I've got a spare set of wheels that need repainting. Powder coating seems to have a bad press at the moment. Is there a way of hand painting wheels that can produce a good and lasting finish?

 

I worked in an alloy wheel factory about 20 years ago, a lot of the wheels (OEM) were powder primed, then wet coat in silver, then clear coated. The clear coat was powder too, so unsure of what the bad press of powdercoating is... I can't see any reason why you couldn't use a wet coat of silver, then a good wet clear coat tho...

 

Apparently some powder coating processes heat the alloy excessively and weaken the metal. Also retaining nuts have been known to unwind on powder coated wheels. I thought hand painting, if it works, would be a possible alternative.

 

I was doing some reading in to aluminium welding in general and seen something along the lines of the metal being affected at the time of heating but it returns to normal after a short time, maybe a week. Can't remember the name it was given, I'll try to find it again and post a link.

 

If you're intending on doing them yourself, youtube is a good research tool, technique wise.

Also consider plastidip which isn't quite 'by hand' but finish is even and if you ***** it up it's easily rectified.