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Old 08-17-2005, 01:08 PM   #1
subie4life
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Default Painting rims..I was told "Not recommended"?

I've done some research on how to paint my stock rims. This site has provided good info. I recently asked a dealership friend if I should do it and he said "I wouldn't do that if I were you". I asked an Autozone employee and he said "not a good idea". Then I dedided to check out how much it would be to have it professionally done, and they wouldn't even touch it. They said going gunmetal over silver would look horrible once it chipped and that it would look worse in the end. So I know you guys are painting your rims...was it worth it, tough as hell, or a big mistake, etc? Or are these guys right and I should just keep the stock silver rims as is. I only plan on using them for winter driving, but in the north that's 5 months out of the year and I really want to get rid of the stock silver. I'm getting ROTA's in the spring.
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Old 08-17-2005, 01:23 PM   #2
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Thumbs up well

I painted my P1's and If you make sure you prep them good and apply several coats & clearcoat they shouldn't be that bad.

Before



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Old 08-17-2005, 01:42 PM   #3
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There's nothing wrong with painting wheels. There may be cosmetic issues to deal with down the road but they'll be structurally fine. Just make sure you do a proper job of painting. However, powdercoating usually isn't recommended because while they won't have cosmetic issues, having to heat treat the wheel during the powder coating process can potentially weaken the wheel.
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Old 08-17-2005, 03:38 PM   #4
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I dont know of any reason why heat treating any metals is a bad thing. I have read that people say if the rim cracks, the powdercoating covers it, where paint would crack as well.
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Old 08-18-2005, 03:07 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drewdogg
I dont know of any reason why heat treating any metals is a bad thing. I have read that people say if the rim cracks, the powdercoating covers it, where paint would crack as well.
The powdercoating process can "remove" the heat treatment the wheel got to begin with, making it weaker. There are some pics on this site of a guy who powdercoated his stock STi (forged by the way) wheels and ended up having a wheel flex to the point that it made contact with a brake caliper.
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Old 08-17-2005, 05:00 PM   #6
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i painted my steelies black.. i used metal spraypaint and put on like 4 coats... didnt sand didnt treat didnt clearcoat not of that just washed them ahead of time.... they turned out spectacular. this is like 4 monthes later and still in mint conditionand they have taken a beating
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Old 08-17-2005, 08:08 PM   #7
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If you really want them to hold up I would do a proper prep job - take the tires off the wheels and get them blasted down to bare aluminum at a paint or powdercoat place. That will give you a better surface for the paint to adhere to. And plenty of clearcoat after the paint.
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Old 08-17-2005, 09:47 PM   #8
subie4life
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I've gotta say that all the pictures of painted rims I've seen on here look really good. I'm just wondering if they stay that way. They're just winter rims for me, I guess I shouldn't be that concerned. Do I really need to strip off all of the old gloss/paint, or do I just need to rough it up a little with the right sandpaper. Some say strip it all, and others say just rough it up. Still undecided...
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Old 08-17-2005, 09:52 PM   #9
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I wouldn't worry about stripping them to bare metal. That is the best way, but for winter rims I would just make sure they are chemically clean y prepping them with acetone or laquer thinner prior to paint. You can also scuff them up with some 320 or 400 hundred grit paper before you clean them. Then just spray on the paint. If you paint them with 3-4 coats it should be pretty durable. Use an eopxy based paint and prime them before you put on the color.
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Old 08-18-2005, 03:20 AM   #10
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NO REASON to not paint. Most factory wheels on ANY car are painted....
And powder coating is fine, they have procedures for temperature sensitive materials.

And guys, stop with the vague guessing, if you do not know what treatment was done, your pissing in the wind. Not all things are alike. Do some research.
http://www.key-to-metals.com/Article7.htm

Powdercoating did NOT mess up that STi wheel.
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Old 08-18-2005, 10:23 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thingfish
Powdercoating did NOT mess up that STi wheel.
here we go again...

There have been pics of a powdercoated STi rim that was apparently bent due solely to on-track stresses. There have been no pics posted of a stock STi rim bent under similar circumstances. Take it fwiw.

