Dan in Pasadena

I've got an opportunity to have my old phonedials powder coated for a VERY reasonable price. I am wondering if the temperature(?) or duration(?) of heat soak will cause them to become dangerous?
Does anyone have experience with this? I seem to remember someone posting pix of their son's 924 phonedials. They had powder coated them at home with a Columbia kit.

Also, though I'll likely go with an original appearing aluminum finish/clear coat, I know they have "chrome" powder coating. Wonder if that looks real orlame/fake as hell? Anyone?

Perry 951

I think there should be enough material there to keep them from warping, but the heat may brittle the wheel. I personally would not do it. You need about 400 degrees to get a good finish.

I did not warp my cam tower after 22 minutes at 400 degrees, so warping should not happen. The cam tower is not a high stress part like a wheel, so no concern about it becoming brittle. I would talk with someone who does wheel coatings and see what the say about it.

Dan in Pasadena

Perry, Thanks. The guy doing it does steel wheels regularly but has not done cast aluminum wheels. I would think embittlement would be the opposite of the concern. I would think they would become sort of "limp" for lack of a better term. Loss of "temper" doesn't really apply to aluminum (I think?). But maybe increased (too much?) malleability? Anyway, do you remember someone posting the home cooked powder coated wheels? I do. I even saved the pix he posted but can't remember who it was.

Skwerl

Is it possible to anodize wheels? Silver anodized may look cool...or it may look fabulously cheesy.

ian

[quote]Originally posted by Skwerl:
<strong>Is it possible to anodize wheels? Silver anodized may look cool...or it may look fabulously cheesy.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I vote for cheesy at best....

Powder coating should not created undue stress on the wheels. There is enough material in the wheel that the powder coating process should not weaken the wheel. I'm not saying you should repeat the process 100 times, but cycling them through once can produce a great finish and I just wish it was a more affordable process. (also becasue I would like to have my roll bar done.)

IceShark

I'm no expert here, but doesn't the hub of the wheel get hotter than 400F when using the brakes hard and frequent?

I would be more worried about remelting the powder coat than ruining the wheel temper. But calipers seem to hold up OK with a powder coat and they have a fair amount of flex stress to live with.

thomschoon

Check with the powder coater to see what the actual cure temperature is. There are low temp powders that cure at 250-275 which would be fine for alum. wheels. The higher temp powders usually cure around 375, there is a big difference between 375 & 425 for the wheels. Find out what temp they use and how long the wheel would be heated, it may never get fully heat soaked. The last thing is how it affects the grain structure of the wheel, alum ages when heated, so getting it done once may not be a bad thing, but then again