Model A wheel powder coat

[Gary Karr]

I am currently working on my wheels and it takes me about one day to carefully sand one wheel before I paint them with urethane. I will have about 20 plus hours in each wheel by the time I'm finished. Brent is right. The trick is to fill nicks and pits but leave draw marks and welds and apply just the right amount of paint. If done right, there is nothing that looks better.

[ronn]

Not quite sure why someone would be so concerned about changing whl color and thus, spend so much time on the wheels.
Wouldnt it be easier to sell the "wrong" colored wheels and get a set that aren't powder coated and go from there?
seems like 4 steps back to go 2 steps forward..............
too much "work" for me!

[31 RPU]

I have had about 16 wheels powder coated Tacoma creme and they looked like they were wet when finished. You couldn't have done any better with paint.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by 31 RPU

I have had about 16 wheels powder coated Tacoma creme and they looked like they were wet when finished. You couldn't have done any better with paint.

I sure would like to see them.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by Roadster62

That just sounds crazy to me, you need a fan belt and wiring harness that left the Ford Factory 1928-31 but plastic crap on your wheels is OK? I'd rather see the fine weld spatter at the spoke ends that the plastic baked on stuff hides. Bob

Bob, you are getting confused, you don't need an original fan belt or an original wiring harness to be in fine-point judging. It just needs to look exactly like it or you will receive a deduction. Plastic crap on your wheels (as you so eloquently put it!! ) can be used on a fine-point car however it WILL likely receive a deduction for poor quality craftsmanship & over-restoration just for the very reason you mentioned in your last sentence.


Someone mentioned something to fill pits prior to powder painting. You can use many different products. In my shop, we use Lab-Metal as a filler, and sometimes we powdercoat the item and blocksand the partially cured paint with 80 grit paper to remove the excess only leaving the pits filled.

Gary, you are pretty close on 20 hours per wheel from A-to-Z on restoring a wheel. For a shop, multiply that times $50.00 an hour X 5 wheels!!

[Terry,NJ]

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You don't say where you live, but if it's in a hot dry part of the country, go ahead! If not, I wouldn't powder coat. Why? If any moisture gets under it, it will rust out the metal without you ever knowing until you get total failure. Don't believe it? Go to a local marina and look over the old trailers and you will see some really ugly rust, with perfect shells of powder coat encapsulating it. Go with a good quality paint.
Terry

[Mitch//pa]

i love my powder coated plastic wheels, frame, suspension, drivetrain, steering linkage, and i am sure i left out a few dozen items....
all my stuff gets primed before pc'ed

to each his own

[mshmodela]

Funny, my black rims are a tad aged... I like the look...

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by Terry,NJ

You don't say where you live, but if it's in a hot dry part of the country, go ahead! If not, I wouldn't powder coat. Why? If any moisture gets under it, it will rust out the metal without you ever knowing until you get total failure. Don't believe it? Go to a local marina and look over the old trailers and you will see some really ugly rust, with perfect shells of powder coat encapsulating it. Go with a good quality paint.
Terry

This a myth that has been floating around for awhile but let's look at it this way. I have seen boat trailers that look just like you say (all faded and flaking) and I have seen boat trailers that have a nice powder-painted job that match the hull. What is the difference? It is in the prep and the quality of materials used. If the boat manufacturer is using "weathered" steel that has begun to flash rust, and they choose to use a poor quality paint over top of that, then naturally you can expect to see what you describe. I will also add that if you do the same thing with any type of sprayed paint, you can expect to see it flake off too.

Directly to your point, as you said, if moisture gets underneath it, it can start to rust. The base question is how does the moisture get to it? If someone did not properly apply either type of paint, we can expect to see just as you described but my personal experiences say that powder-applied paint will last just as long as a sprayed 2k urethane paint will when all things are equal.

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