I was going to chemically strip my 5 H2 wheels and then paint them myself. After figuring the time it would take, between my time spent with my wife and 2 kids I realized this process will not be possible. I called a powder coater and he said for $65 each he would chemically strip and coat them. I called another coater and he said for $40 he would sand blast them and coat them. I think I read somewhere that sand blasting these wheels was not a very good thing to do. This guy can, I think, also glass bead them. What should I do?

Pay $65 for the chemical strip?
Make sure that I get glass beading?
OR don’t worry about it and let him sand blast them?

TIA

 

bead or sand blast them...far better adheasion. chemical is the cheap fast way...

 

My powdercoater had a better process. The problem with sand blasting or bead blasting is that the factory powdercoat is harder than the substrate. In order to get the powder off, you have to use so much pressure that you excessively etch the aluminum underneath.

Tell the guy to bake the rims at 600° to get the powder to curl up. Then they use a bead blaster to clean the wheels up. No chemicals needed, and you get the properly roughed up surface for the new powder to stick to.

Even if you have it chemically stripped, they'll want to quickly bead blast the rims to prepare the surface.

By the way, your quotes are cheap. Locally the cheapest I found was $360 for the set (what I ultimately paid).

 

x2

Bead or sand blasting will give a better finish for the powder to stick to. You will be happier with the results (after powder coating) if they are blasted. I used to powder coat at home and found the smooth surfaces would tend to crack or peel too soon.

 

We burn off everything to ceramic coat, but many say cast wheels are a no no because if can effect the heat treat and soften them. O.E. wheels claim powder coated claim it to be part of the treatment. This was a big thing in the past few years in the coating industry but it has kind of died off lately. We wont burn off wheels but many do. fyi, sounds like a good price.