Does anyone know what it usually costs to redo the centers of a 3 peice wheel in a different finish?

 

I was gonna have my paint guy just paint the centers of my HRE's black and I was gonna polish the lip, then clear everything. He said he had to take them apart to do it. So I posted here on the 6, to get some input and got an a$$whippin. HRE recommended sending them back to them and you know what that cost. So suffice to say, I still have all aluminum wheels unpolished and unpainted and unpowdercoated. Many threads here on painting and powdercoating wheels. Bummed me out...

 

damn lol ,

 

I have a local guy here who is powdercoating my rims for $125 each which is a little less than the average asking price of $150-$200. With $125, I have to take off the tires and breakdown the rims before delivering them to him - unscrewing 120 bolts are not fun. This is his part-time job and he works full-time at a wheel shop.

 

Be VERY careful!!! When I bought my HRE's. I had every intention of powdercoating my spokes and polishing the lip too. If they bake the wheels at the wrong temp (hotter or colder) it can take the temper out of the wheel and weaken it and possibly crack it. If you disassemble them and don't torque all the bolts exactly the same in a certain sequence, you can crack them. Many posted here with horror stories of cracked or broken wheels. HRE recommended I send the wheels back to them in which they would disassemble wheel, powdercoat spoke/polish lip and reassemble with new hardware. It was more than I wanted to spend so I didn't do it. Do a search here for this...

Here is my thread:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-question.html

 

TT boost , someone told me that when you take the wheels apart , it breaks a seal and then they make leak when putting them back together is that true ? sounds kind of odd to me ....

 

Thanks for the heads up! When you said new hardware? What does that mean? The bolts are nothing being powdercoated. I am aware off the temperature issue. Thanks again....

TC

 

I didn't hear that, but HRE was adamant that anyone just taking them apart would NOT be a good idea. They claim issies with balance, tightening torque tweaking the rim making it prone to cracking. I don't think they would leak air as the bolts don't go through the rim where the air is. They bolt to a lip on the inside. I'll have to check when I get home later this weekend.

 

HRE made it out that they were a "one shot deal" and they recommend using new hardware (ie nuts and bolts). This was HRE, not sure what your wheels are?

 

The bolt and nut are $7 each and I have 120 of them so the total cost is $840 to replace them. Hence, it is why I am not powdercoating my bolts and nuts. I did ask the manufacturer at what torque they tightened the bolt so I know exactly what torque to tighten them. That was one of my major worry when I broke down the rims. If I don't torque the bolts correctly on all of them when I reassemble the rims. The rims will not be balance and will break or warp under load.

 

The bolts are inside the rim itself so they are not in touch with the tire and air.

 

Hmm... interesting im also talking about HRE , just seems weird that you can do that to any other 3 peice forged wheel , and they want you to send them in, could be a $$$ thing for them?

 

I would recommend powdercoating over paint in regards to durability. We charge our customers $75 per wheel/center. Send me a pm and I can work something out for you.

In regards to the seal, just make sure you let all the air out of your tires and there is no pressure on the bead ( tire ). To play it extra safe you can always dismount the tires and then you have no worries.

 

Wow! That is dirt cheap for $75 per wheel! I wish you are closer to me!!!

 

Right! I have a guy here that does powdercoating for around 75-80/wheel. To disassemble, powdercoat, polish the lip and reassemble with new hardware, HRE wanted $1500, not including shipping 4 wheels from coast to coast.