Cerakote on wheels

[rzr6-4]

I'm picking up some wheels this Saturday, bare polished steel I believe. I've been liking the look lately of "peanut butter" wheels and am thinking of using this paint. I've seen Cerakote used a lot from guns to car parts but I know the oven baked stuff is the best. Any idea if this air cure stuff will hold up?

 

[Ken226]

I'm picking up some wheels this Saturday, bare polished steel I believe. I've been liking the look lately of "peanut butter" wheels and am thinking of using this paint. I've seen Cerakote used a lot from guns to car parts but I know the oven baked stuff is the best. Any idea if this air cure stuff will hold up?

I've been applying cerakote for many years. The air cure stuff isn't as durable as bake-on, but plenty tough enough for wheels. I use the air cure for scopes and plastic frames, that can't be baked.

I've even used some leftover cerakote on my lathe, and the tow hooks on my truck.

Cerakote is NOT UV stable, and will fade quickly in the sun. Within a year, my tow hooks looked like chalk.

I re-did them, but the 2nd time I put a coat of cerakotes UV resistant clear over the firehouse red.
It's holding color fine this time, but of course, the clear makes it glossy, so you gain UV resistance but lose the matte finish.

If you want to use Cerakote, factor in the extra cost of the clearcoat.

 

[Dean2]

I agree with Ken226 -Go for the baked Cerakote with a clear top coat. If you want the flat look get them powder coated. Otherwise, Tremclad or Olin paint holds up as well or better, and is easier to touch up.

 

[markabby]

almost looks like the color of the Brass Monkey Durango

 

[rzr6-4]

UPDATE:




I finally got around to actually painting these wheels. I bought 16oz of the C-148P (air cure as I don't have access to a large oven) and the clear coat as suggested by @Ken226. I bought a small sand blast gun and needed about 2/3 of a bag of media to do the wheels and center caps. Wiped down and degreased the wheels and shot two coats of paint and two coats of clear. I've done bed liner before but nothing this thin, you have to be very careful to not get runs. Two came out great, two had runs that I kinda sorta fixed and looks good to a 10ft view.

I refused to do garbage estimate math to try and figure out how much paint I needed, and I couldn't find any discussions online so I just errored on the side of caution. I only did the outer face of the wheels, and I was in a hurry and forgot to do the center caps, but you can see I only used 6-7 ounces of paint and maybe 4oz of clear. Given the leftover, I plan to do my Sierra's wheels in a couple weeks, and I will do the center caps as well at that time.




I was able to sand blast the wheels with the tires still mounted no problem, the shot just bounced off. Then when taping things off, I'm sure you've all seen the trick of sticking a deck of cards between the wheel and tire. I didn't have multiple decks of cards to sacrifice, do I cut a bunch of printer paper into 1/4s and after letting all the air out of the tires, I was able to put it in between. I then had some plastic left over from when I did the bed liner on my Sierra, so I used that to be the outermost barrier.



Took longer than I thought it would but it looks good. Now that I know the process and the fact that my Sierra wheels don't have tires yet, that set should be much easier.

 

[Carnero Plateado]

Looks good! The Burnt Bronze has a nice contrast without being too flashy…