powder coating - did not turn out well, could use some thoughts

[Terry, NJ]

Your experience has been my experience! The metal rots away under the PC and gives you no sign until total failure. It is especially evident on truck bodies and boat trailers. Go to a marina and carefully examine the old used trailers and here and there you'll find pieces of the frame where the metal is gone and theres a perfect envelope of PC encasing ........Nothing! My advice is stick to paint.
Terry

Originally Posted by stouchton

Hi Folks – looking for some advice/opinions once again.

I sent my wheels for powder coating. Prior to powder coating, they looked very good. The paint was chipped in spots, and a little rust but overall they were smooth and actually looked nearly new.

Well – they look 80 years old now. And I’m just trying to figure out if the powder coaters story has merit:

They have admitted they should have called me when they stripped them. 1 wheel is pitted to the point I would not use it (structural). 3 wheels are heavily pitted (just look bad). 1 wheel is not too bad, and the other wheel looks brand new.

They stated they were rusting under the paint, even though the paint showed no issues. I did try scraping paint from the wheels to have chips for color match and could not easily scrape any paint from the wheels.
I thought maybe the previous owner did a lot of filler work prior to painting, and the blasting process removed it – but the spokes are pitted now and could not imagine anyone doing bodywork on spokes!

And I am the paranoid type – I did not mark the wheels, and the owner of this shop had a Model A he was restoring. I originally thought these can’t be my wheels!

So to relieve my paranoia, is it possible for the wheels to be badly pitted under the paint and the paint to not show it? My experience has been when there is rust under paint, the paint bubbles or breaks free. I did not see this except for where there were chips.

Also – what are my options besides replacing the pitted wheels (I know – picture is worth a thousand words – will post a couple pics later)? I can buy new wheels, and they have already agreed to powder coat an additional 4 wheels for $45 apiece (I’m not the best negotiator…..) but new wheels are quite pricey. I could look at some used wheels, but is there a way to hide some of the pitting and re-powder coat? I guess I’m looking for the most cost effective solution to make them “passable”.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.