Powder coat or Paint?
 

I just bought my Z and love it but I am not a fan of the color of the stock sport package wheels. I would like to rather paint or powdercoat them black. Which route do you guys think I should take. Thanks

Paint probably offers more color choices, but powder coating is way more durable. I had mine powder coated.

My vote is to powder coat. My rims are powder coated black. If you want a painted look, do a gloss powder coat. :tiphat:

Can anybody post some pics of powdercoated or painted sports package rims?

Search my man! Here is painted.

http://www.the370z.com/diy-section-d...rim-paint.html

Here are my painted ones, still holding up after 6 months:tup:

http://www.the370z.com/members/nmjax...e40434-062.jpg

powdercoat

But, I do agree powder coating will be more durable

How much should I expect to pay for powder coating the rays?

Powdercoat. But I'd make sure to take it to a place that regularly powdercoats wheels. If they do it wrong they can weaken the wheel and it will fail at some point in the future.

Mike the Powdercoater here on the forum does it. You would want to shoot him a PM on it. I think he either charges $50 or $100 per wheel but don't quote me...

Powdercoating is still advancing in the world of color scheme, but even with just 'black' there are several choices in terms of darkness and appearance from matte to gloss. So you have almost as many choices as paint.

But the real key is durability as people have said. Paint will chip and flake, especially if it's not done right. Powdercoating is a much more effective option for something that is going to be subject to the rigors that wheels go through.

Thanks for all the advice, big help. Think imma go with powdercoating

I charge 300 for a set, for a simple job like black. Something with lots of masking and multiple colors and clear coat can get significantly higher

http://thepowdercoater.com/gallery/a...Gale_wheel.JPG

Powdercoating offers a VERY wide variety of colors, pearls, flats, gloss, metalic, and anything else you can think of now a days. So the options are almost unlimited. As for durability, powder coat is known to be as much as 3x more durable and chemical resistant than paint.
Powdercoat is a must for wheels IMO, over paint.

We actually powdercoat wheels almost every day, starting at about $65 per wheel for any basic one stage color.

Powdercoat is the way to go

PDC is the way to go and is cheaper compared to painting. For example, there are shops that charge around $200 to paint per wheel vs $50 to PDC per wheel and is much more durable and will be lighter on you wallet.

yep, I redid two Lotus wheels for a body shop I do work for and who does my body work, and when I charged them 100, they said it was way too low, that it needed to be at least 150 each.

Interesting... I've had 5 sets of single stage painted wheels on my cars over the last few years and never had any issues with any of them.

As a matter of fact, I had a set of powder coated RPF1's and the faces of them started chipping after the wheel was pulled on an off a few times.

Single staging is more durable than base + clear, not to mention it allows you to have an unlimited array of colors opposed to the premixed colors of powder.

The body shop that did my wheels does them for $250, and they custom mixed my color.

Maybe I've just had bad experiences with PC wheels... but personally... I would single stage paint them.

your powdercoated ones were probably not cured properly.

Painted:
http://www.the370z.com/members/txspe...0-meet-pic.jpg

Album here: Nissan 370Z Forum - TXSpeedDemon's Album: 370Z Wheel Painting

2 years and about 15K miles on the painted wheels - I have 2 chips in them, both about the size of a dime. Am deciding now on changing the tires and touching them up or buying a whoe new set of wheels with my tax refund.

^^ looks good dude, mine have been holding up after 6 months of use, hopefully they can go 2 years like urs. :tup:

My brother has had his rims powdercoated for years on many different cars and they come out great and doesnt have any issues. Also if anything had gone wrong with them like paint failing or dulling or something the guy was always willing to redo the rims if there was a problem. Quality stuff and also the guy was doing Ferrari's and stuff.

I find it interesting that no one mentions fact that there is debate about curing tempretures involved in powder coating causing aluminum alloys to become weaker leading to possible failure.

I'd make darn sure you know tempretures and curing time your powder coater uses. Some use temps as high as 400 degrees which is getting close to temps where metal structure can be changed.

Here is some discussion on topic

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=151053

where can I get powdercoated in North Jersey area?

mine are painted, can esily be done yourself. I have $60 in TOTAL cost for all 4 wheels. theyve been done for about 6 months now without any chips and the car is my DD. If you prep the wheel well (sand well and prime well) the paint will be very durable. I even had the rear tires replaced without a single chip
http://www.the370z.com/members/370gu...9-img-0348.jpg

And dont forget to use a clear coat as well! that def helps :tup:

@nm I forgot to mention that, theymust be cleared. Mine are cleared and thats a big reason for the durability

Mine are painted and you've seen mine in person.

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...4/S1034969.jpg

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...4/S1034971.jpg

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...4/S1034970.jpg

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...4/S1034968.jpg

looks really nice. What color is that? I'm thinking of going with a darker grey/lighter black

Wondering the same... That is if you remember kaien! Since post is almost 3 yrs old :shakes head: