Powder coated wheels

[markwm]

Want some more opinions on this, had my wheels powder coated. Can't say I'm happy with them but I want to make sure the the bits I'm not happy about aren't simply the differences between powder coated and painted wheels. On one wheel, there's an obvious dodgy area where the coating appears to have run/thickened slightly and made what appear to be folds(see where bottom spokes meet wheel centre on first pic). Overall, I dunno, the finish on the wheels isn't great imo, just seems to be lots and lots of orange peel but is that normal for powder coating? First time I've had it done so I'm comparing it against the previous painted finish. I've been told they'll redo the dodgy wheel if I'm not happy but I'm thinking if this is what powder coating is like, I'd rather go elsewhere and have them stripped and painted.








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[7even]

Its a fairly standard finish for powder, and around 99.5% of people are gonna be happy with it. They do show some good customer service saying they will correct it as many times as it takes, although I don't know if I would be too happy especially if they acid bath them each time!

Paint and powder are completely different, paint gets into spokes easier and lays flatter whereas powder is a lot thicker and covers a multitude of sins and the gun is a lot bigger - hence the reason the process is used if alloys are leaking air.
If you change to paint at this stage for the one wheel your not happy with your probably going to have colour issues, which I would imagine is going to p!ss you off even more.

If 3 are adequate just get them to re do the one your not happy with, im sure it will be fine.

Edited by 7even on Sunday 3rd May 16:39

[swisstoni]

I would not be happy with that unless it was dirt cheap.

[helix402]

Well done powder coating coating should match the oe finish, here's one I had done:

[Mr_B]

I think you went with the wrong process if expecting a wet painted standard from powder coating.

[MattYorke]

I've had loads of stuff powdercoated - and I've never had anything come back looking as bad as the OPs wheel - looks like that one just didn't go quite right.

[markwm]

I went back and had it redone. It's come back worse than before.

I had my car detailed and the detailer said he could sort it out so I have no contact with the wheel place. The second time, he said it's the wheel surface causing the problem and they put the coat on thinner this time to try and get round it and it looks worse I reckon. I dunno why it would be the surface, there was nothing on the wheels prior except light kerning around the edge.

The orange peel is really bad imo, because they've put the coat on thinner this time you can see the old balancing weight indents. And to top it all off, when I got the wheel back today, it's not sealed up properly so will not hold pressure so I can't use my car.

Detailer is quite well regarded so I'm a bit surprised he recommends this place to his customers. I popped down to the wheel specialist nearby, and they said they'd never send wheels out like that(re. orange peel). I'm in a funny position really, as it stands I've lost £££ and had a lot of hassle, I'm going to have to pay someone else to put it right and am currently off the road.