powder coating

A guy down the street from me does a lot of body work, paint, collision repair etc for years, goes to shows, has trophies, also races old cars, is currently doing body work on a lotus. He led me around the shop, gave me his history, mentioned a good price for my quarter panel and bumper.
asked him about wheels, he says he sends them out for powder coating, about 125 a wheel
we didnt go into specifics, however i mentioned i might have a group interested in it

That's only slightly double what CPC charges.... not a great deal.

I dropped my wheels off at CPC today, going with textured black.

Oh shoot lol i thought i found a deal nvm! Lol

Find Sergey Serge on facebook. He did my Cherokee wheels for 100 a wheel, and only charged me $40 for two days of storage in his shop, cuz I gave him the whole truck. No mounting/balancing fee. $440 for the whole job, lifetime guarantee and he did a hell of a job. I couldnt be happier.

Just a heads up about Wheels America (Might not matter to some people, but customer service matters to me).......Two of my buddies with TBSS' got their wheels done there for $99 a wheel..... I called before Winter for my Jeep and they quoted me $99 a wheel, and $20 for mounting. I called AFTER Winter a month ago and asked, and the guy quoted me $125 a wheel and $25 for mounting. When I brought up my friends, he told me 'They were part of a group buy-in' When I know damn well they were not. I dont care how good their work is if they're trying to pull that crap. I know Winter is the slow season, but c'mon....

wheels america sure the fuck isn't giving me a warm fuzzy feeling right now. I dropped my wheels off on Mon. and was told they would be black with the faces and lip machined. They had some examples in the lobby and they looked great. They will be ready to pick up on tues. I'm thinking, man that's fast! I get a call tues afternoon that they couldn't do the machining due to the contour of the wheel, and also one of the tps isn't coming off. I was bummed, but asked if they could powder the faces and lips silver, or something that looks like polished alum. The guy suggested I keep the polished faces I already have and just powder the pockets and barrel black. That's exactly what I wanted to do in the first place so I give him the go ahead. He says he needs to talk to the production manager that comes in at 5 as they work overnights and see what can be done, polish or powder coat. Wheels will be done the next day... I call Wed. morning to see how things went (they never called tue after 5 like they said they would) and am informed that the wheels haven't been touched because 2 of the tps are stuck and they can't be machined due to the contour. I told them that I knew all that, and had already addressed the issues with another worker. They apologized, wheels will be done Thurs. I called this morning, the wheels are done!! I'll pick them up after work. I drive my ass all the way to elkgrove in rush hour and when I get there.....the wheels look like shit! there where 1/2" long runs of black over the silver faces of the spokes, all kinds of bumps, pits, overall shittyness. I have no doubt whatsoever I could have done a much better job in my garage with a can of spray paint and some masking tape. The guy at the counter was surprised that they told me to pick up with them looking that bad. He said they will re do them, and he'll try to have them shipped to my shop. At this point I'm prepared for them to still look like shit, and really have zero confidence in them at all. sucks,
bill

Damn Bill, sorry to hear and sorry I mentioned them.

That sucks

Very surprised bro. I had mine done there and was satisfied. Bunch of Jeep guys just had theirs done in the last month and they came out great

when Tom brought his rims into my shop that were done there they looked good, but the powder was so thick in the lug holes that the lugs wouldn't torque. you could see the powder mushroomed out from the side of the lug nuts being squeezed out. i had to have him drive around a couple times and come back for me to check the torque on em again.

if it makes you feel any better i haven't got my wheels back yet either. i don't think i was high on the priority list since he was hooking me up and i told him no rush. i called yesterday and they just said "soon" lol. i was just going to tell you today if you wanted to take my set of Michelins you could get them whenever and i would just take the set i have back ordered for you when they come in. lol i guess we are both waiting.

sad part is i have already skipped one race day waiting for the rims to come back. grr...

depending on how bad they look tomorrow I might just strip them and paint them myself. So yeah, I'm waiting. Do you have tire pressure sensors in stock, or should I buy some. They had to destroy at least two of mine to remove them.

James, don't feel bad. I know they have done nice work, the lobby is full of it. Also, there really aren't many options locally that do wheel repair. They should have had some kind of QC on these though. The dude at the counter was clearly embarrassed when he brought one out for me to see. They should have told me the wheels didn't get done at all and it would be another day. That hour and a half drive home gave me a lot of time to brew and get pissed off. I told the guy not to give me the 24hr turn around shit. Take a week, take two, just make it look good. We'll see what happens. Worst case I bring them to Vanilla Gorilla to finish, assuming the curb rash is repaired well, or maybe strip them and paint them myself.

bill

funkpolice wrote:

depending on how bad they look tomorrow I might just strip them and paint them myself.  So yeah, I'm waiting.  Do you have tire pressure sensors in stock, or should I buy some.  They had to destroy at least two of mine to remove them.

yea i should have the sensors in stock.

they weren't done on Mon. dude said they were tagged to go out for machining mon night. I told him that I had been told 3 times now that they could be machined, and 3 times they couldn't and was just looking for a straight answer, he didn't have one...."They'll be ready Tues." I called this morning and they aren't done. They ran out of masking tape!! This company is a fucking joke. They are going to knock 25$ per wheel off, doesn't make me feel any better. I just hope that when they are actually done, they look at least decent. Oh, and they are in fact being powder coated, at least for now. I wish they would have told me it would be 2 weeks from the start, I can deal with that, but this they will be done tomorrow every day for two weeks is getting really old.

bill

Called this morning and the dude said I need to come in and take a look at one wheel and give them the go ahead to do the others. If you have to ask, then I'm guessing it probably isn't looking very good. I drove up there and talked to the manager Alex. Finally someone that made me feel like they knew what was going on. He went through all the issues they were having and why the machining wouldn't . It was pretty clear the the two tone wasn't a viable option. The wheel looked way better than last time, but it was still pretty crappy. Also I wasn't crazy about the silver powder coat and black, nothing like a machined or polished face. Kind of looked cheap. So I obviously can't go back to polished now, and the two tone isn't going to happen, so I reluctantly told them to go all black. Really not the look I was going for at all. Then he showed me some hyper color? grey that kind of looks like a black chrome. It catches light differently on the different surfaces and kind of creates the illusion of black pockets and barrel with a dark grey metallic face. To be honest I'm unsure that I'll like it, but it's going to be better than just black I think, and way better than a shaky two tone. Who knows, maybe I'll like them better. Whatever I'm just ready for the whole thing to be over. They are doing their best to make it right, and that I appreciate.

bill

Sounds interesting I've seen some of those black chrome looking ones. CPC does a "CPC black" that is a cross between black chrome and gloss black, there was a set of 2nd gen Charger SRT wheels there in that color when I picked up my set and it looked good but also like it would show dirt.

I'm happy with my texture black for now but until i get tires on and put them on the car it is hard to tell. They will look better than the satin black on my winter wheels, the texture gives it some movement in sunlight at least.

well, I got the wheels today. it is what it is. not what I wanted, but it'll do for now. they look decent from far, but up close are kind of rough. a lot of lumpy spots and pretty blotchy. I hope they grow on me.




Jon suggested black center caps and lugs, which I think I agree with. What do you guys think. Chrome, black, or color matched? I think that window tint is almost a necessity now.

bill

before

I like them, kinda look like a Hyper Black.

I think black or polished center caps and lugs would both look good. I'd avoid satin as that would probably look most similar and if it is going to contrast I'd prefer it to contrast more.

I like them a lot bro.

I like the way they look, like stated above, almost a hyper black or "black chrome" type of look. Maybe some black lug nuts, and color match the center caps brilliant black?? I know with my old srt rims on my other Charger, I ended up ordering the silver painted center caps then painted them black versus trying to paint the chrome ones, so the paint was more durable, I have found painting over chrome never lasts as long

I like