The local powdercoat shop has never powdered anything in bronze
Anyone ever done parts in bronze? It would be helpfull to have an pic of how it looks on metal, and what the company and colour code is. We did one sample of a "bronze" and we all agreed it had a tinge of green too it. More like puke bronze...
Its harder to pick bronze out of paint chips than I would have thought!

Contact Mike Degli Angeli. He's a powdercoating maniac.

Yeah I was hoping to have him chime in. I actually bought my replacement GSX wheels of him. He offered to do it, But I couldnt have the other 2 off my car yet, and shipping is to expensive out there, and 2+ trips would have been a pain in the but.

Mike, Ive got two stock 16's you can have, they have some eagle RSA tires.. I'm on the way to his house

Bronze is kind of an odd colour to find in powder. It really hard to find a nice one. I’ve sourced some that looks really good and has a lot of depth to it. Not about to give out my suppliers for it as I had to buy a far bit of it to get the colour and the leg work behind the finding the colour. It’s a little pricy too. Did a set of rims that colour a couple months ago. I’ll have to see if I took pictures?? I’m really bad for that.

Come on, Hamilton isn't that far!! I did that drive 3 times week after working a 9hr day to go to night school for 2 years! 110km from pickering to McMaster. My record time is 54min in a 60hp Diesel Golf, door to door.

Prepare to pay a little extra for bronze once he finds the colour. It a metallic colour.

Brian, if Mike doesn’t want them, I’ll take them His are stock gsx rims so they don’t match. I’ve slowly been gathering cheap rims to do individual colours to hang on my wall for display. I already have 12 1g rims done, got a couple 2g rims to do also. They’ll have to wait I have about 20rims to do in the next 10 days or so!!!

Mike Degli, is that worth a trip to my house for? . I can get the tires taken off as well..
Ive also got three of these..

the other will be available soon, my friend had to drive to Windsor on it so its out there for a while..
Come take em all

Thanks Brian but like I said, I have all 4 of my GSX ones now. Mike If you could show a pic of that color somehow thatd be amazing! Would I be able to buy it off you if I want it?

Are you powdercoating your stock rims?

Yessir! Not doing the whole rim, trying to save money. If I can find the bronze Im just doing the lip and duplicolouring the center black. If I cant find bronze it also occurred to me to powder the center black and paint the lip. Im not shure what makes more sense yet, as to what should be powdered and will take more abuse.

The center takes most of the abuse from rocks flying up from the road.
If you hit a pot-hole, the rubber should pretty well protect the lip and again it is the center that takes the abuse.

The lip takes the abuse if you are a crap driver hitting curbs and such. In that case, you might as well have a painted lip since the powder isn't going to hold up any better with that sort of impact

In other words, don't cheap out. Or, cheap all the way out!
Paint doesn't last very long on rims.

Hmm yeah you made me think harder about what I was thinking. I think I ll just powder the center black. The duplicolor is said to be tough $h!t though, even the powdercoater agreed on that. If I just get their bronze I think it should turn out good. Ive read on the duplicolor and alot of people have had it a long time and it held up very well.

Mike, you either do it all or nothing if your powder coating it. Any paint thats on there before it goes into the curing oven will be a bubbly mess when it comes out.

I can do just the center for you and the leave the rest untouched but i can't guarantee what the rest of the rim will look like when i bring it back to you. It wont be pretty. you'll be sanding and painting for sure.

Do it once, do it right. Remember a powder coated rim is WAY MORE resistant to scrathces then the brand new rim you buy that is just enamel paint on it.

Mike, I will paint the lip AFTER its powdered

I'm the furthest thing from a powdercoating expert, but I have gotten a few parts powdercoated before.

To my understanding, doesn't the part in question need to be sandblasted in order to allow the powder to adhere and bake on properly?

So if you just want to powdercoat the center, isn't the lip going to get blasted as well, thus making it's surface rough. So after you paint the lip with spray paint, it's still going to be rough and might not look to great...

Yeah that's what Mike said.
Good luck keeping the powdercoat nice while preparing and painting the lip.

I can blast only the portion that somebody wants done. For example if they had a polished lip, I can leave that untouched while blasting if somebody wants that done by masking the surface and then apply powder to only the blasted portion. I need to mask everything in order to accomplish this which is labour intensive but a lot of guy want their polished lip.

In Mike’s case, he want the centers done so I would blast the center and coat the center leaving the rest untouched. In the oven it goes and when it comes out it will be a mess. Have fun cleaning that up without removing the center.

If the guy blasts the whole thing then why bother with paint since 80% of the work is done already. Just get him to do the whole thing and then paint over the powder if you want a 2 tone or dish out the money for a 2 tone powder coat job.

Like any paint process 80% of the work is in the prep.

Its definitely worth a trip for them. Trade you the jack stands for them?

Usually in the area a couple times a month. I think me and my buddy will be there early next week with his truck getting some other stuff we can stop by your place and we can get it them then. When can you get the 4th?

I went by there today and figured some stuff out. Im sorry I am not doing business with you Mike, I am all for supporting vendors on the board. But honestly when you have a powdering shop under 5 minutes away, who wins that one ?
Anyways Im obviously leaving the part under the tire alone. However I am now getting the rest of the rim done front and back. Its going to be mercedes black, and they are doing all 4 for 300 cash. Now what kind of prep will the lip need? Just a light scuffing before paint? Should I prime it too still? Im shure painting over powder is a rare occurance haha.

Mike, no worries. Post pictures, i'd like to see the results.

Scuff with like 400grit and go to town with your paint. Multiple thin coats and it will turn out real nice. No primer needed.

Thanks for the advice Mike. I might still use some white primer if I have to use duplicolor bronze. That stuff is rather dark so it d be good to try and get it lighter rather than a put it on black base. Its just as hard to find bronze/gold paint lol!
I ll take pics full black and with bronze lip for shure when its done. Tires wont be on full black obviously though.
As soon as all the half done work is done on the car new pics will be posted!

I posted pics in the what Ive done to my car thread if you guys still want to see them.

Good job on the rims man....looks excellent!