Powder or paint?
 

I'm trying to decide whether to powder or paint my wheels. The dealer I contacted said they can do either. Does anyone know how Porsche coats their wheels at the factory. My feelings are Painting will give a better looking finish. Powder will be more durable. I read an old thread on the subject but most of the replies were opinions. Maybe some of you that have actually done this can give me your feelings.

I've had a set of wheels for my M3 refreshed and powder coated - no issues at all for ~14000 miles so far, still look in tip top shape!

I think (as with painting), it's highly dependent on having an experienced shop do the work.

I agree 100%, I have connections because of my background to get a premium paint job. The reason I called a dealer is, I have center locks and they would have the proper equipment and tools to do the job. I was thinking about buying the correct jackstands and removing the wheels in my garage but that would cost at least $600. I have all the other tools including a torque multiplier. I recently down sized my home since I only spend 6 mths. there. I sold a place with a 32' X 48' garage with a lift. I also sold most of special tools.

I believe the factory uses a hybrid system, as most OEMs do. A liquid base and powder topcoat. Powdercoat will be much more durable. There are nay sayers on coating and wheel strength, but its mostly hearsay. I've never met anyone who actually had a wheel fail from powdercoating, only someone who knows someone who knew someone that broke a wheel. I owned a powdercoating business for 14 years before retiring it. I had one set of wheels on my track only 370Z that were powdercoated twice and I put over 12000 track miles on those wheels without issue.

I've heard those stories also, but I'm not worried about that. My biggest concern is appearance, I don't want them to look like they have been coated, I want them to look like factory.

done correct, they will look OEM. These are the ones I did for my last 991.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/9891/NWU8Fd.jpg

edit crappy pic, here is another
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img921/3285/H4CEub.jpg

Those look great. Thanks for your input. The process used at the factory, will that require blasting?

I just went through this for my Macan wheels. I'm planning to write a post about it with pictures, process, etc. The summer wheels for my Carrara White Macan were the turbo wheels with polished faces and I didn't love them on the white car. Once I put my OEM black spider design wheels on for the winter my mind was made up to switch to black. I looked for a while for a reasonable deal on some black wheels, I missed a set that wasn't too far away for me to pick up, so then decided to just give powder coating a try. I found a local guy through a google search that was literally 15 minutes from me and there were good reviews of his work. Young guy, one man, very non-descript shop but he had a set of Rotiform wheels there that he had just finished and they looked great. He had to strip the paint, then sandblast the surface, then applied the powder coating in multiple steps. Plus there are multiple cure sessions in the oven. Total turnaround time from drop off to pick up was 1 week. I haven't put them on the car yet because I want to ceramic coat them before doing so, but they turned out great! I did a matte finish with 10% gloss. Very good match to the OEM finish.

at the factory, no, they are using raw wheels. At the coater, maybe. There are several ways to prep. Blast, chemical, wetsand, etc. Depends on how your guy does it.

I'm in the process of doing this now. I think powder coating is the way to go....if its done right. I would avoid brake cleaner at all costs on the wheels. Look forward to seeing Bwiele's post.

My wheels from my used CPO 991.1 were sent by Porsche to a 3rd party to have it re-done and powder-coated before they released it to me. It turned out well and no problems with them. My aftermarket 3-piece wheels were also powder coated, after months of rain and abuse as I couldn't clean it for months, just with some Griot's cleaners and warm water, everything came off easily compared to when I first had the wheels when it was matte black painted, stuff would stick to it and hard to take off.

Looks great. How did they do the center caps? Are they metal? That was my concern

I’m headed to the dealer just now. Hope to have the car back for the weekend. Oh, we are doing Powdercoat.

If you're tracking - better to paint and not powder coat. Lots of information out there (admittedly not a ton of conclusive, scientific) around the heat cycles of powder-coating messing with the FEA properties of the wheel strength.

I did the centercaps by ordering black ones from suncoast! :D