Powdercoating prep work

[Yaggie1]

It looks like I have a line on getting my stock wheels powdercoated. Kinda thru a friend of a friend type thing. Looks like I can have em run for nothing but I gotta have them prepped and ready to go myself. Anybody know the steps involved to prepping them myself for coating ? Can a decent enough job be done by just cleaning and sanding ? If I can get away with just buying some supplies and prepping myself I would be ecstatic.

 

[KzA]

The only prep step that I know of for powdercoating is sandblasting all of the old material off. You can also sand away any curb rash or imperfections of that nature..

 

[Yaggie1]

Do you necessarily have to sandblast or can you just sand ? I was hoping to get away a cheap as possible. I have the polished wheels now and was just hoping to clean them up really good and sand the s*** out of them.

 

[KzA]

I dont see why not...Just remember, Powdercoat is just like thick paint. Imperfections WILL show, so make sure that you sand them thoroughly.

 

[Revs]

If they are already polished then just make sure any clearcoat is off and sand the surface with 400grit. Make sure you throughly wash them after with a degreaser cleaner.

 

[Yaggie1]

Any recommendations on a degreaser ? Something like Simple Green automotive, or something super toxic like that Gunk engine degreaser stuff ?

 

[Yaggie1]

What about a chemical stripper for the clearcoat on the wheels ? Or should I just go with the sanding ?

 

[Yaggie1]

BUMP for any other feedback. Anybody got any opinions on using a chemical paint stripper or just sanding like a madman ?

 

[Iamgoodyy]

When I powdercoated mine I had them media blasted. It cost $90 for all 4. I didn't even want to attempt sanding off the clearcoat. Remember to take out the center caps if you have them media blasted because they are plastic and won't stand up to the bead. After blasting I just hit them with some 400 grit to work out some curb rash and some missed spots where the lug nuts are at. If you don't get rid of all the clear coat the powder won't stick so in some spots around the lug nuts I had silver specks which I touched up with black paint. Then I just whiped them down with some thing called PRE.

 

[mazdaholic]

when my rims were done last year, the shop doing the coating had the rims soaking in a chemical stripper. sandblasting work well too.