I just bought a 2nd set of stock rims(5) to get powder coated.

Contacted A M Metal Finishing, (www.ammetal.com)

They say "To bead blast them then pretreat them then apply the powder would be $100 .00 a wheel. That includes the powder, takes 4-5 days"

First, what do you think of that price, is it average? Second, is that all there is to it, or will I need any additional work done on them? And does the company look good from what you can tell?

thanks

100 bucks a wheel seems pretty damn steep!

Bead blasting is normal...gets rid of the dirts, oils, etc...some places will do a chemical wash, depends on condition of the metal.

4-5 days turn is acceptable if its a busy shop. Same day if a slow shop.

You can have them do a clear coat over the color for durability, but I don't think its really necessary.

I would shop around...there's usually alot of powder coaters around.

Alright, I'll contact a few more places. What is a decent price per wheel?

Hmm....what do the powder coating shops do for the plastic center caps? anything?

and another question...will they remove the weights that are on the edge of the rim before doing it? And when I get the tires mounted on the black rims and balanced, will they be able to install weights on the back side? (my other set of rims had them like that)

I would think a good shop can. I know that my buddies shop in Winter Garden did it on his truck. If you want their number when its time, just let me know.

the weights are on the inside of my rims, you can't see them at all. I don't know what it costs, but $100 a wheel seems very high, I thought it would be under $50 a wheel? my dealer did mine.

I was going to do the same thing, got a quote from a very reliable local PC shop. $35wheel. But, he didn't have the stripping stuff so he sent me to a friend - another $15/wheel. $50 a wheel seemed good to me. Cheaper than buying new black rims...

Are you doing black or a custom color?

Most shops will have black loaded, since they shoot it everyday of the week and have a 2nd booth or hopper where they will do a different color each day of the week. i.e. blue on mondays, red on tuesdays, yellow on wed, etc.

I would think somewhere in the $40-$50 per wheel would be decent as long as its a standard color. If you are doing a custom non standard color, then the price will jump.

Well I asked for black, black chrome, and got the one estimate.

I'm not sure if there is a difference...is there?

In all your searching around for custom stuff, have you come across a good metal shop? I need to have some brackets made to mount my steps to my rocker rails.

Sorry, no help here, but I'm looking forward to see the end result. I want to PC my wheels black or a very dark grey.

Good Luck!

should be around $50 a wheel with the strip/cleaning. rear side wheel weights will work and tire shop can/will do them, just make sure you tell them that up front.
black chrome is much different than just black, way more involved and $$$$$
as far as the caps, those are for you to do, rattle can them with a matching color.
you don't want the coater to do them as they will come back as blobs of melted plastic.
once they spray on powder the wheels will go right into a large hot oven for a while to melt and adhere the powder to the wheels. they will have many different blacks available to pick from, glossy, semi-gloss, matted, textured, just look at their samples and pick what you like.
have fun with it and enjoy when done.

and remember they can do different colors on the same wheel if so desired, they will mask and coat one area then after the first color is cured they will mask that off and color the other areas, very cool effects can be had.

heres one in vegas with a little info. http://www.powdercoatinglv.com/

Are there possibly other processes? The company that you linked to had a Mustang in their gallery. Looked like every item they did on that Mustang (engine compartment and interior) was plastic.

Hey Newb,

I may have a guy who can do that for you. PM me.

Thanks HummerLV

HummerNewbie - nope, no metal shops yet

Thanks but hoping lotus has me covered.

So the quote for $100/wheel was for black chrome powder coat color. You mentioned black chrome was much more involved. So..is the quote I got for real black chrome? Or just a glossy black finish that should cost about $50/wheel?

chroming or in this case black chroming is plating of the parts, when you chrome something the part is dipped into different solutions to "plate coat" the parts, i heard that black chrome is even more involved than regular chroming.
all my babbeling said, if it is in fact "Black Chrome" then $100 a wheel i think would be a decent price.
powder coating will look like paint
black chrome will have a chrome look to it, it is hard to explain, but when you see it you will know what i mean, just tell them to show you the difference
chrome http://www.truckstuffusa.com/ec2chro...sbydeezee.html

Black chrome http://www.truckstuffusa.com/stainsteello4.html

Hmm...I guess what I was thinking black chrome was, would be the high gloss powder coat. Cleared that up.

Anyways, I think I'll stop down there and one other place to see what the deal is. thanks

Called 2 other places here and got quotes of $75 - $125/wheel.

Powder coating Chrome and Black Chrome are roughly twice as expensive as basic colors because it's twice as much paint, twice as much time. The Chrome and Black Chrome (which is just chrome with black powder added) are not weather proof. They look extremely good by themselves but you have to clear coat it for outdoor use. That dulls the look substantially but still looks great. I personally prefer black chrome over the regular chrome.

PS if you are doing powder on wheels, be aware that they may get chipped quickly. Powder is very durable when done right but rock chips are really hard to prevent at that level unless you used a textured color (which may look a bit odd on wheels...).

That's crazy, must not be much competition locally. You might want to just think about rattle caning them unless you want to spend the dough to get them PCed...

If this is a spare set of rims. You might want to ask if you can get a discount if they do them on a fill-in. Will take longer, but should be half the price. Lots of times they will not have a full rack and there will be space for 1 rim. Really doesn't cost them much to add 1 more piece to a rack(pennies).

Not the look you are going for but I wonder how much it would be and how it would look to Line-X a spare set of rims for wheeling. Might look pretty bad ass but might also be extremely hard to clean up.

I'd rather pay to get them PC'd than spray paint. The price is ok with me, just seeing what's average, maybe I can get a deal. Yeah, it's a spare set of rims, I'll see how much longer it takes to do the fill-in way. thanks

For the rock chip thing... I thought powder coat was so strong that the the metal will dent before the paint chips off.

Is that still true, or are rock chips different? Anyway to protect against that?

It's a crappy photochop...but anyone like this?



or have any other possible ideas?

maybe

If the rims are properly preped and cured...they will not chip...however you can still scrape through the coating just like the paint on your car. Its very durable, but not indestructable.

If the rims are properly preped and cured...they will not chip...however you can still scrape through the coating just like the paint on your car. Its very durable, but not indestructable. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

and more than likely, when you got to have the tires put back on the rims, the tire mounting machine might scratch them a little??...depending on good the installer is.

If the tire shop does it properly, a teflon ring should be placed on the edge of the wheel to keep it from damaging the wheel!

Alright, I'll make sure they do that right. thanks

I'm gonna go in tomorrow to look at the samples and whatnot. Will probably just go all black.

Well I should have the rims back by the end of this week, went with all gloss black. Picked up some dupli-color acrylic enamel for autos, says high gloss....that should work right? Should I clear the center caps too?

If the rims are properly preped and cured...they will not chip...however you can still scrape through the coating just like the paint on your car. Its very durable, but not indestructable. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

and more than likely, when you got to have the tires put back on the rims, the tire mounting machine might scratch them a little??...depending on good the installer is. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unless the guys a total hack with some old ass equipment, there should be no damage or problems when ya "got" the tires put back on

Even the new equipment will scrape the coating off if the installer is a retard. I had mine done on a brand new machine and it still chewed the coating up. Powdercoat is really not that strong, stronger and more durable than paint but still very very easy to mess up.

I paid $100 a wheel to have mine done. I didn't have any other choices though as I wasn't about to travel almost 2 hours to the next nearest place. Took about 3 days to get them back.

Frankly () I didn't notice any damage on Franks wheels when we were in Paragon. And yes, this was before they got muddy. Franks wheels did look good overall.

I plan on getting my primary set of wheels powdercoated a very dark grey or black when I have some spare $$$ laying about. I'll be getting the line-x for the grille at the same time.

Picked them up today, I got to the powder coaters during their lunch break, and everyone really liked them and thought they'd look nice on my truck. Then I went to go get the tires swapped, 2hrs! but they are on now. No damage to the rim during mounting, pc quality is great, and I like!

No pics til I paint the center caps.

You tease!

If I have to come over to paint them myself I will. Don't tempt me, I will

Bullsh*t!!!! Post pics!! DO NOW!!!

I suck at painting so you are welcome to come paint them for me.

I'm doing a test one right now. Says it can be handled in 3 hours, so maybe I'll get some pics yet tonight.