Powder coated wheels - safety issue
Discussion
I wanted to share my experience with powder coated wheels with respect to using my car on track on one occasion. This is not intended to be a discussion thread but purely advisory. Any are welcome to comment but I shall not be posting further once I have shared this.
My wheels were prepared by a specialist company in accordance with their warranty conditions and seemingly global policy, so expect the same procedure to have been followed by any branch.
The overall finish and appearance of the wheels was completely satisfactory, however, the area of concern in my instance was both the hub face and tapered wheel bolt seats. These had been powder coated fully.
During my time on track the coating became sufficiently hot to melt this coating on both the hub face and tapered seat. I have received advice from well respected businesses who have experience in preparing vehicles for track use and they have advised that this could have potentially had serious consequences such as wheels parting company with the vehicle had I persisted in using the vehicle.
The trader has resolved my issue by stripping, masking off appropriately and re coating.
As I have said, this thread isn't intended to discuss the process of powder coating wheels or indeed the trader but to highlight a potential safety issue. It is for the individual to decide what to do with this info, if anything.
My wheels were prepared by a specialist company in accordance with their warranty conditions and seemingly global policy, so expect the same procedure to have been followed by any branch.
The overall finish and appearance of the wheels was completely satisfactory, however, the area of concern in my instance was both the hub face and tapered wheel bolt seats. These had been powder coated fully.
During my time on track the coating became sufficiently hot to melt this coating on both the hub face and tapered seat. I have received advice from well respected businesses who have experience in preparing vehicles for track use and they have advised that this could have potentially had serious consequences such as wheels parting company with the vehicle had I persisted in using the vehicle.
The trader has resolved my issue by stripping, masking off appropriately and re coating.
As I have said, this thread isn't intended to discuss the process of powder coating wheels or indeed the trader but to highlight a potential safety issue. It is for the individual to decide what to do with this info, if anything.
Edited by ash reynolds on Tuesday 15th July 14:04
rigga said:
Struggling to realise how the wheel bolts/nuts could come loose and the wheel fall off even with melted coating.
Because powder coating can be quite thick and the effect of it melting could potentially negate the torque that was put on the wheel nuts/bolts during the tightening process. Highly unlikely, but theoretically possible.another consideration is if they burn the old coating off before powdercoating as the temperatures involved in some methods can cause cracks in the wheel.
thread here.
http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...
thread here.
http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...
caravelle190 said:
rigga said:
Struggling to realise how the wheel bolts/nuts could come loose and the wheel fall off even with melted coating.
Because powder coating can be quite thick and the effect of it melting could potentially negate the torque that was put on the wheel nuts/bolts during the tightening process. Highly unlikely, but theoretically possible.If in doubt, sand the hub face of the wheels down before fitting to expose metal.
ash reynolds said:
Could somebody please explain why the trader name has been edited out? I thought I had worded this carefully enough to avoid issues. Thanks.
We don't allow naming and shaming - it's against the rules you signed up to when you joined.Besides, the specific trader wasn't the point of your post, was it.
I think the issue is that most coasters will use grease on all the mating faces before coating, the powder sticks to this even during baking in, but when its cooled, the mating face can be cleaned easily using a Stanley knife blade. So this should mean the face is just metal once complete.
If you had a mating face with powder on it, that then melted, it sounds to me that this may have been the greased up powder surface that should've been removed by the canter first time round.
Well maybe!
If you had a mating face with powder on it, that then melted, it sounds to me that this may have been the greased up powder surface that should've been removed by the canter first time round.
Well maybe!
I'd love to see a picture of the hub that came off - because that's a VERY neat pattern for 'melting'. It's defined perfectly between the inter-stud spaces and the edge of the bolts!?
What car did it come off - anyone know?
Hubs do get pretty hot - I still have a burnscar I got from one when changing a wheel once...
What car did it come off - anyone know?
Hubs do get pretty hot - I still have a burnscar I got from one when changing a wheel once...
when i painted my wheels i got a reasonable amount of paint on the back
after a good hard run this did indeed soften on one of the wheels and cause the wheel bolts to be slightly loose
after a couple of days of thinking i had a drive shaft on it's way out i was spared any expense by adding half a turn to each wheel bolt.
hardly anyone died because of this incident
after a good hard run this did indeed soften on one of the wheels and cause the wheel bolts to be slightly loose
after a couple of days of thinking i had a drive shaft on it's way out i was spared any expense by adding half a turn to each wheel bolt.
hardly anyone died because of this incident
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