Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

Wanting to redo my wheels for my 30 PU. IM thinking about powder coating vs. painting. Anyone have any experience with PC their wheels?

Pros / Cons?

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I powder coated my '29 wheels 9 years ago and have close to 40,000 miles on them and they still look new. I also PC my '28 PU wheels a couple years ago...good also.
Find someone experienced in doing spoked wheels...and with good references. Your local Model A Club should know of someone in your area.

Pro: Pretty durable

Con: You must take care of any pitting prior to taking them to the coater. Defects show through the coating...
It requires a high temp filler to stand up to the PC process.
Do a search on this forum for past Threads. It has been discussed in detail with lots of good info.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I powder coated my wheels myself. Some areas there are guys that do PC on wheels at some ridiculously low prices for the amount of work. In NJ they want at least $100 a wheel that is already bare metal. I have read about guys getting wheels blasted and PCd for $40 a wheel, I can not see how anyone can be making money at that rate.

I picked an oven out of the trash and cut out the back and added an insulated box off the back of the oven. This gave me the room to put a wheel in the oven.
I bought a Caswel multi voltage PC gun and made up some jigs to hold the wheel.

What I did was make up some removable rods that let me PC the wheel on saw horses. I could roll the wheel. Then pick it up and rotate it onto a special holder that I could transfer to the oven shelf. I also added some structure to the oven shelf to hold the weight.

I preheated the wheel before powder coating. It has a lot of mass and the metal must be up to temp for best coating, or so I read.

After using some of the cheaper powders I found the more expensive Tiger Drylac to be worth every penny. It goes on easier and gives a nicer finish.

You can do quite a bit of stuff in an extended oven. You will need some metal scraps and lots of creativity to weld up jigs to hold the parts. Some longer parts you will need to remove and turn around part way through. Not fooling with paints makes the process worth while and cost effective.

If you paint the wheels you will need a rack to spin the wheel. You have to do a lot moving around to get all the surfaces and it uses a lot of paint. Paint costs a lot and you must use the better paints if you expect them to hold up on the wheel. Since you spray a lot of paint you run the risk of runs.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I have a 1930 rpu and had my wheels powder coated last spring shiney black, they blasted and powder coated them here for $50 a wheel came out great, I also had them do my truck running boards so far they still look great,I wanted to see if it would hold up better getting stepped on.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I have had two sets of whells powder coated. The coating is tough and holds up well as Dave mentioned above. The only problem I have had with PCed wheels is the preparation. First I try to start with pretty nice wheels. I sandblast the wheels myself, which is a job in itself, and them use some filler to fill the flaws - almost always in the outer part. Nearly all wheels have nicks, curb dings, some rust pitting, etc that will show through the PCing. I tried J-B Weld and it worked so so. J-B Weld is supposed to hold up OK to about 500 to 600 degrees. Powder coating ovens are in the neighborhood of 350 to 400 degrees I believe. That means J-B Weld should hold up in the curing process. I don't know if the J-B Weld shrunk or melted a little, but the places I "fixed" were not to well fixed after PCing. I told the powder coating person not to heat the rims any more than necessary when curing them. Maybe there is a better filler to use that will hold up to the PC oven curing operation. I am thinking of painting the next set of rims. Our local model A club has a painting fixture that slowly rotates the rim for painting. I think painting would be hard to do well, but it should not effect he filler need to make the rims smooth.
Rusty Nelson

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

$50.00 a wheel including prep. These are 12 years old. The Lincoln wheels were powder coated to match the valiance, also $50.00 a wheel. I've powder coated at least 6 sets of wheels without any problems. Prices do vary from region to region.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I think with pc you get what you pay for. Ive seen cheap pc that didnt make it longer than a couple months without flacking off. But ive also seen a lot of pc last many years without chipping. I think a common misconception with pc is that it wont chip which is false. It can chip just as easily as paint does.

