Powder coating alloy...

[Tifa]

I've done it loads of times an odd bits and bobs...mostly bike related...and a few wheels too.
I'm currently playing around with the idea of PC'ing the wheels on my Tuono...I really dislike that Aprilia blue...
Anyway, one thing that's crossed my mind recently is the effect the PC heat treatment may have on the structural integrity of the alloy in the wheel...Anyone know of any wheel failures, or have any advice or opinions regarding this please? (stupid question...this in the internet )

[Bigralphie]

My bike has had its blue Oz wheels powder coated gold by the previous owner ,finish looks great to my untrained eye mate

[William the Third]

Try to find someone who does low temp powder coating. There are powder coatings out there that are baked as low as 100 ºC (~200 ºF) and cured with UV light. When you get above 150 ºC (~300 ºF) you start to run the risk of structurally weakening the wheel.

[BrummyMax]

I had a local powder coaters do my OZ's. Total Wheel Works in Nottingham. They know exactly what they are doing.

[Tifa]

Cheers for that Max.....I've just had a quick look at their website, and they seem to be the biz.

Can you remember how many of your English pounds they relieved you of? Roughly?

[BrummyMax]

It should have been £70 cash in hand, but my mate who fits tyres was too busy to take them over, so I took them in and they charged me £96 through the books for white to black OZ's. That included sand blasting. I bought some OZ stickers from ckruzel on eBay.

Don't underestimate how much work is involved in stripping the bearings out of the wheels, and refitting afterwards. Every time I have something powder coated, they mask off the bearing surfaces. However, there is always some places where the paint gets in a little or the paint bridges onto the masking. It is cleaning these bits up that takes the time. If it is just a tiny bit, a sharp blade can be used, but where the brake discs mate to the rims, I used paint stripper to get the surface down to bare aluminium. Powder coat is very hard, but paint stripper eats into it in seconds. It is obviously risky having paint stripper near brand new powder coated rims, but if you mask off everything but the paint you are removing and are very careful, it can be done. It probably took me 4 hours to cleanup and dress the wheels after powdercoating.

I would spec them to mask off the bearing surfaces, disc mating surfaces, blank the bolt holes and mask the cush drive sockets. Remove the cush drives using a hacked up old screwdriver. Grind a hook into the end. First spray contact cleaner liberally around the cush drive rubber and wobble the cush drive around to get the contact cleaner to penetrate down between the wheel and rubber. Once it has penetrated, use the hooked screwdriver to pull the rubber out. Knock the bearings out, alternating sides and single taps. If you are really careful, they can be re-used, but check each bearing once removed.

You may know all this stuff, but what the heck others could benefit.