WaWaZat
06-09-2016, 09:08 PM
I guess the previous owner of my '92 Black & Tan loved curbs because my stock BBS wheels have passion scars galore!
According to all the wheel reconditioners, near me in the Chicago area, the procedure is a chemical strip, a media blast... the lips of the BBS' are machined... so a lip polishing, silver powder coating inside the lip and then a clear coat of the whole thing. It's likely that the silver won't match the center caps exactly so a paint of those to match the powder.
From what I understand from BBS, these lightweight wheels cannot be heated more than 250 degrees. All these powder coaters are baking upwards of 450 but every single one of them ASSURES me they do all sorts of alloy wheels including lightweight drag race wheels, exotics, etc, and to rest assure that their process will not compromise the integrity of the wheels. I even talked to the owner of the most reputable shop in town who's told me he has brought in a metallurgist, in the past, to make sure that heating wheels will not have ill effect. Now I would think that the manufacturer knows best the type of aluminum used, what the properties are and what kind if heat would be a problem. The owner of the reputable shop tells me this goes for all grades of aluminum out there and that nothing is comprised until getting to at least twice the temps of their oven. Perhaps the German engineers, in true form, are being overly engineerious??
I understand there are cold powders that can be used which only needs heat below the 250 or even ceramic coating which can air dry without any heat. Try to find a wheel reconditioner who does all this...
Does anyone have any knowledge, facts or info with this whole thing?
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p223/WaWaZatt/92%20Miata/IMG_2902.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p223/WaWaZatt/92%20Miata/IMG_3227.jpg
According to all the wheel reconditioners, near me in the Chicago area, the procedure is a chemical strip, a media blast... the lips of the BBS' are machined... so a lip polishing, silver powder coating inside the lip and then a clear coat of the whole thing. It's likely that the silver won't match the center caps exactly so a paint of those to match the powder.
From what I understand from BBS, these lightweight wheels cannot be heated more than 250 degrees. All these powder coaters are baking upwards of 450 but every single one of them ASSURES me they do all sorts of alloy wheels including lightweight drag race wheels, exotics, etc, and to rest assure that their process will not compromise the integrity of the wheels. I even talked to the owner of the most reputable shop in town who's told me he has brought in a metallurgist, in the past, to make sure that heating wheels will not have ill effect. Now I would think that the manufacturer knows best the type of aluminum used, what the properties are and what kind if heat would be a problem. The owner of the reputable shop tells me this goes for all grades of aluminum out there and that nothing is comprised until getting to at least twice the temps of their oven. Perhaps the German engineers, in true form, are being overly engineerious??
I understand there are cold powders that can be used which only needs heat below the 250 or even ceramic coating which can air dry without any heat. Try to find a wheel reconditioner who does all this...
Does anyone have any knowledge, facts or info with this whole thing?
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p223/WaWaZatt/92%20Miata/IMG_2902.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p223/WaWaZatt/92%20Miata/IMG_3227.jpg