At work, we just had a set of wheels pc for a coupe we painted. It was the first set we had sent out in many years because the last set chipped off right away. But we went to a guy here in fort worth who has done many many sets for model a people over the past couple years, and they always turn out nice. For $75 a wheel they got sand blasted and pc. We chose to do it this way, because we couldnt find a company to sand blast them for less than $50 a wheel and by the time you add up labor and paint cost, your looking at about $100 a wheel at least for paint. So pc is often more cost effective.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

When I first saw it, I fell in love with PC. That's for me! Being from NJ and facing $100 -120 @ wheel, I held off. I'm glad I did. I was talking to a body guy I know about it and he advised against it. "Why?" sez me. He explained how certain brands of trucks (Intl for one) lose all their lower body steel to rust and you never know it's gone till you step on a perfectly solid step and it disintegrates under your feet. Go to a boat yard and look over the used trailers. Chances are there will be at least one that's rusted out leaving a perfect mold or casting of the former metal. This mold or casting is the PC shell. Looks pretty, But... No I don't hate the powder coating industry. It's just that I think it's waste of good money. If you live in South Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, or Cal. Get it done, but if you don't live in such a dry climate, better think twice about it. Paint is just as good and a heck of a lot cheaper.
Terry

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I have been using a commercial powder coater in Wausau, Wisconsin for all my powder coating. They charge $35 per wheel and do all the blasting and coating. I have also used them to do a chassis that I am building. They did all the black parts (frame, axle housings, brackets, etc...) of the chassis and it all turned out excellent. They also pay close attention to areas that can't be blasted or coated like bearing surfaces, machined surfaces, etc...

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

Both my A's have power coated wheels. one for 6 years the other 4. both sets are doing fine.
Les Schawb tire offers power coated for about $30.00 per wheel but their stores are mostly in the western states. They have a good match for straw which are the 6 year old wheels.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

Just make sure that you DON'T have the lug holes powder coated. When you put the lug nut on the first time it will crack and chip. Have them fill them in with whatever they use-found out the hard way.

Mike

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

Logan, thanks for your reply. One question I have for you since it sounds like you may be in the industry that paints Model As. Does the car or truck in my case have to be fully taken apart to paint? IM sure that would be best, but I bought this truck a couple weeks ago. Id say on a scale of 1 to 10 the paint is maybe a 5 or 6. So Im chatting with friend that owns a body shop and does top notch work. He informs me that the truck should be taken apart to do the best job. I will never show this truck, we will drive it and have fun with it. But I got the truck worth the money, and it did surprize me when he told me that. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

Had mine powder coated. They cost me $55 each and look great. They coated the entire wheel and I use the stainless concave lug nut washers available from all the vendors. Haven't had a single crack or chip.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I to am in the process of restoring my 28 wheels, and have spent 50 each for sandblasting and three local powder coaters want between 100 and 125 per wheel just to coat. ( Buffalo area) No thanks , I will spray paint the wheels and I'm sure they will last just as well as PC.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

I'm genuinely curious to know how a powder coater in Buffalo can charge that kind of money. Perhaps he doesn't want to do wire wheels or doesn't know how. Most of the posts here quote prices around $50 per wheel including prep.

To Terry; I suspect that the issues you are referring to are caused by moisture getting under the PC. However, the process is such that the preheat would dry any moisture. Yes, I've seen boat trailer rust under a piss poor PC coat. Again, you get what you pay for. (except in Buffalo)!

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

You will need to atleast take the bed off so the back of the cab can be sprayed. The rest of the truck can stay together. But your friend is right, if you want the best possible job you need to take all of it apart. The nice thing about pickups is that they are really easy to take apart and put together. You could have the body off the frame in a matter of hours. But if you decide to leave the cab on the frame I would suggest atleast taking the fenders off to paint. It's easier that way, and you won't get overspray on the truck.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

A little side note.

After your wheels are coated you must make sure the parts that touch the drum are clear of paint/ PC. If there is any uneven build up you can cause the drum to warp when you bolt the wheel on.

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

My wheels were P/C about 6 years ago and are holding up great...All 6 for $250.00

was told to do nothing, they did it all, my wheels were in good shape, so it does depend on the wheels, and do use the stainless lug nut washers, you won"t have a problem with the lug nuts, I'm sure there are different P/C out there so I would check around I was really lucky the P/C I went to did a great job!!

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

Has anyone filled imperfections with anything other than JB Weld?
If so what was the product name and how did it hold up to the heat?
Thanks for your time.
Joe

Re: Wheels / Powder Coating vs. Painting
 

Joe, check the Eastwood catalog. They sell a filler thats supposed to take the heat in powdercoating.