Powdercoating Rims

So I have been secretly yearning to powder coat my rims white ever since I got the bike in May. Not trying to copy the work of others here on the forum at all, please take this as the ultimate form of flattery. I've always liked the white rims on the RC30 and my 3rd gen VFR even though they do require detailing to keep them purty.

Yesterday I received a gift from a colleague! It was a gift certificate for powder coating at a local provider. Holly ^&^&%& I was thrilled to say the least. So I called them up to see what it was going to cost. The fella was quite nice on the phone, explaining that they will take care of the blasting and prep work as well as the white powder coating for $80 per rim. I just have to take the tires off, remove the bearings, valve stems etc and they will do the rest.

So I ask the forum members, is this a reasonable price? Are there any other considerations I should know about?

 

That is a very fair price and the only thing to really consider is what bearings to install, what kind if tires to put back on and what style valve stems you want. I always repalce the stems with metal in chrome.......ain't gonna touch the othe two subjects.

 

My tires are at 90% so I will be reinstalling them for sure and I have a nice set of 90 deg valve stems so that is a no brainer. Probably just put a set of OEM bearings in with new seals.

I have till December 31 to use the gift certificate so this will likely be an October project.

Thanks for the validation that the price is reasonable! I figured it was but it never hurts to ask the forum.

 

Yes, that is a decent price. Go for it.

 

$80.00 per rim is a great price especially in Canada

 

Hey Jethro

Yes I would say that $80.00 is a good price to get the rims done. I traded repairing a dent in a guys truck for him to get the rims on my bike powder coated so I guess it was $85 for both, but both parties were happy so that is what counts. One thing the guy who powder coated my rims mentioned (since he has done quite a few motorcycle wheels) was that I should be sure to clean the powder coat off of the mounting surfaces for the rear wheel, and off the mounting surface for the brake calipers on the front wheel. He mentioned that it can be cleaned off with some sand paper, just to make sure that the discs especially sit flush. Go at the disc mount surfaces slowly he said, so as to remove only the powder coat and not the wheel surface. Another thing he suggested was to leave the caliper bolts on the front wheel in the holes to prevent getting any powder coat in the threads, and I ordered new caliper mounting bolts from my local dealer. The bolts were about $20 for all of them. You will also have to remove the wheel bearings and dust seals from the front wheel.

I have a wheel repair shop right next door to where I work and he put the wheel on his CNC lathe and turned the wheels for me in order to remove just the powder coat. He set the machine to just barely touch the wheels at first and then made a few subsequent passes to make sure he only removed the powder coat on the brake caliper mounting surfaces. The nice thing about having the wheels turned on the lathe was that it made sure the rear wheel surface was perfectly flat and true and it also made sure that the front disc mounting surfaces were true and flat. I had a small bit of a wobble in one of my front discs because the PO had taken the wheels off and repainted them himself and then put the discs back on, over top of his less than stellar paint job. After the powder coat and lathe, the wobble in the disc is now completely gone. The shop owner charged me $35 to turn the wheels. I don't know if you have a wheel repair place near you that can turn the wheels, but if you're not sure, ask a local car dealership who repairs their scuffed wheels for them.

Another thing to watch out for is if you change the valve stems out for metal or just new rubber ones, make sure that the valve stem on the rear wheel is a short one (measure the height of the stock one first to make sure of the length). I had a local custom motorcycle shop that specializes in tire installs on chrome wheels (didn't to risk damaging the new powder coat) on custom cruisers and they installed a new rubber valve stem that was too long. The rear tire kept going flat so the tire shop re-checked the wheel twice to make sure that the beads had seated on the rims properly and were not leaking, then I would take the wheel back home, put it on the bike and go for a ride. I kept wondering why my tire kept going flat on me on the short ride to work (less than 8 km's one way), until I finally noticed the top of the valve stem cap had worn completely off. Every time the wheel rotated, the valve stem contacted the edge of the rear caliper and a little air leaked out. The valve stem should be no more than about 1" high to the top of the cap. That was a very frustrating experience let me tell you.

 

Just happened to think: while you've got the rims stripped down, it would be a good time to replace the stock valve stems with angled stems. Either the chrome ones or the aluminum ones. Either way makes life a lot easier when it comes to checking tire pressure.

 

It sounds fair. When I had the rims on my 500 done 8 years ago, I paid $225 for the pair. Then I had the rims on my 800 done 3 years ago and that only ran me $100 for the pair. I think the price boiled down to how work each shop had at the time.

As far as being worried about copying people, the RWB was meant to have white rims. It is a sin that Honda let the '07 leave the factory with the black. Once you get a routine down for cleaning them, it goes pretty quick and the results are well worth the effort. Post up some pictures when they're done.

 

I would see if roller bearings would be more feasible. Seem to last longer, IMO.

 

I have a new set of Koyo rollers that are sealed on both sides. The PN is KOYO 62042RSC3.

I will still install the dust shields but they will be redundant.

This will be a nice little project! I have the new steering stem, the tapered rollers for that, a new upper fairing stay, new brakes and hopefully a fresh white rim to install.

 

If powdercoating the wheels is a gifted deal, why the concern over the cost? Maybe to see if the "gifter" is a cheap SOB or a real dood eh?

 

When I had my rims powdercoated last winter, I had them powdercoat my aluminum valve stems the same color. Just a thought.

 

I just had this done earlier this week here in the U.S. (Atlanta, GA) and think I got an excellent deal. I paid $140 U.S. for both wheels to be media-blasted and powdercoated in standard "sky white" color. I just put the new bearings in and will be mounting them onto my RWB 6th Gen this weekend. I am stoked about finally putting a white 8 spoke wheel on my 07.

Rollin

 

Pic's or it did not happen..... hoto: