<----Never said it was "harmless," just that we shouldn't jump the gun and assume that it was harmful. Obviously there are considerations to make when having wheels PC'd - but PC alone does NOT mean the strength of the wheels are compromised.

 

about buying PC'd wheels 2nd hand. Using a quality PC shop would mitigate much of the danger.

Again, just because a handful of people have bad experiences does not mean PC is automatically bad. I think the moral of the thread is that if you decide to PC your wheels, make sure you use a quality shop.

 

 

As far as I know aluminum gets softer after a heat treatment (like putting it in an oven to bake the powder)
Alu gets hard & strong and you'll create tension in the material with deformation, if you want to deform it even more you have to heat treat it to make it soft again.

Soft metals usually bend, not break.

 

The heat treatment done to 356, 6061, and other "heat-treatable" alloys INcreases hardness, and strength.

Overaged or softened 356 or 6061 may bend a lot more before breaking, but being much weaker they also develop fatigue cracks at much lower stress levels than alloys that have full heat-treated strength properties.

I'm sure it is possible to powder-coat aluminum wheels without degrading properties. But it is certainly possible to weaken wheels if the proper procedure for dealing with the alloy is not followed.

Long/short: You shouldn't just drop your wheels off with the powder-coater and hope for the best. You must be SURE that the procedures they use will not degrade the strength/fatigue properties of the aluminum alloy being coated.

 

I have some airplane stripper that Ill use to make sure its not just the coat that cracked.

 

Yep

 

f20kills Posted on Aug 22 2009, 10:07 PM

IOW: do you confirm the spoke cracked?
Is this bare alloy we're looking at?

 

I havent confirmed yet.
That pic the rim still has the powder coat on it.

 

Yup..its cracked