I am going to paint my wheel rims & brake calipers. The painter suggests that I "paint" them, but I've heart that "powder coating" is better.
Suggestions anyone?
(never mind the cost-difference)

 

powder coat

 

Powder coating is better

 

Try powder painting, or even paint coating.

 

powder coating will require FULL diassembly of the caliper, all hardware and parts will need to be removed.

For whats its really worth, just clean them well and use the G2 brush on 2 stage expoxy kits on ebay, its 37 bucks.

Done.

 

 

Who is doing the paint? A shop? Follow their recommendations.

 

Powder coat the wheel, as pc is more durable. But paint the caliper, since it's a major pita to take it apart for powder coating.

 

The painter that painted my Nismo fenders... He says painting the rims is better than powder-coating, even though since he can only paint (and not coat) sounds logical that he prefers it...

 

Hmmm..think you're right!

 

LOL i've never heard of a bodyshop giving that advice

 

either will chip/scratch if you curb it...good paint should be fine unless you are a horrible driver.
have had wheels painted before without any problems.

 

Two issues I've seen with wheels powder coated after the original manufacture:

1. A poor powder coater let the oven get too hot when coating an aluminum wheel and/or let the wheel stay in the over too long. That produced another precipitate aging cycle for the aluminum wheel and reduced its strength. The wheels cracked in service.

2. A multi-piece wheel had the centers re-powder coated which mistakenly included the area of the center under the fasteners. In race use the wheel got hot enough for the powder coating to soften just a bit and the wheel fasteners lost torque. The wheel came a part at speed and the car rolled.

I'm a big fan of paint.

 

Beta:

about your point #2.. was it the powdercoat material that softened and flaked off, or did that person who had the wheel refinish reuse the old fasteners and perhaps they were stretched from the first install.. was that new bolts? did they use any loctite?

 

The wheel as manufactured did not have any powder coating under the bolt heads. The wheel/car owner sent the wheels out to get coated a different color and assembled them himself. The wheel manufacturer and the wheel/car owner's lawyer did the failure investigation and both (surprisingly!) came to similar conclusions. The powder coater got sued but I don't know the outcome.

 

hmmm... that NEVER crossed my mind... you've got a strong point there...

 

the powder coaters dont have as many choices on color (around here anyway) my roommate painted a set of wheels 3 years ago and they still look like the say they came out you just have to prep them very well.