Powder coating
 

How can you determine if wheels are powder coated or painted?

Re: Powder coating
 

Powder coat chips and fades or loses it's shine easier then enamel or some of the other coatings.

Re: Powder coating
 

yea if theres a chip in it anywhere you can look close at the edge of the chip - if it looks like a candy shell over powder its powder coat. Usually powder coat appears thick looking especially around hard bends (like spoke to rim area) and can tell alot of times by just feel - has that kinda plasticy feel and the object temperature doesnt exactly match what the metal temp should be - hard to explain but it like touching a plastic garbage can in the winter vs a metal one - both cold both same temperature the metal one just feels colder.

Paint wise look closely as with all the spokes its bound to have a thin spot or overspray spot.

Re: Powder coating
 

Inside the rim, I think you can take a wetted rag with a bit of lacquer thinner and lightly rub. Enamel, etc will be effected by the thinner and color will show on rag but powder coat will not. This is a quick litmus test and thinner should not be on either very long. And if the tires are on the wheel you may need to go inside the hub or forget it.

At least the powder coat I have been exposed to (not much as I don't care for it) has worked this way. I will accept corrections!

Re: Powder coating
 

I had my lower water pipe powder coated inside and out, thinking it would give the pipe permanent protection. In ho time at all the antifreeze removed all the powdercoat from the inside, and sent it in strips to the top of the radiator.

I also don't care for powder coating.

Re: Powder coating
 

Interesting, I thought powder coating was bomb proof.

Re: Powder coating
 

As with anything, it was 'bomb-proof' until competition began. Then cheaper materials were introduced and corners were cut during the application process in an effort to make it cheaper. In our hobby, I don't see a value when you compare each aspect of it to sprayed urethane.

Re: Powder coating
 

Brent,

A question about terminology here, as the term urethane is not used over here. What is urethane ? For my understanding, can you name a couple of well known brand names for urethane paint ?

I am using DuPont Centari 500. Is that urethane or is it classified as something else ?

Re: Powder coating
 

one rock chip and its over, that spec gets wet starts to rust and since its powder underneath the candy shell it holds water and rusts/corrodes underneath the pretty part. Its pretty much plastic powder that is baked onto the part and not actually bonded to the part. Once you get one chip the only fix is to remove all powder coat and redo the part.

Re: Powder coating
 

That is too bad, I recall a customer years ago pounding two pipes together to show me the durability of powder coating.

Re: Powder coating
 

In reality, I can do the same thing with a thin coat of single-stage urethane sprayed over a thin coat of epoxy primer.

Re: Powder coating
 

A bit confusing all this paint stuff, here is some reading material.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages...tml?1259713203

http://forums.aaca.org/topic/189930-centari-paint/

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hc...e/1538643.html