HHR SS Topics and information on the 2008-2010 Chevy HHR SS Turbocharged models.

Stock SS wheels: aluminum or steel?

Old Oct 11, 2008 | 11:37 PM
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damronjr's Avatar
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Stock SS wheels: aluminum or steel?

Yeah, so I was on another local car forum and was talking about powder-coating my SS wheels, and something came up about it, some of the members were saying if you try to powder-coat aluminum wheels it could possibly mess them up from the heat. They said you should only powder-coast steel, aluminum should be anodized. Any input on this, and what are our wheels? I assume polished aluminum, but I want to make sure!
Old Oct 11, 2008 | 11:44 PM
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They are aluminum, but I believe that is not a problem, unless they are gonna powder coat them with molten gold or something.
There are many powder companies advertising PC for alloy wheels, many factory ones are too.
Old Oct 12, 2008 | 12:17 AM
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powder coating temp are like 350f so not extremely hot and for a short period of time. so almost all metal parts can be powder coated
Old Oct 12, 2008 | 01:07 AM
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Originally Posted by damronjr
Yeah, so I was on another local car forum and was talking about powder-coating my SS wheels, and something came up about it, some of the members were saying if you try to powder-coat aluminum wheels it could possibly mess them up from the heat. They said you should only powder-coast steel, aluminum should be anodized. Any input on this, and what are our wheels? I assume polished aluminum, but I want to make sure!
Call a powdercoater to be sure. Aluminum is heat-treated at temps higher than powder calls for. Should be no problem coating them. Anodizing would be really cool, but expensive. Black anodizing would be the only solid color, as all others would show as semi-transparent. Your SS wheels are forged aluminum.
Old Oct 12, 2008 | 01:10 AM
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Thanks for the replies, guys, I will make sure everything is cool before I go through with it!
Old Oct 12, 2008 | 09:00 AM
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they are going to look sweet when you powder coat them.
Old Oct 12, 2008 | 09:14 AM
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As said already, they do offer PC for stock alloy/aluminum wheels. Just find you a PC place locally and give em a call. I have a friend down here who i would recommend you to, but your a good bit away. lol. Good Luck with it, It should look great when done.
Old Oct 12, 2008 | 10:45 AM
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Originally Posted by jeffs396
Call a powdercoater to be sure. Aluminum is heat-treated at temps higher than powder calls for. Should be no problem coating them. Anodizing would be really cool, but expensive. Black anodizing would be the only solid color, as all others would show as semi-transparent. Your SS wheels are forged aluminum.

Well it's good to know that they are forged. Do you have any idea how much they weigh? You seem to know your stuff.
Old Oct 12, 2008 | 11:44 AM
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here's a quoted passage from a different forum i'm on (actually he's a member on 2 or 3 other forums i'm on haha), a guy who really knows his stuff and i were discussing powdercoating.

Yeah, even at the "low" temps they cure the powder at, the crystalline structure of the aluminum changes (expands). If not cooled properly (slowly and in stages), then the structure can't re-align properly and you get pockets of, well, ****ed up structure. These points are very brittle and can fail when loaded.

As usual YMMV, but there is no shortage of failed powdercoated aluminum rims out there. And FWIW, Aerospace aluminum components are never powdercoated.
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