How to remove powder coating from lug nut area?

[31 Woody]

I had some wheels powder coated for my wagon. The powder coater did not cover the lug nut contact surface so the wheels are coated there as well. To avoid losing a wheel at some future point, I need to clean that area off. Any ideas how to do this?

I thought of but have not yet tried:
1) sacrificing a lug nut and putting a "cutting edge on it", the spinning it in each landing surface to clean them out
2) cutting and adhering small Emory sandpaper to a lug nut then sanding each surface. If this even worked, I think this would require replacing the sandpaper too many times.
3) whittling out as much as I can with an xacto to knife, then checking torque frequently for a while. I did do a little of this and it is somewhat feasible but is going to take two more lifetimes to finish.
4) very careful application of paint stripper and cleaning to avoid ruining the rest of the coating.

Any good ideas or proven methods out there?

[Gary WA]

Dremel tool with small stone. Having powder coated wheels I have had no loose lug nuts due to powder coat.

[glenn in camino]

I made a scraping tool to remove the powder coat from the lug holes.

[Mitch//pa]

powdercoat on the lug seat has not caused me any issues. i never had a need to grind it off the taper... one thing to look for is make sure there is no build up on the inside of the rim that seats against the brake drum as it can give the wheel excessive run out

[daveymc29]

Been running powder coated lug holes for probably 10 years now. Never had one come loose yet. I use the little cones to protect the paint and it seems to work well. Maybe you are overthinking a problem that will never present itself. Pull them up snug and lug nuts will stay snug.

[WRA]

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I've never worried about it on at least 4 different sets of wheels. As long as they are the correct lug nuts and properly torqued, no worries.

[Kevin in NJ]

I would take sand paper and remove the paint from the area that contacts the drum.

I found that PC is not always perfectly even in build up on the edge. When you tighten the wheel to the drum it can introduce a very measurable warp in the drum.

As far as the nut holes, I did my wheels with nuts in the holes so they are bare metal. Some report no problems, but I would feel uncomfortable and think frequent monitoring would be wise. Not all PC is well adhered and if it comes loose it can rack the holes.

[Tacoma Bob]

Just went thorough this with my freshly P/C headlight bar. The head light socket( in spite of my asking not to) came back "lightly" powder coated. A quick run with the dremmel tool and all is well. Also I too have run P/C wheels for 10 plus years and have had no issues.

[CarlG]

Originally Posted by Tacoma Bob

Just went thorough this with my freshly P/C headlight bar. The head light socket( in spite of my asking not to) came back "lightly" powder coated. A quick run with the dremmel tool and all is well. Also I too have run P/C wheels for 10 plus years and have had no issues.

Since I run an extra wire for ground, I went ahead and left the Powder Coat on the headlight sockets.

Also haven't had any problem with the Powder Coated wheels.

[a guy]

Use an over size drill and hand turn to remove the coating. One or two light spins does it.

[Bill's Auto Works]

Almost all factory aluminum wheels are powdercoated clear, including the lug holes & there is never a problem caused by it.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I guess this is one of those old Model-A rumors that start on forums and keeps getting passed around simply because it seems believable.