What shade/shine of black?

I am getting a set of stock bbs's powder coated and i am going to go black, but i cant decide what shade/glossiness to get. Btw, they are going on a white 06 sti.

 

I seem to remember someone mentioning that flat black powder coating doesn't work out too well. I'm voting for satin/semi-gloss.

Stuart.

 

JAVA BLACK PEARL!!! Make it have a gold shine when light hits it.

 

2 things.

1. I wouldn't use flat powdercoat because it has the tendency to get chalky from UV. Maybe there is a better product out recently but the last I heard there wasn't.

2. I wouldn't powdercoat a forged wheel. You approach the annealing temperature of the aluminum which defeats the purpose of the forging process. This is why I am going through the hassle of painting mine.

 

I'm concerned about that too but can't you give the p'coater direction on temps - i.e. longer, lower heat

 

There are powders available that require less time and heat. In my experience, not all local PCers use them or are familiar with them. I have a spreadsheet I threw together of local PCing businesses with contact info, facility specs, preferred process, etc... if yr interested.

Semi-gloss! (edit... satin)

Gloss black just doesn't look right to me unless there's some contrast... like a red lip.

 

I was told by a powdercoater that the flat black will flake off.

 

Powder coat FTL on bbs. After talking to a couple a PCers about doing this same thing, NOT A GOOD IDEA!!! Hyper black FTW!!!

 

There's a couple insane pics of bbs rims failing after power coating. I've got a extra set of gold bbs rims that are going to get painted for that very reason. A rim failure going in to T1 at BIR would suck!

 

i disagree if you heat it correctly and cool it quickly it has the same effect as forging. it makes the metal stronger if done correctly.

 

I personally wouldn't leave solution heat treatment and age hardening to a powder coater...

Also, this assumes that the BBS alloy is heat treatable to begin with. And it requires detailed process controls.

I'd also question whether a heat treated aluminum (if done properly) is stronger than a forged aluminum (I don't know).

-Chad

 

I am keeping my stock sti rims for racing, i bought idget's rims and those are the ones that are getting powder coated and will be just used for daily driving.

I decided to go with satin black, which is like 8% gloss and flat is 4-5%

I'll post pics as soon as they are done and on.