DIY Powder Coating
For my R6 build I decided to powder coat (pc) my rims gold. I chose powder coating over normal paint because of its excellent resistance to wear and relative easiness of achieving a good finish. There is some draw back with it though such as: complacently tearing down the rims and the need for an oven. You can get a cheap pc gun online, from what I've seen a lot of people go with the Eastwood HotCoat system. As for the powder you can go with Eastwood's as well especially if your buying the gun from them to save yourself some money on shipping but there is a multitude of other vendors that offer almost every color possible at much better prices. I personally got my powder from PowderBuyThePound since they have pretty good prices. You will also need an oven to cure the powder. If your coating small parts you can get away with a toaster oven but for bigger pieces an old kitchen oven is a good idea. I never pc'ed anything using a gas oven but I've heard of people doing it, I stick to electric ovens since there is no need for a gas line in your garage with them and there is less of a risk for any fumes to ignite. After you cure the parts in your oven you can not use it for food anymore so the one in the kitchen is out of the question.
Once you got all the supplies its time to prep your parts. With the rims that I coated the first step was to get the tires off. Next I removed the rotors and sprocket. You will also want to remove the bearings and any studs that might be left. With the bearing I didn't have a blind bearing puller which the manual recommends but I still got them out. What you do is position the rim with the bearing facing downward so that it can fall out. Next take a propane torch and heat up the rim around the bearing so it expands and the bearing falls out. You want to heat it up evenly and keep the flame away from the bearing. This worked perfectly for me on my aluminum rims. I haven't tried it with steel wheels so you might need a puller for those since the bearing and the rim will expand at the same rate. If the bearing doesn't want to fall out you can give it a gentle tap from the top just to nudge it out. If you have any studs left in the rim (mine had studs for the sprocket) you'll want to get those out as well. There is a special socket for removing studs but if you don't have it you can just do what I did. Take two nuts and thread them on the stud. Next tighten them together so they hold the stud tight and it should come right off. Most of the time there is thread locker on the studs or they corrode with the aluminium so using some rust penetrant and heat from the torch will make it much easier to pull out. Next remove any wheel weights and valve stems so your left with the bare rim.
Once you got all the supplies its time to prep your parts. With the rims that I coated the first step was to get the tires off. Next I removed the rotors and sprocket. You will also want to remove the bearings and any studs that might be left. With the bearing I didn't have a blind bearing puller which the manual recommends but I still got them out. What you do is position the rim with the bearing facing downward so that it can fall out. Next take a propane torch and heat up the rim around the bearing so it expands and the bearing falls out. You want to heat it up evenly and keep the flame away from the bearing. This worked perfectly for me on my aluminum rims. I haven't tried it with steel wheels so you might need a puller for those since the bearing and the rim will expand at the same rate. If the bearing doesn't want to fall out you can give it a gentle tap from the top just to nudge it out. If you have any studs left in the rim (mine had studs for the sprocket) you'll want to get those out as well. There is a special socket for removing studs but if you don't have it you can just do what I did. Take two nuts and thread them on the stud. Next tighten them together so they hold the stud tight and it should come right off. Most of the time there is thread locker on the studs or they corrode with the aluminium so using some rust penetrant and heat from the torch will make it much easier to pull out. Next remove any wheel weights and valve stems so your left with the bare rim.
Now your parts are ready to be cleaned. For my rims I'm going to use a sandblaster to get the old pc off but you can use any other means available. Anything from sand paper to chemical strippers will work, as long as you get to bare metal at the end of the process.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TO BE CONTINUED...