you change your mind, typically "duller" than paint, less color choices, have to remove bearings to have done, adds weight, can chip, you have to have the part sand blasted prior to powder coating it

Personally, I like paint better but to each his own. Make sure you put a bolt in every hole and tape up everywhere that you don't want powder coat to be.

How about a nice green wheel stripe in stead?

I have the Repsol orange wheels. I love the way they look.. the only drawbacks are they show dirt and little dings more than black/dark grey wheels.

I'd say go for it. It will make you bike stand out nice!:rockout:

powder coating has to be kept clean as a whistle or it looks like hell.
Upside - you wash your bike more often and it looks awesome!

I've always wanted powder-coated wheels but have never had the time or inclination to actually get it done. Maybe one of these days.

Actually the shop I had my exhaust jetcoted at had this great big article framed on the wall talking about how many many times lighter powdercoting was than paint....so much so that the shop I took my stuff too was started by a Nascrap pit crew chief who was looking for weight saving options for his parts and found that powdercoting was SO much lighter that he had every part powdercoted instead of painted

Just a little tidbit

BTW...my pipes now

I can't add much here, but I would think that PC is more durable. I painted the wheels on my F4i and they came out great, but I have scratched them up changing tires. Other than the wounds I inflected they are holding up well.

As a side note, I don't really like black wheels so I decided to paint mine silver (silv/Blk CBR) As a nod to my youth i used Mopar Argent Silver. That was the body, grill and wheel paint they used in the late sixty's on their Hi Po cars. Anyway I painted it over the Honda black. After it cured it turned a gold/Titanium sort of color that is similar to the gold found on some Ducati wheels and frames. Anyway the color was a surprise that I was pleased with. I guess if I had used gray primer they would have turned out silver.

Got to disagree with ya Tigger.

They have tons of colors.

Dull? I don't think so.

One of my pieces (don't mind the dust)
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3.../Powder014.jpg

A buds wheels
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...8/DSCN0197.jpg

This is where we both had stuff done
http://www.exoticcoatings.com

Okay, I'm done with these threads too!

hmm I didnt know you could powdercoat the exhaust pipes too, that coul dbe more ideas to add to my project.

Tom

:lol: Aww c'mon now, this is NOTHING like the war room...... In there, if you have a differing opinion you're a moron leaning too far to the (pick your side) and you obviously are uneducated on the subject of which you speaketh and everyone immediately will make it their mission in life to "educate" you right after you've been labeled a (pick your side)

This is simply an opportunity to find out what is out there so you can have more choices. :rockout:

:scratch: what are you talking about tigger? I think I'm about 50/50 on agreement with you.

They don't powder exhaust. They ceramic coat them.

I'm joking of course! I won't argue about weight as things may have changed, new materials or techniques. I've actually weighed parts as a QC step in a factory and PC added a lot of weight. For the record, that was a long time ago.
As far as color choices and brightness, again I have older experience but I've never seen powder coat have that deep glow that a really good paint job does IMHO. Of course, that is subjective.

Yea, I was wondering about powder coat on exhaust as well...

I'm kidding, although it's like everyone asks for your opinion and then tries to tear it down when you were honestly just trying to help them.:idk:

Oh yeah I'm sure it does add on weight. Its thick shit and can take a beating without any marks due to its thickness.

yep! I learned years ago, if I was going to participate in a public forum;

Con:

1. Develope some thick skin
   
2. Don't take it personal
   
3. Take a break from them frequently

Otherwise you're letting people you've never met, from somewhere you've never been, occupy more than 2 seconds of your time and effort.....when they're SOOO not worth it.

Pro:

1. Pictures of Archen

:rockwoot: :rockout:

Hmmm, I say Go for it, If you keep it clean it looks a Hell of a lot better then Paint.

And if their Aluminum i say have them Sand blasted Smooth and Then have a Hard Anodize on them!
That stuff is the Shit!
And looks Amazing

It costs a mint to have it done, last I knew anyway.

dude over here had his chop powder coated metalflake siilver(fenders, tank, frame) looked almost sweet as a paintjob, was way cheaper that what they woulda charged him for the same paint job with paint, probably because the prep is easier.

cons-it had a chip from riding, cant color match it, had to redo the whole thing to fix it, its thick as fuck so if you do manage to chip it, it looks kinda bad, and while it looked gd, it was a custom bike, and it shouldve had a deep wet paint job imo. it had the quality of a factory paint job. which isnt bad, unless you compare it to a good custom job. it had a long teardrop tank, that was where you could tell it wasnt glass smooth. but thats just stuff a show judge would notice, average person wouldnt give a shit.


anodizing looks really fuckin sweet

im pretty sure you can powdercoat exhaust(its metal, why not?), you just dont get any benefit from it other than looks, like if you ceramic coat em

just my op. if im factually wrong, whatev lol

I think that the exhaust gets too hot for pc.

hmmm gd point, ceramic coating is done at a wayyyy higher temp.

total failure or it just would turn dull like a cheap spray can job would?

I think it melts...I'm not sure though.

I had a couple of sets of expansion chambers that were powder coated. It lasted better than paint, but eventually it gave up. The PC on the head pipes burned away almost immediately just like paint does. After 2 seasons of drag racing and i season of road racing, the PCing was shot. I ended up stripping all the powder coating off and clear coating the bare steel. That looked pretty cool.

The powder guy probably didn't prep the metal correctly. It has to be throughly sand blasted to adheire correctly. There is no way the powder should chip from standard road miles.

Yeah the ceramic that is usually placed on pipes is baked at like 1200-1400*. Further its super super super thin. All in which help it disipate heat very effectively.

Come again? The idea behind ceramic coating is to stop heat transfer to your pipes. This supposedly aids in exhaust gas scavenging.

Yea I wsas once so obsessed with hp that I wrapped my headers with "ceramic tape".

THis is true but it does that by helping disappate the heat off the pipes themselves. The inside ceramic is suppose to aid in this more so, where as the external ceramic is a great deal cosmetic for what I understand of it.

Powdercoating is more durable than paint, and stands up against rock chips better, but cannot be polished up to a nice shine like glossy paint can. My wheels were re-painted gloss black and look sweet when they're freshly washed.

maybe it was the powdercoater, but im pretty sure it was a gd sized rock that hit him, not just reg cruising wear and tear

Well not much is not going to chip if a big rock hits it. But I have seen somebody hit powder with a hammer on accident and it never did anything.

One of the powder coaters here has an old wheel that a customer never paid for and never picked up that he uses for demos now. He'll hit the thing as hard as he can with a hammer and wont leave a chip. He said PC is durable up to 18,000 psi or something like that before it chips.

Personally I'd go with black. It shows the least dirt, and it goes with the rest of the black on the bike. Gold would be another suggestion, but I'd prefer that to come on the set of Marchesini wheels.

That's what I'm saying... if it fails otherwise, it was due to the person putting it on, not doing it right.