Powder Coating

[Barber Dave]

One of my winter projects is to redo my Mahlies.Strip and paint or powder coat both silver. What experience with powder coating wheels is there out there? I am thinking P/C would be more durable,i.e. scratches and such. Or should I just a good clear coat job? What about POR 15's ( Glisten PC) clear coat? Has any body use it. I will wait your replies! Thanks in advance
Dave

[kellzey]

Bead blast or chemical strip the wheels (oven cleaner).

Spray with Wurth Silver Wheel Paint and then Wurth Clear Coat.

Wheels look like they came from the factory...

[John2kx]

Dave,

I purchased the Por 15 wheel restoration kit several months ago (about $120) along with a new drill ($70) to turn the right rpm to restore my 2L Fuchs. Spent about 10 hours per wheel removing all scratches and curb rash. It's a 3 step process with each wheel, using the different polishing compounds. The polishing wheels supplied with Por 15 kit are too large to get in all the nooks of wheels and you'll need a Dremel and many small polishing wheels to fit. I also wore out the polishing wheels provided in kit prior to finishing 4 wheels. A "free of charge" set of new wheels was provided by the folks at Por 15.

The instructions recommend installing Glisten PC "clear" with brush but provide instructions to shoot with gun as well. After polishing wheels to what I thought was a pretty good polished finish, I brushed on a coat of clear per instructions on two wheels. These two actually had less shine as clear dried. I shot the other two with my paint gun and had no better results. As this stuff dried, my stomach turned. The clear coating had specs visable, clouds as well as mixed areas that looked good. To say the least, I was disappointed after all this work, not to mention the money paid for kit and tools. The folks at Por 15 did say I may have got a bad batch of clear but I was not willing to go through the process again.

I used paint stripper the next day and removed clear coating. Took one wheel to a professional and he spent less than 20 seconds on one spot of wheel..........turned the wheel toward me and it was the quality I was after. The pro also recommended not using any type of clear coating but recommended some type of wax to apply to wheels after polishing and reapplying about once every couple of months.

I believe this is another case of having the right tools for the job. His high dollar polishing machines were no match for my "correct rpm" drill motor. I went home and fetched the other three wheels for the Pro to complete the job. I could not believe the difference when the job was done. The wheels actually looked chrome plated. I dreaded keeping the shine up but have had no problems with just occasional washing with soap and water after about 1000 miles. The wheels still look the way they did when picked up. Total cost for 4 wheels from Pro= $600

John

[John2kx]

Dave,

I have a friend who had his Mercedes wheels powder coated (silver) last year for $100 and is quite pleased with the finish.

John

[rdvnac]

Karl, beautiful job on the wheels. If anything, they look better than the factory. To me, the Wurth stuff would be the way to go unless you wanted the full polish look.

[maf 914]

Kellzey,

Your repainted Mahles look really good. I like the traditional silver finish on alloys. The Wurth paint seems to be the way to go.

Mike