How long did you have your wheels sit after powder coating before mounting tires?

[csaudis4]

Hello guys,

As a member suggested, with two spare tires in hand, I did the first-batch powder coating on my front wheels. The wheels were finished today. Since I was kinda tempted to see the result, I took the wheel right after the clear coat dried out of the oven from the shop. The guys at the shop told me to wait at least till noon tomorrow to mount the tires.

To be safe, I decided to see how long everyone else in the community waited after powder coating to mount the tires in order to avoid damage to the powdercoating, as they are not that cheap at $100 per wheel :p

Besides, the powder coat seemed to be pretty thin, does this mean I got into a bad shop? The inner part of the wheel (where will be covered by tires) also seemed to have been done differently: it's like a very thin paint on the inner area, where I could peel small part of paint off and it was like a piece of paper but thinner and softer. I tried to tear that piece of paint apart and it took me some strength. However, the outside of the wheel looked pretty solid. I accidentally bumped two wheels during transportation (damit), and at the edge of both wheels, some powder came off, and some white bare metal emerged... I don't know if I described it good enough, but this is my first time, so I have no idea if it's a good job...

Thanks for reading :D

[csaudis4]

Anyone ?

[NickS]

I have no experience with powder coating on wheels but I do have experience with powder coating on aluminum parts. In my experience, once the powder coating is done, it's good to go. I would say that if the wheel was prep'd properly and the coater did his job that you should be able to mount the tires now.

[PAT@RSW]

We powder coat a lot of wheels for our customers, and we have no designated set time on a fresh wheel. As stated already if the powder seems to be thin / flaky then the wheels were not properly prep'd. Everything we powder coat is normally chemically stripped & prep'd first to ensure a good adhesion !

[csaudis4]

I have no experience with powder coating on wheels but I do have experience with powder coating on aluminum parts. In my experience, once the powder coating is done, it's good to go. I would say that if the wheel was prep'd properly and the coater did his job that you should be able to mount the tires now.

Thanks, I will do this morning!

We powder coat a lot of wheels for our customers, and we have no designated set time on a fresh wheel. As stated already if the powder seems to be thin / flaky then the wheels were not properly prep'd. Everything we powder coat is normally chemically stripped & prep'd first to ensure a good adhesion !

I wish I was in your area ;( Anyway, how much is to do one wheel at your shop?

[TheDonPulido]

I Agree with PAT@RSW, whoever done the PC for your wheels half ass it. I would take them back and have them redo them the correct way. About the waiting time, I put mine on as soon as i picked them up to take to the Audi shop. (Post some pic after ur done.)

[csaudis4]

ye i put them on yesterday. Everything looks good except for the edges of the stem hold... I'll post some pics when I have all four done, you'll see what I meant. They were pretty minor that I can only see those edges aren't covered real close. I don't want to waste my time with them but I'll let them do it the perfect the way for my rear wheels, otherwise, I'll take all four back and let them redo!

[wwhan]

Do you have the stock 18" or 19" wheels you powder coated?

[csaudis4]

Yes, you want a picture?

[wwhan]

Yes, a picture would be nice.

Thanks

[wilch93]

Who can u show me a pick of ur rims mann im thinking about doing that

[csaudis4]

Sorry I'm late ;)

I got some quick pics in my phone, which were taken the day that I finished the two front wheels. I'll take some real nice photos with my PHONE again, so you can see what it really looks like on car, altho I always felt it does not look as good as I'd imagined and seen on Rabbit's pictures. His looked much nicer than mine imo, maybe it's his 20's, mine are stock 19's.

[csaudis4]

And to be honest, everytime i see the first pic above, i kinda miss the original hyper silver T_______T

[wwhan]

In the pictures of the wheels alone, they look a little lighter. What color is the finish? What do they look
like in daylight?

[Okan509]

Black wheels are awful, why is this a trend?!?!?!?!?

[leviathan18]

the color unmounted is amazing

[notjoefromnh]

The coating is already baked on once they are out, by the time you mount you'll be fine

Sounds like he was a bit stingy on the prep and powder... As someone said in a previous post everything is stripped and prepped while the new coating is applied evenly.

[csaudis4]

Yes I thought the same thing, it looked awesome unmounted. However, when I mount it onto the car, it looked llke a lot darker, and since they are closer to tire's color (compared to hypersilver wheels obviously), the whole wheel with tires mounted looked like a big pile of black #$%^&.

So, I'd suggest you guys who wanna do it to do it in lighter color. I wasn't doing it black btw Okan, i was trying to do it in a grey/gunmetal/anthracite color. Grey is what i call it, gunmetal is what forum member Rabbit call it, and anthracite is what Hartmann call it as I saw on their website. Anyway, I told the powder coater to do it in gunmetal and picked a color on their color cards, but I still feel it too dark right now. So when you pick a color from coater, pick lighter color and they'll look like darker mounted.

Besides, the pictures of mounted wheels above dont do the justice, since they were taken in a parking garage and it was pretty dark. Even so, the wheels look darker than I like in sunlight. It's been raining this weekend, I'll see if I can get some sunny shiny pictures tomorrow or Monday.

[csaudis4]

If anyone wanted the picture

[csaudis4]

Now I like the silver better, what a tragedy...

[Okan509]

I definitely thought they were black, sorry for the comment.

I would have also preferred a lighter color. The wheels seem to look a little smaller now too from the color. I bet a lot of people will like how it came out, I still prefer a true gunmetal or hyper silver/brushed aluminum.

props to you giving it a try. color cards are always hard to get right IMO

[csaudis4]

Definitely, screw those little shiny cards... THose color on my wheel ARE NOT freaking gunmetal!!!!!! The more I look at the pics, the more I realize it. I was deceived!!!!!!!

But there's no way back you know, unless someone would like to trade me with 20' RS6 rep or something like that ;D Might be going to classified and see if I got any luck...

[Okan509]

Definitely, screw those little shiny cards... THose color on my wheel ARE NOT freaking gunmetal!!!!!! The more I look at the pics, the more I realize it. I was deceived!!!!!!!

But there's no way back you know, unless someone would like to trade me with 20' RS6 rep or something like that ;D Might be going to classified and see if I got any luck...

I'm sure someone prefers this look over stock, maybe you can just trade someone with the stockers and have them pay for shipping or meet you! Not a bad thought at all if you really hate the look

[csaudis4]

So I guess this most will make my previous post look funny :D After a wash today, I like the wheels much better now, haha

Let me get some final pics for this thread and im outta here, good luck guys, who are going to do this in the future ;)

[Chestlock]

The best thing about a white car is that it'll work with any color IMO. Personally I like lighter colors, but I think that would look pretty sweet with a black grill and rear valence!

[Un1k]

T_______T

haha, where are you from? just curious cuz of that 'crying' face. I'm korean by the way.

IMHO, really dark rims like that (almost black) looks good when you have a very distictive theme. Like rabbit's car, if you match that color with black grille, black side mirrors, and so forth, I bet it'll look much nicer.

I don't know what color rims Okan likes (altho, I think I remember him liking silver, like me), but I love silver on almost all cars, especially our S4s since it matches our mirrors.
But my mind always likes to go back and forth, so I really want a black and white theme sometimes haha
but too much work putting it all together and making it look real good. Plus, nothing looks better compared to real clean hyper silver rims! Oh so clean-

good work on the car, I'm sure it'll grow on you (or it already did) just like the oem 19' rims grew on me (really HATED it at first)

[csaudis4]

^ Yes yes yes, one important reason i decided to go dark on the rims was that I got so sick of clean those wheels, they do look better to me, even right now, but my car will be 70% time dirty in the future when it gets old and im not babying it so much... Still, the reason i like it much more today is because they were clean and shiny.. What's more, black grill on the way, and I've also found a good buyer for my OEM grill, which are sweet. So i'll basically duplicate another "My Ibis White" like Rabbit's... The only thing I cannot do right now is the side mirrors: firstly a pain to take off, secondly a pain to paint them ($250 quoted by local painters). So gotta put off the mirror black out... But Chestlock, what about valence black out? Got any pic or thread link?

Im Chinese in that matter, so i guess that kind of upright face expression is more popular in Asia while people here tend to use face expressions like ";)" so you'll have to turn your head 90 degree haha.

[Chestlock]

^ Yes yes yes, one important reason i decided to go dark on the rims was that I got so sick of clean those wheels, they do look better to me, even right now, but my car will be 70% time dirty in the future when it gets old and im not babying it so much... Still, the reason i like it much more today is because they were clean and shiny.. What's more, black grill on the way, and I've also found a good buyer for my OEM grill, which are sweet. So i'll basically duplicate another "My Ibis White" like Rabbit's... The only thing I cannot do right now is the side mirrors: firstly a pain to take off, secondly a pain to paint them ($250 quoted by local painters). So gotta put off the mirror black out... But Chestlock, what about valence black out? Got any pic or thread link?

Im Chinese in that matter, so i guess that kind of upright face expression is more popular in Asia while people here tend to use face expressions like ";)" so you'll have to turn your head 90 degree haha.

Only link I have for the rear valence is from OSIR - it's carbon fibre, but I don't see why you couldn't paint your OE if you wanted to, for a more polished finished. And although it's for the A4, I think it'll fit the S4 as it's for the quad-tip look. http://www.osirusa.com/mm5/merchant....ry_Code=A4B8EB Best to confirm fitments with them first, but this is what it would look like. Lots of nice pics there.

You can also do the front chin spoiler! Nice work on ordering the black grill. That'll look awesome. I was gonna order white too, but I chickened out at the last minute and went with Quartz. Still thinking about Ibis, but oh well, it's too late now. I wish I could afford two S4s T___T

[Un1k]

^ Yes yes yes, one important reason i decided to go dark on the rims was that I got so sick of clean those wheels, they do look better to me, even right now, but my car will be 70% time dirty in the future when it gets old and im not babying it so much... Still, the reason i like it much more today is because they were clean and shiny.. What's more, black grill on the way, and I've also found a good buyer for my OEM grill, which are sweet. So i'll basically duplicate another "My Ibis White" like Rabbit's... The only thing I cannot do right now is the side mirrors: firstly a pain to take off, secondly a pain to paint them ($250 quoted by local painters). So gotta put off the mirror black out... But Chestlock, what about valence black out? Got any pic or thread link?

Im Chinese in that matter, so i guess that kind of upright face expression is more popular in Asia while people here tend to use face expressions like ";)" so you'll have to turn your head 90 degree haha.

I think you can vinyl the side mirrors if you wanted to. cheaper and reversible!

[Chestlock]

I think you can vinyl the side mirrors if you wanted to. cheaper and reversible!

Reversible is good - you might not like the panda look with black mirrors - kinda got that inpression with Rabbit's rig (which is pretty slick except for the mirrors IMO)

[csaudis4]

Don't.



I may have gone with grey if I saw this picture prior to buying the car. I think it's almost the same good looking as ibis white.

[csaudis4]

I think you can vinyl the side mirrors if you wanted to. cheaper and reversible!

I went to two vinyl shops man, and one of them said: hey I can't do this, it's too hard, why don't you go to xxxx's and their address is xxxxx. Then I went to xxxx's, and the guy said, I'm not gonna lie to you, I can do it, but it's gonna look wacky, so why don't you just paint it professionally?

Sigh...

[Chestlock]

Definitely a toss-up. Both colors are amazing.

Not exactly cheap, but you could always order a second set of mirror caps....

[Un1k]

Definitely a toss-up. Both colors are amazing.

Not exactly cheap, but you could always order a second set of mirror caps....

Yes, OSIR has carbon mirrors. But they only have b8 a4 as of now. I have e-mailed them but they just said they are working on it, which was no help at all.

as for that color, I saw it for the first time on a b8 a4 and it definately looked very good...
but I can't really see myself going with other than the classic white, unless the car i'm buying is a second car or a supercar haha

I've also seen a red b8 a4 a while ago, and that looked stunning as well... I'm starting to think it's the S4, not the color :)

[csaudis4]

Yes, but actually I think both black and white got serious problem with swirls and hazes, mine got some amount of swirls on the trunk area... Hate to polish myself..

[csaudis4]

Definitely a toss-up. Both colors are amazing.

Not exactly cheap, but you could always order a second set of mirror caps....

If there's anyone I can get just black cap? I found couple of aluminum ones on ebay.de, but it's pointless to me, as I'd still need to spend 250+ to paint them locally ;( If there's some cheap alternatives to just get black ones straight forward...

I like Osir, but I would hesitate on getting CF ones. Do you guys think it'll fit white / black trim with all those little CF grids on it?

[Okan509]

How would vinyl wrapping them look wacky? They vinyl wrap entire cars?!?!?!?! I don't see how mirror caps would be a feat for them

[csaudis4]

idk, but I didn't end up having them do it, cuz i don't think anyone is gonna lie to me saying they are bad....