THSCC Forums

I'm wrapping up sand blasting the 16" wheels and will paint within the week. I would like to find some rattle can self etching primer. Anyone know of a local source in Garner or Raleigh that carries this stuff?

BTW, does anyone in the club do powder coating or know of a local place that will do this? Any pricing that you know of?

Thanks

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

Rodney - I have a powdercoating setup but I haven't used it yet. I have a set of 17" wheels which have been media blasted that I'm on the fence about rattlecan painting and powdercoating.

I haven't been able to decide / find a good powder to use -- want to do anthracite for the wheels. If you are considering a similar color, and know how to get powder, let me know maybe we can work something out.

PS - anyone know a source for GOOD looking metallic grey/anthracite powder for wheels? Browsing the Eastwood catalog, it's not clear which colors would make good wheel paint.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

I thought powdercoating wheels was a no-no.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

On Eric's old Miata, Donnie took 2 sets beautiful gold Volks that came with the car and had them powdercoated that hideous red

Honestly, after a few events, the color grew on me, but the wheels looked phenominal after many many events. I think powercoating is the way to go, because it's much more durable. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

A blast from the past

You might wanna read that first.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Was there any conclusive evidence that powdercoating the wheel actually caused the failure? - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

The only place I know of right now would be what you mentioned, Eastwood. I'd have to google to find more info on it. I'll look at bimmerforums and see if anything turns up...

EDIT:

I looked at bimmerforums and found this....

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514322&highlight=powder+coat

It's all over the place as to powder coat or not, lots of opinions. I was going to paint mine a silver blue I think, so back to my original question. Is there any place local I can buy self etching primer?

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

Autozone in Durham has self etching primer in rattle cans. Saw it today..

Powdercoating doesn't cause failure, but it is known to cover up small cracks that should be picked up during normal inspection of wheels that are put through a bunch of heat cycles like track guys put them through before they become big cracks that lead to failure.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

I can't recall the name of the place, but a neighbor of my Mom has an E46 M3 and he got his wheels powder coated black. They look fabulous. The place is in Raleigh, in one of those industrial parks on 70 near the Bicycle Chain. I think he told me he paid $75 a wheel and that included some media blasting. Next time I see him, I'll ask him.

My question is this. Where are you guys taking wheels to get them media blasted? Or is this the intended use of the self etching primer?

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

I don't have the number of the place, but you can find them under specialty coatings. Top Coat. I used them for a set of wheels on my Frontier several years ago. At that time, it was $25 a wheel to prep them (sandblast?) and $50 a wheel to coat.

I have a gravity sand blaster here at the house. Works ok w/ a 33 gal compressor. I will state that I was using play sand to start with. I used one 50lb bag on one wheel. I had picked up some of the black diamond media blasting at northern several months ago and I used a 1/4 of one 50lb bag on one wheel. It's an AMAZING difference in the cutting power of the black diamond.

As for the self etching primer, it just adheres to the metal better. Considering the semi rough finish the media blasting leaves, I’m not sure that I’ll need the self etching primer now. Lots of little nicks on the wheel the standard primer can lock on to.

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

Can the primer be skipped altogether then? I haven't bothered on the last 3 sets of wheels I painted, and they all turned out OK but the finish is a little more prone to chipping than a factory finish.

On this next set of wheels, if I go the rattlecan route, I plan to bake them at like 200F for 10 minutes. Maybe between coats. I'm pretty sure it will make the finish harder.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Well, I'm not sure I would do it again - not on a set of wheels I actually wanted to look nice, anyway. Mike I'm sure you remember the black Enkeis I had on the GS-R. They were long since ruined by lots of caustic Hawk Blue brake dust that I couldn't seem to get off, so I just painted over top of them. They never looked nice IMO - but with rattlecan, you can just paint over top of whatever chips off.

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

I personally have no problem powdercoating wheels as far as fear of hurting the wheel, but then again I tend to get rid of my cars before failures are likely anyway.

I knew Eric would never let me forget the red powdercoating thing, but I didn't know Aaron would keep beating me with it! I mean with Eric it is understandable...I powdercoated *his* wheels without him knowing it was happening.

I had mine done by a shop near Mebane called Advanced Powdercoating (I think). Don't recall it being anywhere near $75 per wheel, but who knows. It's been several years now. I could probably find the contact info for sure if anyone wants it. They did *great* work, and did strip them.

BTW, nothing is more hideous, IMHO, than those bronze TE-37's. Painting them pink with a rattlecan would look better. Sorry to you bronze wheel owners, but they're horrible.

Oh, I also wonder about the stripping thing...if you're talking about aluminum wheels then you have about five minutes from blasting until they form their "protective" coating again. You know, the stuff you need to remove before trying to weld to aluminum and stuff. Forget to scrape that off and you can't easily weld to the stuff, so one would think that getting it off would be a good thing for painting/priming/whatever. But I don't know that for a fact.


--Donnie