Pictorial of how we powder coat centers of BS Street Lites
06-13-2010, 01:04 PM
#1
Pictorial of how we powder coat centers of BS Street Lites Had a request to black out the centers of these 17" street lites. I know you guys have seen a few sets I've done black with the red hand masked powder accent stripes, but this is something different. Powder chosen for this project is a matte/eggshell black, 0-10% on the gloss meter.
These are all just iPhone pics, snapped as I worked, but you'll get the idea.
Step one is to clean the wheel very well with acetone. Then using normal masking tape, carefully mask the lips of the wheels for media blasting. If these were a painted or powder coated wheel, we would have started by dropping them in our chemical strip tank, which takes the wheel down to bare metal gently and safely so they can then be blasted. However since these are bare polished aluminum, there was no need.
Step two is media blasting with our own custom media blend ran an a low PSI so as to be gentle on the alloy. Our blasting process has been field tested and proven to provide maximum adhesion and durability in powder coating applications. Everything not taped is blasted; front, backside, and inside of hoop.
Then the masking tape is pulled
Next step is to mask for high temp. Green polyester tape and tinfoil is used to carefully mask off the centers. The thread holes for the center caps are plugged with silicone plugs, as well as the lug holes. Most wheels don't require the lug holes to be plugged, but BS wheels have extremely tight tolerances and so we keep the holes clean on these to avoid problems getting the lugs back in.
We also mask the hub of all wheels we do(except steel, have to coat that). There is some debate on this among coaters, however we prefer the better safe than sorry approach. Powder is extremely flexible and will not crack and get out of the way when the wheel is torqued down, meaning it can push back against the torque of the lugs and caus them to loosen in some situations such as drag wheels utilizing long shank style lugs on stock length wheel studs.
Then comes the coating steps, parts of which need to be kept to ourselves in a trick masking job like this to get the right end result, sorry no pics of the process.
And then your final product. Blacked out center, polished lip remains. Center caps also cleaned, blasted, and coated in the same matte black. Other than the lips needing to be polished up to remove my finger prints and masking tape residue, they are ready to rock. As a sidenote, normally as standard procedure the entire barrel is coated where the tires sits..in this case that was not feasible due to the tinfoil coming down onto the barrels keeping the lips free of powder. Coating the barrels is mostly important in situations where the wheels will be used in all weather conditions, the coating will prevent mild corrosion which causes those annoying slow leaks by the tire bead. These wheels are going on a weekend warrior car that doesn't see poor weather, so we are were not concerned regardless.
There ya go, I've been trying to remember to take pics as I go of some of the more interesting things we do here every week, I can make more threads like this if there's interest.
Sean
These are all just iPhone pics, snapped as I worked, but you'll get the idea.
Step one is to clean the wheel very well with acetone. Then using normal masking tape, carefully mask the lips of the wheels for media blasting. If these were a painted or powder coated wheel, we would have started by dropping them in our chemical strip tank, which takes the wheel down to bare metal gently and safely so they can then be blasted. However since these are bare polished aluminum, there was no need.
Step two is media blasting with our own custom media blend ran an a low PSI so as to be gentle on the alloy. Our blasting process has been field tested and proven to provide maximum adhesion and durability in powder coating applications. Everything not taped is blasted; front, backside, and inside of hoop.
Then the masking tape is pulled
Next step is to mask for high temp. Green polyester tape and tinfoil is used to carefully mask off the centers. The thread holes for the center caps are plugged with silicone plugs, as well as the lug holes. Most wheels don't require the lug holes to be plugged, but BS wheels have extremely tight tolerances and so we keep the holes clean on these to avoid problems getting the lugs back in.
We also mask the hub of all wheels we do(except steel, have to coat that). There is some debate on this among coaters, however we prefer the better safe than sorry approach. Powder is extremely flexible and will not crack and get out of the way when the wheel is torqued down, meaning it can push back against the torque of the lugs and caus them to loosen in some situations such as drag wheels utilizing long shank style lugs on stock length wheel studs.
Then comes the coating steps, parts of which need to be kept to ourselves in a trick masking job like this to get the right end result, sorry no pics of the process.
And then your final product. Blacked out center, polished lip remains. Center caps also cleaned, blasted, and coated in the same matte black. Other than the lips needing to be polished up to remove my finger prints and masking tape residue, they are ready to rock. As a sidenote, normally as standard procedure the entire barrel is coated where the tires sits..in this case that was not feasible due to the tinfoil coming down onto the barrels keeping the lips free of powder. Coating the barrels is mostly important in situations where the wheels will be used in all weather conditions, the coating will prevent mild corrosion which causes those annoying slow leaks by the tire bead. These wheels are going on a weekend warrior car that doesn't see poor weather, so we are were not concerned regardless.
There ya go, I've been trying to remember to take pics as I go of some of the more interesting things we do here every week, I can make more threads like this if there's interest.
Sean
06-13-2010, 01:14 PM
#2
Here's another custom masking job on wheels from this week. Merecedes wheels. First chemically stripped to bare metal, then entire wheel blasted. Centers are done in a pearlescent graphite black, lips in a silver metallic. You can see from the final product where the line was masked by hand in order to two-tone the wheels. After two-toning was complete, the entire wheel was then coated with a super strength high gloss clear powder to add depth to both colors, fully blend the masking effect to the eye, and add significant durability. Sorry, iPhone pics again.
Customer was impressed to say the least
Customer was impressed to say the least
06-13-2010, 03:34 PM
#6
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ive been waiting a while to see someone to street lites like that (hopefully on a black camaro). i also, would like to see someone doing in black like that but leave the inserts chrome and also the cap. but would also like to see a black cap to see the difference. you could also fill in the inserts with another powdercoated color depending on the theme of the car. not a bad idea eh? maybe even match the powdercoat inserts with the lip and keep the rest black like in the pic.
it looks great btw
edit: btw, how much to do 4 rims? and can you do lugs?
it looks great btw
edit: btw, how much to do 4 rims? and can you do lugs?
06-13-2010, 04:05 PM
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You guys will powercoat just about anything right? And also, how well could you match a texture?
I want to buy a CHEAP procharger kit for my Harley but the primary cover and stuff is chrome, whereas my Harley is a Night Train so everything has a wrinkle black finish to it.
I want to buy a CHEAP procharger kit for my Harley but the primary cover and stuff is chrome, whereas my Harley is a Night Train so everything has a wrinkle black finish to it.
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06-13-2010, 09:24 PM
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NICE Work. Can you pm me an est. price on doin this. I'd like to do my BS similar to these, except leave the center, indented portion of the spokes polished aluminum.
thanks
thanks
06-14-2010, 03:55 PM
#18
Tires should be in by the end of the week. Nitto NT05's were on backorder but Discount Tire was able to locate a pair from another distributor. Car goes in for tuning (the hold-up) early July and should be finished on July 7th. Photo's will be taken that weekend 
.
.
06-14-2010, 06:22 PM
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AHHHH!!!! Your such a tease Sean. That's exactly what I want my Streetlites to look like. I'll be in touch with you over the winter to get mine done. I don't suppose you have any pics of what that setup would look like with billet center caps instead of black?
