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Originally Posted by Jim@tirerack,Jul 28 2009, 10:49 AM
It doesn't matter if they are forged or not. We had some SSR wheels that a customer sent back because they all 4 broke. He did not tell us that he had them painted. When we sent the wheels back to SSR for testing they were significantly weaker than original.
Painted or Powder Coated? Why would painted wheels have this issue? Is it because the old finish was stripped (acid, media blast)?
My rim is cracked after ONE track day.
I bought some used RPF1s and just noticed I have one spoke cracked.
I didnt notice the rims had been powder coated silver till later when I could see the finish wasnt the same as my last set of RPF1s. The seller never said otherwise.
Sucks cause now I dont know what to do with the rims.
Lesson learned..be careful
Just because one set of powdercoated wheels has cracked does not mean this is an inherently unsafe means of changing the color of the stock wheels.
I've had powdercoated wheels on my S on the track with no problems (they've since been re-powdercoated, still no issues, with over 40K miles on them - cross-country, the Dragon, and driving through Manhattan on a regular basis).
The issue of wheels cracking after powdercoating could be more of a quality control issue with the place doing the coating more so than the fact that one is having wheels coated. This is similar to the crankwalk/ACT clutch debate - many of those who have developed crankwalk claim that the ACT clutch is responsible while negating that they are a proportionally small percentage of those who have ACT clutches. If there were 10 people with stock wheels that cracked after PC'ing, and there are >1000 of us with PC'd wheels, that's less than 1% cracked wheels. That's probably more indicative of poor process by the PC'er than the fallibility of PC'd wheels.
Pretty much all sand-cast, permanant mold cast, and forged wheels, the aluminum gets its strength properties from heat-treatment. Additional heating in a powder-coating process not tailored for heat-treated aluminum alloys can GREATLY degrade the wheel's strength and fatigue life.
Originally Posted by Neutered Sputniks,Aug 20 2009, 06:44 PM
All I'm going to add is this:
Just because one set of powdercoated wheels has cracked does not mean this is an inherently unsafe means of changing the color of the stock wheels.
I've had powdercoated wheels on my S on the track with no problems (they've since been re-powdercoated, still no issues, with over 40K miles on them - cross-country, the Dragon, and driving through Manhattan on a regular basis).
The issue of wheels cracking after powdercoating could be more of a quality control issue with the place doing the coating more so than the fact that one is having wheels coated. This is similar to the crankwalk/ACT clutch debate - many of those who have developed crankwalk claim that the ACT clutch is responsible while negating that they are a proportionally small percentage of those who have ACT clutches. If there were 10 people with stock wheels that cracked after PC'ing, and there are >1000 of us with PC'd wheels, that's less than 1% cracked wheels. That's probably more indicative of poor process by the PC'er than the fallibility of PC'd wheels.
Your logic is accurate, but the comparison between the need to powdercoat wheels and the need to run an upgraded clutch is not an apples to apples comparison. There is no real need to powdercoat wheels. You could just have them painted. People who run an upgraded clutch typically do so because they need to replace the oem clutch for either a FI or track application. Even though both have low rates of failure, one is more necessary than the other. Your comparison is kind of like saying "the death rate from having plastic surgery is 1% and the death rate from having surgery to fix a hernia is 1%. Therefore both are equally dangerous." The percentages may be the same but one surgery is much more necessary than the other.
07-28-2009, 08:50 AM
