Gallery, Projects and General > The Design Shop

Looking for advice on painting / staining aluminum wheels

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Arbalist:
I've not found wipe on chemical blacking for aluminium works very well.

Doc:
I purchased the powder coat system Harbor Freight sells and I am very happy with it. Powder coating parts the paint is way more durable then just painting them. I would like to get a set up for anodize but just don't have the room to do that properly so I have been powder coating instead.
  And by the way nice looking project you have going there!

TLGriff:
Anodizing will quickly fade on wheels because it has poor UV resistance and it is also a very thin coating (less than .001"). Paints don't adhere well to aluminum at all and have poor chip resistance. Powder coating on the other hand is often used for chassis applications because of its impact resistance and would be the best choice for wheels, although they would still need to be sand blasted first for the best adhesion.

Tom

Doc:
Sand blasting or grit blasting is the only way to go if you powder coat and if you paint you either want to acid etch or grit blast or the paint will not adhere to the aluminum very well at all. I grit blast all the parts I powder coat. If you powder coat you will need an oven to cure parts also.
   I use a toaster oven I found one at Walmart that was a good size for doing all my small model parts and it was cheep.

Bangkok Mick:

--- Quote from: Stilldrillin on January 18, 2014, 08:51:00 AM ---Mick.
I'm thinking chemical gun blue, might be worth a try.......  :thumbup:

David D

--- End quote ---

Thanks for all the feed back, Would iodizing not just change the colour and highlight that it is made from aluminum. The effect I am really looking for is to have them looking like steel as would be used on a real steam tractor.

Would chemical bluing do this?

Cheers Mick

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