Wheel refurb. Powdercoat or paint?

[StuBeeDoo]

I'm planning on getting my winter Style 305s refurbed ready for the coming season as they are getting a bit tatty, and in any case they need new tyres this year so I might as well get both jobs done at the same time. A local company with a good rep. who I have not used before have given me a price but they want to powdercoat the wheels rather than use paint. When I have had wheels powdercoated in the past I've never been totally happy with the finish. In spite of the claims that the finish will be "like new" powdercoating, to me, looks obvious. My other concern is that both times I've been persuaded to have powdercoating rather than paint the wheels have become excessively tight on the spigots when fitted.

I have e-mailed the company back asking about paint and expressing my concerns and am waiting for a reply.

What have been your experiences with powdercoated wheels? Should I risk it one more time? I know that different companies workmanship will vary (and to be fair the first set I had done was getting on for 20 years ago), but am I right in thinking that powdercoating wheels is the slightly cheaper "poor relation" to having them repainted?

TIA
Stuart.

[Jayx5]

I had my wheels powder coated on a e53 i had in 2012, they came out perfect, I would definitely have it done again.

[Leslie]

I think nearly all wheels are powercoated now ,painting is a thing of the past . The thing with it is if you leave in perfect wheels you get perfect wheels back , its not possible to fill say corrosion pitting etc due to the baking process only sand and smooth , I had wheels that had a few pits and you could still see some minor imperfections after but they were still a 9 out of 10.

[StuBeeDoo]

I have e-mailed the company back asking about paint and expressing my concerns and am waiting for a reply.

This is the reply.........

We would not wet paint a set of wheels as powdercoating is far superior and enables us to give a 12mth guarantee.

We use a foil to mask of the year of the hub on the wheel to ensure there is no contamination on the hubs as this can cause the problems some of which you have described this is why there should be no paint on that part of the wheel.

A lot of businesses out cut corners to save time and money for maximum profit while keeping prices low ... we don’t do this.

[StuBeeDoo]

I've bitten the bullet and gone for Gunmetal powdercoat, with Michelin CrossClimate+ tyres. As I've posted before I'm not convinced full-on winter tyres are necessary in the UK, but I'll be sticking to my usual regime of summer tyres mid-April - mid-November.
They should be ready this time next week, a set of brand new centre caps are already here.

As a matter of interest, does anyone have insight into why BMW spec. H rated tyres on a car that is capable of in excess of 130mph?

[X5Sport]

The X6 all-season tyres have the same rating. Tyre design limitation perhaps?

[marti]

Powder coat everytime

[StuBeeDoo]

I had to put the wheels straight on the car because one of my summer tyres punctured, so I'm glad I plumped for CrossClimates rather than winter tyres. TBH, I rather like the CrossClimates - they are very quiet and seem to cope well with wet roads and hot dry ones.

But, I digress. Back to the wheels. I'm still underwhelmed by powdercoat. I can't help feeling it's a cop-out for the person preforming the refurb. I just don't like the finish of powdercoat. Yet again, I have been sucked-in by claims that "it's got far better over the last few years". To me it's excessively glossy - to the point of looking nothing like the "looks as good as new" the blurb always claims on various powdercoaters websites.

The "gunmetal" grey they have used because.....

Ferric grey is a difficult colour to match should you damage a wheel in the future so we would recommend our Gun Metal Grey colour which is very similar and it’s an easier match should you require a single wheel fixing in the future

.....is more like a high-gloss anthracite. I appreciate that the wide, flat, areas on the spokes accentuate the colour but to me it's far darker than either shade of Ferric that I have seen. What I was after was darker than silver, but nowhere near anthracite. I see plenty of cars about with the sort of colour I wanted, so surely it can't be that difficult?

When my summer wheels need a refurb (hopefully not for another couple of years) I will try to find a company that does painting rather than powdercoating. I'll put-up with the ones I've just had powdercoated for as long as I can - at least when winter comes I'll rarely see them in daylight. The summer wheels will be going back on on Sunday morning.

...........And before anyone asks, no I didn't want a cheap job. I don't mind paying for anything - as long as I get what I'm expecting to.

[sapphireblack]

I think your experience of powder coating is unusual. When I've had such work done, i can choose matt, satin or gloss finishes. The work has always been exemplary too.

My surplus X6 winter wheels, now bolted onto a non BMW, were tidy but i had three refurbished recently in powder coat and there is literally no visual difference to the original BMW painted wheel.

Perhaps standards vary but it would be powder coating for me every time, carried out by a recommended business.

[Alan Gunn]

To me any darker colour looks too shiny/glossy i prefer the normal silver/grey.

[sapphireblack]

These are standard BMW silver finish, in powdercoat.

[StuBeeDoo]

These are standard BMW silver finish, in powdercoat.

I'll take a close-up image of one of mine tomorrow, when I take them back off.

[StuBeeDoo]

These are standard BMW silver finish, in powdercoat.

I'll take a close-up image of one of mine tomorrow, when I take them back off.

This is one of mine, taken in overcast light. TBF, the picture isn't representative, my eyes see them quite a bit darker than this - almost as black as the tyre. (If you've seen an advert for a BMW in Deep Sea Blue and then gone to look at the car, you may have found that the car is quite a bit darker than the photos in the advert make it look - it happened to me several times)

08 09 Gunmetal 305.JPG (269.34 KiB) Viewed 5236 times

To me any darker colour looks too shiny/glossy i prefer the normal silver/grey.

I know what you mean, Alan. With hindsight maybe I should have had them done satin rather than gloss. With that much gloss, I find them too "bling".

[sapphireblack]

Anthracite is a multi-colour like all others. When i first put the 4.6is wheels on my E53 they were the lightest option of anthracite available. Lepsons in Gillingham Kent did those and they were very nice, imo

[StuBeeDoo]

Anthracite is a multi-colour like all others.

Does my image look anthracite to you as well?? I'm glad it's not just me. I was under the impression that Gunmetal was more like half-way between your BMW/VW one and mine.