Wheel powder coat confusion

[cencyc]

I have two sets of FJ/4Runner Trail Edition wheels, one set silver, the other gray, both stock colors. I want to get one set powder coated black, but after talking with one company, I am somewhat confused. The other company I checked on quoted $100/wheel without looking at one.

I took one of the gray ones to a local company (recommended by my Toyota mechanic), but they were very hesitant to take on the job. According to the owner, the gray color is paint/clear coat of unknown type, so they have no idea if they can be prepped properly and coated. They recommended another metal stripping shop get them prepped (if possible) and then they would try.

There are a lot of powder coated wheels out there, I have a hard time believing that these wheels would be such a problem (though they are not exactly common).

My mechanic says that the 'clear coat' issue makes no sense to him, but he admits that he has little experience with powder coating wheels.

Any advice is appreciated. And if anyone knows a good powder coating shop in the Denver area, I would also appreciate it.

 

[Unner]

I'm no expert in powder coating, but I believe they should sandblast them before coating them, therefore the paint and clearcoat shouldn't matter...

 

[BlackWorksInc]

I'm no expert in powder coating, but I believe they should sandblast them before coating them, therefore the paint and clearcoat shouldn't matter...

Yeah, not entirely sure what the issue is here since you usually sandblast things before powdercoating?

 

[Night_Wolf84]

I powder coat for a living. Powder coating can be expensive because of the trouble with the faraday cage effect that will happen on some wheels, but it's easily overcome with an experienced painter. The worst ones I've done so far are the wire wheels.
You must sandblast the old paint off to properly powder coat the wheels. Powder coat will NOT adhere to an already painted surface and depending on how thick it is, it won't adhere to an already powder coated surface either.

 

[coleb10]

He is not out of line with that price. My friend owns a local powder coating company and his charge for a 17 inch wheel is $85-$105. Its at the upper end of that range if the design of the wheel is intricate. I recommend choosing another powder coater that has more experience with wheels. A large part of the cost for shooting powder is the preparation of the surface. If the prep isn't done correctly you are wasting time and product.