where do they powder coatwheels?

[Elmora]

I've been trying to find a place where i can get wheels power coated near KC but i havent found any place need help let me know if any one knows where to get them done....

[Justin 05 Sti]

http://www.coatingskc.com/

Be careful if your wheels are forged aluminum.

[JSchell1309]

I created a similar thread not to long ago. Go through it real quick and there are a few more suggestions in there.

http://kcsubaru.com/showthread.php?1...nd-Kansas-City

I never did get around to powdering my stock wheels. Just never had the time. Regarding Justin's last post up there I will elaborate on what I have found when researching heating 6061 T6 forged aluminum wheels.

To follow up on the annealing of the wheel I have found some interesting information. Typical aluminum alloy for wheels are 6061-T6 where the T6 is the artificial age hardening of the wheel. Actually annealing this age hardened wheel requires "775 F for 2 to 3 hours followed by controlled cooling at 50 f per hour down to 500 F, then air cool." So failing wheels are actually not annealing, that is their crystal structure is not being "re-set" from the powder process. What is happening however is they are being "over aged" or tempered further than necessary. The T6 aging process requires "350 F for 8 hours followed by air cooling." So by incorrectly powdering a wheel at 350 F or above you are further tempering the wheel. This is what causes the structure to fatigue and catastrophic failure, such as Hydrolix' wheels failing.

Sources: http://www.steelforge.com/alloys/?alloy=6061
http://www2.galcit.caltech.edu/~tong...Alloy_6061.pdf
http://www.thefabricator.com/article...ation-for-6061

This further makes me confident that if a powder coater can confirm that they use a powder set to cure at 250F and can confirm the wheel will never be heated over 300F then I feel more than safe using that wheel.

Just a warning, make sure your company knows what they are doing with forged aluminum wheels.

[05kcWRX]

that's at least 12 hours of cooling to bring them to the proper hardness. Wow definitely agree on the temp. I wonder if the structure actually changes face at anything above 300 deg. Once the structure is set it usually doesn't change unless you bring it back above a certain temp. if its a 6061 that sounds like an aluminum magnesium silicon alloy. I wonder if the age hardening makes it so hard that it becomes brittle. Just like marteniste its extremely hard but b/c of the hardness it very brittle.

[Justin 05 Sti]

All I know is Aaron bent up all 4 of his BBS just running around the track at I-70 Speedway after they were powder coated.

[Hydrolix]

Mine didn't become brittle, they became soft. So soft actually, that when the tires were removed from the rims the machine doing the removing put dents and bends in the metal! It's pretty scary given how I was using them.

[kyNg02bugeye]

I got a magnesium f1 wheel I'm looking for a place to refinish it, 1st person I contacted was scared of it catching fire lol

[Scooby24]

coatingskc is where I got my forgestars done. The quality was fine, just make sure you understand the color isn't going to look the same after you apply powder clear over top.

I had to get mine done twice there because "metallic" becomes flat and yellowed after clear. I wanted a brilliant finish and ultimately had to bring them my own powder called "chrome zone" which was a chrome powder and then cleared over top.

[05kcWRX]

Mine didn't become brittle, they became soft. So soft actually, that when the tires were removed from the rims the machine doing the removing put dents and bends in the metal! It's pretty scary given how I was using them.

Wow soft never would have guessed that, but then again the artificial aging process is kind new to me.

[Elmora]

Thank for the info guy forgot all about how the metals are forged ... I'm trying to coat my OEM wheels