Powder coating Aluminum?

[KingCon]

Did you sandblast or chemical peel before powder coating the aluminum?

Does this weaken the wheel?

Any advise?

[motordavid]

Most powder coating I've seen uses a light abrasive to prepare the
surface. Many motorcycle & cars wheels get PW'd successfully; the
people I know whom have had it done have used a good PW operation
where the cure is just long enough to set it, though from chem class,
I think the cure temps may slightly alter the alloy, but not detrimentally,
if done properly.

Search Tab on this site, has several threads on topic.
GL,mD
http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...tyle-168s.html

[KingCon]

Thank you, I did a search but didn't find that thread.

I was just worried about compromising the structure of the wheels when they strip or sand blast them since they are replicas.

I'll ask around.

[Zridder19]

I just got my 168's powdercoated, they body shop that sandblasted them did a halfass job, and put some nasty abrasions in the wheels, they said it was a pain the butt to get the factory finish off. but the wheels do need to be down to bare metal. Thank god my powdercoater laid a nice thick layer of powder over the wheels and got them to lay out nicely. The heating process does not damage or weaken the wheels in any way