powder coat wheels

[MonsterTom]

Anyone here have their wheels powder coated?  What am I looking at for cost to do so?  TIA

[ungeheuer]

I priced out getting my rims pc'd gloss black and they said 55 bucks per rim. You take out the bearings, remove the front discs, and the tires of course.

What does the PC heat process do?  Not saying its necessarily bad, just worth checking the process out. I had my wheels hand painted rather than powder coated.  Very happy with the result but $$$  .

[corey]

HeMan PC'ed his wheels with a metallic gold if i'm not mistaken. Did it himself. Looked pretty awesome IMO.
Expense wise? Total guess, but judging from PC rates around my parts, $150/wheel maybe?

[DucatiTorrey]

my PC guy does wheels for cars all the time, so, 4 wheels, he said $200 - $250, so for a bike, less. maybe $150?

[JEFF_H]

big difference in price depending on the coater
i had a set done once in silver for ~$200

just got a price from my new local guy for $125 for 4 truck wheels
(he does nice work too)

you'll also need new bearings

[He Man]

depends on a lot of things

a) is it painted already
b) if it is painted how many coats?
c) how much masking is needed?


if your wheels are bare and all i need to do is blast thing with an abrasive, wash it water and coat it, then its going to cost me a lot less.

are you paying a 1 man operation or a huge PC factory that throws your stuff into the rest of things that need to be done?

but with stripping original factory paint. $150 sounds about right. stripping paint is a 75% of the work. the other 25% is masking.

[DucatiTorrey]

but with stripping original factory paint. $150 sounds about right. stripping paint is a 75% of the work. the other 25% is masking.

+1

[geoffduc]

If you look on the general monster forum and scroll down to the topic by Lasarus (2010/2011 hypermorard 1100SP) you'll see two pics of my HM with the wheels that I had powder coated red. My guy over here in the UK bakes the bare wheels after the paint has been stripped and the bearings and oil seals removed to get rid of inpurities in the alloy. He then powder coats to the colour of your choice and then clear coats to give an awesome finish, his price depends on the colour as some are more popular than others but the red he had mixed specially for ducati's so the price for them is £75 per wheel which might sound alittle expensive but his work is outstanding...

 

[MonsterTom]

I'm thinking I'd like my wheels pc'd or painted red.  I've got white M1100 and I think red wheels would be cool.  In the future, I'm thinking of painting the body work in the Senna theme.  I always loved the Senna Monsters.

Ducpainter, I'd love to hear your thoughts as I live relatively close.

[ducpainter]

I'm thinking I'd like my wheels pc'd or painted red.  I've got white M1100 and I think red wheels would be cool.  In the future, I'm thinking of painting the body work in the Senna theme.  I always loved the Senna Monsters.

Ducpainter, I'd love to hear your thoughts as I live relatively close.

I'm a fan of liquid coating wheels.

You don't need to remove bearings, which then often require replacement, or blast them so IMO the cost savings of PC don't exist.

Plus....and I know many of the PC advocates will disagree, the gloss level of liquid is higher than PC.

[badgalbetty]

When my rear brake disintegrated I had to have my wheel media blasted and painted. I think it was about a hundred bucks. Bearings were out and wheel was plain. Came back like new.

[He Man]

I'm a fan of liquid coating wheels.

You don't need to remove bearings, which then often require replacement, or blast them so IMO the cost savings of PC don't exist.

Plus....and I know many of the PC advocates will disagree, the gloss level of liquid is higher than PC.

Im going to +1 on most of ducpainters points. Liquid paint is going to much higher gloss and for the most part. you just cant get that WOW gloss from powder. less orange peel, no possible defecs for cast parts since outgassing is always an issue. You can get liquid paints taht are almost as durable as PC. for certain colors you may need a clearcoat to help with durabilty for liquid, but for PC this usually not a problem as most powders are very weather resistant without any topcoats.

If your paint is chipping, I think you should strip the paint anyway if your going to liquid paint it. (im not a pro at this, but i cant inmagine it looking that nice without blasting the orignal off). At that point PC becomes a lot cheaper. Since i can hit it with a single coat of color and have it done within 2 hours.

But in the end, if your wheels are in good condition and you can just apply new paint on top, i would go liquid its a lot easier. If they are busted up and need blasting anyway, i would go PC. 

What kind of blast media did your guys use to strip paint? I really like soda blasting as an option, but its much more expensive, but damn it makes the wheel SO CLEAN! Im thinking about throwing in aluminum oxide into my blast cabinet to strip paint, i hate using chemicals.