POWDER COATING

[MarkMukilteo]

This past weekend I drove up to Vancouver, BC and picked up my front disk brake conversion kit from Rocky Mountain. Jeremy is a great guy, and in a few weeks/months I'll have stopping power!

As part of the disk enhancement process, I'm considering powder coating my steel, 16" rims. I searched out the original Land Rover cream color a few years ago and painted my rims, but most likely due to my painting ineptness, they never really "took" - paint chipping off, looking sloppy.

I'm planning on removing Rover's tires and having the rims sandblasted and powder coated at a local shop, where they have a cream color that approximates the original Land Rover color.

Has anyone else had experience powder coating steel Land Rover rims? My past experience with PCing has been positive, but I've never done rims.

Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Mark

[knac1234]

I can only speak for my Hillman Imp restoration. Technically, the steel rims were supposed to be something called sea foam (shade of white).
Powdercoaters of course did not have this, so I went with a semi-gloss white. They look great and should hold up well. I am positive that it would be a good move on the LR rims if you can find a color that you are satisifed with.

I am wondering if I can powdercoat my hardtop (want to get something that approximates the limestone color). The thought is that it would be less than painting, and have a nice finish that is very durable.

Julian

[TeriAnn]

I'm running Discovery I steel wheels on my 109 and had them powder coated a little over a year ago. So far they still look like new when I clean the road & trail dirt off.

Since my truck is 1973 Jaguar British Racing Green, with Triumph Ice white top (matches Martin Walter colour on my Dormobile roof) I decided limestone would look all wrong on my rims. So my disco wheels are semi gloss black. I think it goes better with BRG.


http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/Dormobile/pictures/2010MonValy.jpg
Taken last summer
You can see by looking at the other Dormobile that Limestone is a very different colour than Martin Walter painted their Dormobile tops. The Dormobile roofs match gel coat white with is a match to Triumph Ice White.


http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/LR.images/GR_DiscoWheel.jpg
The coating looks like new when the wheels are clean. I'm just not good at keeping them clean. But this is the 7 inch wide Disco I wheel in case anyone is not familiar with it.

[masonater]

You will have no problem powder coating rover wheels, as long as they are VERY clean. I did my 47 cj3a steel wheels years ago in battleship grey and they look good as the day i did them. I would recommend this process: bead blast, bake, wipe with acetone, bake, apply powder, bake to cure. May be overkill but this way you have no reason to not have a perfect finish. Check out eastwood kits and do it your self, you'll probably save some serious dough. Get a cheap oven off craigs list and you'll be powder coating everything you can (like me) beware rover wheels dont fit in a standard oven without the door staying open just a little, no big deal just cook longer.

[masonater]

Julian,

You can powder coat just about anything, the problem is finding an oven large enough to cure it. You can get infrared lamps that do the trick but they are tough to keep a consistant finish on larger parts because you have to move it around the part every 20 min or so. I know some mega powder coating places have ovens large enough you could drive your whole car into. just a thought

[bkreutz]

This past weekend I drove up to Vancouver, BC and picked up my front disk brake conversion kit from Rocky Mountain. Jeremy is a great guy, and in a few weeks/months I'll have stopping power!

As part of the disk enhancement process, I'm considering powder coating my steel, 16" rims. I searched out the original Land Rover cream color a few years ago and painted my rims, but most likely due to my painting ineptness, they never really "took" - paint chipping off, looking sloppy.

I'm planning on removing Rover's tires and having the rims sandblasted and powder coated at a local shop, where they have a cream color that approximates the original Land Rover color.

Has anyone else had experience powder coating steel Land Rover rims? My past experience with PCing has been positive, but I've never done rims.

Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Mark

Mark,
I had my wheels powdercoated at Performance Coatings in Everett about 6 months ago, I found a powder code somewhere on this site and they were able to obtain it and they came out great. Maybe they still have some left? (or at least they know where to get it). HTH (If you want to see what they look like in person, send me a PM and you could come down and take a look at mine, I live in Shoreline.)

[69Bugeye]

I had mine done locally.
The coater gave me some samples to take home which I matched up to some un-weathered paint I found after removing the headliner. To my eye it is a perfect match.

X2 on what masonater said about baking prior to coating. It's called off-gassing and any reputable coating shop will not coat a suspect part without doing an off-gassing run first. Grease, oil or other contaminants that may be trapped in seams, welds, pits etc., will cook off during this process allowing further cleaning prior to coating. It takes longer and cost more (oven, time) but will prevent rework/warranty work due to poor results. As I said, "reputable" shops will do this on their own accord. You should probably ask questions prior to dropping off your parts.

In a perfect world, I think that painting is better for our application. I only say this due to the higher risk of chips and scratches due to the environments that we operate in. A painted wheel is much easier to repair with a simple touch up kit. Powder coating while more durable, is less easy to repair and once there is a void in the coating, it is easier for water to migrate under the edges and start its evil mission. Ultimately, I went with powder due to cost. I am also having the roof and sides coated when I have them ready.

