I purchased 4 new wheels from Wheel Vintiques and wanted them really nice so I paid them to power coat them for me.
After I received them I did not open or mount new tires on them for about a year.
When I mounted new tires and balanced them the power coat cracked where the lug nuts touched and coating popped off where the weights were attached. Also the coating was flaking where the bead sealed and had to be sanded and sealer installed to make the new tire hold air.
The rear rims seemed to work OK since they were different but the front Mustang wheels which were very bad. There was no priming and was applied over rust.
They listened to my story, bounced me from one department to another and then told me to get lost!
Don't ever use them for Power Coating!!!
TractormanBill

 

That stinks. Just to be clear, Bill, you ordered these with powder coating, correct?. That should have given you a tough, durable baked on paint finish.

 

Somehow, that does not look like powder coat to this non professional, untrained eye.

 

Hello tractormanbill,

Though I realize that nagging doesn't accomplish much...
I must say that this company used to house their warehouse a few towns over...
A few months ago I called them to obtain lug nuts for the wheels I purchased from them - but had CAPS powder coat, very reputable - and I learned that they no longer exist (here in town) and have moved to S. Cal somewhere but worse yet, Wheel Vintiques has no records whatsoever of selling me these. Mind you, I provided them their own invoice records... WTH?

Still searching for the nuts - sigh

Paul

 

While powder coating IS tough, I don't think that it will withstand the pressure/abrasion in the mating surface area between the lug nut and the wheel. I am sure that you have many powder coating vendors in the San Antonio area, I would take your wheels to them and get their expert opinion on your situation.

 

This was about 2012 and rear wheels were truck and front Mustang which were possible coated at a different time. Rear had no problem. I think I paid $40 each to WV for the coating.
You could get fingernail under coating and lift off like egg shell which was thick. I don't think it was anything but improper preparation on the metal.
Look at how the rust had formed under all the coating.
TractormanBIll

 

The drawback with ordinarie quality powdercoat it that If you get a small pin hole in the coating answere the moisture can get underneath the coating and start to rust the underlying metal with out it beeing visable from the outside. Especially If the powdercoat is a hard epoxy coating.

Just my ten cent.

 

OP- it may help and maybe it won't but when I've had problems with service or a product, I checked to see if the company had a Facebook page and posted nicely that I loved their business and their products but I have a problem. I usually got messaged back at best, within an hour and at worst, a day later.

These companies don't like to see issues posted on the internet and usually do their best to rectify. Hopefully- yours will be the same.

 

We have powder coated wheels we use on fire trucks/engines/etc. and have never had those problems.

 

These two wheels have been inside my shop their entire time with me with the exception of a circle or two around my parking lot in dry weather!
I told Wheel Vintiques I would be fairly happy with the return of the coating charge of $80 for the two wheels, I would blast them and paint them myself.
No Go from them!
In my opinion these were defective and they should have done something!
TractormanBill

 

Looks pretty shoddy from where I am sitting, Bill. I'd get up 'em.
Peter

 

I agree, my chinese lawn furniture has better PC

 

Sounds and looks like poor prep work prior to powder coating. I 've owned many of things PC over the years and never had that kind of problems. looking at the pic of the one with the lug nut where the center part of the wheel is mounted to the outer ring looks bad under paint...

 

Doesn't look like they blasted the wheels first.

We send big truck runs out all the time and get them blasted and powdercoat Blasting gives the plastic a good "bite" to the steel substrate

Rarely have a problem but they will knick if not careful. Lug holes usually are area prone to chipping but same problem with paint

 

I agree with Moe. Those wheels were not prepped properly. I have done some powder coating and if the parts are blasted and not coated right away the rust will start and you get what you have. That is classic poor prep but I can see how WV after 4 years doesn't want to do anything at the first level of customer service. I would write to their CEO with those pictures. Looks like you found their Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wheel...175427?fref=ts