No one has provided much evidence one way or the other, though some pretty knowledgeable people have weighed in on both sides. Best rule of thumb I have heard is the more expensive the wheel, the more you risk damaging through powdercoating. Stock Impreza rims I would not worry about.

but this thread was about painting, not powdercoating. Powdercoating is going to cost more anyway, so it is irrelevant here since subie4life is looking to get by on the cheap...
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Old 08-18-2005, 11:35 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by austinpike
. Best rule of thumb I have heard is the more expensive the wheel, the more you risk damaging through powdercoating. Stock Impreza rims I would not worry about.

...
Why would the price of the rims automatically make them more resilent to powder coating. And again, you have heard. But don't have any personal expierence or FACTs to base your judgment on.

I think some people need to realize that metals have been powdercoated for a LONG time. In addition to that, the baking process is very low temp, relative to what it takes to actually manipulate raw metal.
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Old 08-18-2005, 01:19 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ratt_finkel
Why would the price of the rims automatically make them more resilent to powder coating. And again, you have heard. But don't have any personal expierence or FACTs to base your judgment on.
assuming higher price = forged. Point being that excessively heating a forged wheel means you run the risk of screwing up the properties that make it stronger.

Anyway what FACTs do you have? I was offering an opinion, based on what I have read here. I'm not a metallurgical engineer. There are a hundred threads offering facts, personal experience, and lots of worthless opinions. First link LyveWRX posted is good.

My personal experience is that I powdercoated my STi rims and they have been fine. But I don't care to take them to the track/autox to test them, I have another set of wheels for that.

Last edited by austinpike; 08-18-2005 at 01:30 PM.
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Old 08-19-2005, 08:38 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by austinpike
assuming higher price = forged. Point being that excessively heating a forged wheel means you run the risk of screwing up the properties that make it stronger.
Forging is not a heat treatment process. Powdercoating is only done at around 320-400 deg F. You can buy a kit and an old electric oven and do it at your house (as long as the ovens big enough for rims). As far as i see it the heating is good for the wheels, if left in there long enough, allowing for dislocations to align and reduce which were induced into the grains from cold work (forging). The average temp for annealing most aluminums is about 650 deg C, so i think the electric oven is OK.
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Old 08-18-2005, 12:41 PM   #15
LyveWRX
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Actully the powder coating proces is right around the age hardening temp for high strength aluminium alloys. And how many powder coat shops actually use a decent high control PID controller for their oven, and how much does temp vary inside that oven, what about overshoot and hot spotting?

Here is the thread on powder coating:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...Powder+Coating

and the other one:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...Powder+Coating

Last edited by LyveWRX; 08-18-2005 at 12:52 PM.
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Old 08-18-2005, 09:04 PM   #16
PeterRS
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I did a had a set of alloys from my Mazda MX3 V6 done. Glass bead blasted, wet-on-wet-on-wet etch primer-highfill primer-colour coat- clear with flex agent. Ran them for several years with no chips or probs. You can get the primer tinted close to gunmetal gray so chips, if they occur, won't be a problem. Need to use a high end clear coat - not the two coat high solids clears used for repairs. Expensive process at a body shop.....could buy new wheels for that today but thats the correct way to do them if you want them to last.
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Old 08-18-2005, 10:21 PM   #17
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I say paint your wheels. Two thumbs up from me!!!!

My rims were badly chipped from rallying my car so much. So it didnt really matter to me, anything would have looked better than a chipped up stock wheel.

Take your time. Sand down the rim a lot. I did enough to smooth out the chips, although many chips were still there - I couldnt do anything about them.

Use some adhesion promoter and then try to paint as light as possible. I think this includes the clear coat. A guy at the body shop recommended to me to use as little paint/clear as possible as thick layers will lead to more chipping. I did a lot of clear to give it that glossy look, anyways. Try the Duplicolor Wheel Coating and Wheel Clear Coat, its designed for this.

Painting is better than powdercoating in my opinion. You dont risk the integrity of the wheel (I dont know if powdercoating hurts the wheel or not but I have heard enough to place enough doubt in my mind). Painting is WAY cheaper than powdercoating (my project cost me only $60, and that included $30 to unmount and remount the tires). Also, you can't do sick custom two tone paint jobs with powdercoating!

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Old 08-19-2005, 09:30 AM   #18
LyveWRX
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drewdogg-cold work (forging).

Forging is not a cold work process. You could never move enough metal at room temp to form a wheel thorugh cold heading.

Jeze, did you even f***** read the links.

Some aluminium alloys are heat treated at 350F, If they are overaged then they will be weaker.

Arggg.... this is f'in rediculous.
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