I can get the specs on the powder used if anyone would like.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4666250/DSC00019%20%283%29.JPG

[Skookumchuck]

I would love to have the powder specs. I am going to build a winch bumper for the stage 1 and I am planning to powder coat it.

[knac1234]

Masonator-thanks for the tips of baking previous to the final coating. Not sure if my shop did it on my Imp stuff, but it came out durable and looking good! Oh and yes, they jokingly asked if I wanted to push my Imp into the oven, as it was big enough to powder coat it!!

69bugeye-if you have a powder coat "code" that approximates limestone, please post it or PM me. I won't be doing any of this until likely the summer, but would like to start getting some ideas ready in preparation.

Cheers,
Julian

[lrover109]

Had mine done by the boys as Les Schwab a number of years ago - cleaned up quite nice and didn't cost a ton either

[east high]

Had mine done by the boys as Les Schwab a number of years ago - cleaned up quite nice and didn't cost a ton either

Nice. I went by Les Schwab yesterday to take advantage of this service, but they're were closed :/

Do you remember if their color selection had something close to limestone?

[lrover109]

not sure - I had an ex MOD so went with the idea that they would be black from the get go-they did have a number of other colors though just never bother to look at them

[69Bugeye]

The color code for my wheels is "RAL 1015".
(see post #7 this thread for pic)
Any powder supplier should be able to supply this color.

[RoverForm]

taking these dirty beasts in this week for a powder coat in 10% gloss matte black.
i'm having a local shop do it, they blast, clean and coat for $45/wheel. sounds reasonable but we'll see how they turn out. even a rough result would be better than the current chipped and flaking forrest green.

has anyone had a shop powder coat wheels in such poor nic? how'd they turn out?

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6188/6158901031_56489a30e2.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6206/6158912477_5921f2f314.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6196/6158917413_b41db73568.jpg

the color should turn out something like this:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6202/6158935579_5a89451eb0.jpg

[rover03]

Those rims will definitely look better after a fresh coat of powder. masonater had some excellent tips. I work at an industrial paint and powder coat shop in Southern NH (USA) and we powder car, truck and motorcycle parts all the time. One tip that works well for us is to give the parts a light hand-sanding (220 & 320 grit) after sand/bead blasting. We've done a bunch of custom 4X4 bumpers and corvette frames... sadly no rover frames.

And if the shop you are working with doesn't have the color match you want in stock you could certainly get it (there are a bazillion colors) but it does drive costs up to order custom powder.

[RoverForm]

i agree, they are horrid now. but i dropped them off this am so we will see what thursday brings. i doubt they are going to hand sand. but they use a 50hp industrial blaster so that outta do it. have you done parts that look as beat up as these?

the flat black they had in stock was good enough for me. it's a landy and a truck, it's usually dirty and since i'm not doing the wheels in period correct limestone, black is black.

but, yeah anything would be better than what i left them with... i even gave them my gas cap to coat cause the P-PO had it done in a nice, orange peeled, primer gray.

[RoverForm]

so here's the 10-degree matte black before they put them in the oven tomorrow. i have to say that the nasty old paint and rust cleaned off nicely from the blasting.

i'll pick them up saturday morning.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6174450490_43cbdd1aa5.jpg

[rover03]

Have we done parts that look that bad? - Yes. Sandblasting is great at cleaning parts, but the degree to which the rust has eaten the metal can be tough. Powdercoat can "hide" many imperfections, but probably not on those wheels, they were pretty rough.

I like flat black / gloss black wheels on just about everything! And if you ever get "crazy" and decide you actually want to wash them once they get dirty, a little windex will have them looking like new...

[RoverForm]

done. i think they came out damn good considering their previous condition.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6161/6182491290_2627d46dc1_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6163/6181617499_73bcc38925.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6156/6182139960_30db3559e4.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6178/6181613059_82185cd0e0.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6170/6182135012_c05e923f5b.jpg

[LaneRover]

They look great!

[mrdoiron]

done. i think they came out damn good considering their previous condition.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6161/6182491290_2627d46dc1_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6163/6181617499_73bcc38925.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6156/6182139960_30db3559e4.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6178/6181613059_82185cd0e0.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6170/6182135012_c05e923f5b.jpg
They did a good job, I have access to a small shop where I got mine S3 wheels done - came out the same as this. Also did my Mach V wheels for the defender... both jobs cost me a box of beer however :thumb-up:

[mrdoiron]

[QUOTE=mrdoiron;75280]
They did a good job, I have access to a small shop where I got mine S3 wheels done - came out the same as this.
Also did my Mach V wheels for the defender... both jobs cost me a box of beer however :thumb-up: