To paint or powdercoat wheels?

[Mitsu90GSX]

After UPS F'd up my 97-99 GSX wheels that i had just bought, its now up to me to get them refinished since the $300 they're giving me wont buy new ones. The plan was to eventually get them painted or powdercoated black w/ a polished lip. I was gonna wait a while to do that, but now 2 of em need refinished so i think i'm just gonna do it now. Should i get them powdercoated or painted? Which is cheaper? which will look better? Thanks
-Ryan

 

[splattj]

Fix 'em up and pocket the cash! Or buy some kick*** tires.
http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/wheel-repair/wheel-scuff-repair.htm

 

[LRS95TSI]

paint those mofo's. i paint my stock swirlies. go to my profile and take a look. if u take ur time, primer them, sand and sand and oh did i say sand!. then clear coat em, they will look awesome. tape around for the polished lip, and use an exacto knife to make clean edges

 

[Lunch_Box]

Powder coating is a lot stronger then paint so I would go with powder coating.

 

[goalieman24]

I agree with LunchBox, might as well powder coat them since you got some money from UPS. Mine are just painted and turned out pretty good, but they chip pretty easily so i have to touch them up every so often. check my gallery to see them

 

[Screamin Eagle]

I would powdercoat them. Paint does chip and flake off. Powder coat is much stronger and is electrostaticly bonded to the rim.

 

[devlish]

definetely powder coat. i painted my friends rims a few years ago, did the whole sand down to bare metal, and used all PPG primer & paint & clear, and it still had little chips within a year or so. i'd try powdercoating them if you plan on them being your good rims and keeping them for a while.

but if you want a cheap fix and pocket the cash, get some gloss black spray paint and spend the $$ on some good tires, and make them your race rims.

 

[Mitsu90GSX]

Thanks guys
next question, what do i use to strip them down? not sure if they're painted or powdercoated from the factory, but i wanna do a polished lip and its already painted/coated. I was just gonna strip em down, polish the lip and send em to get powdercoated...any advice?

 

[AdoreGSX]

go to the autoparts store and buy some aircraft stripper. Its in the spraypaint section and will do the job just fine. Make sure to get all of it off of the wheel before painting though

 

[WatchItExplode]

If you get them powdercoated, make sure the place doing it uses the proper low-temp process required for doing aluminum alloy. Otherwise the metal will become brittle and could break.

 

[Mitsu90GSX]

wasn't aware of the low temp process, thanks a lot
-ryan