kudos to les schwab and wheel vintiques

[68bowtie]

so i ordered some steel wheels from wheel vintiques. took them to les schwab for powdercoating (they only charge $25 per wheel). they can do it that cheap because they ship them back to one location on their weekly delivery trucks and blast and coat on an assembly line. the "auto" blasting couldn't remove the apparently very good quality primer that WV puts on their wheels. so props to wheel vintiques. les schwab had to send my wheels to a third party for blasting, which cost them $36 per wheel. they forgot inform me about the extra cost before they had it done, so they only charged me the quoted price, so in essence they PAID $11 per wheel for the work they did. only this one experience with both companies, but i was happy enough i thought i would share! the wheels turned out VERY nice too...

[sierragrande71]

Cool! I work for them and ive had a bunch of wheels powder coated also through my work. Im waiting for my 15x10's to show up from wheel vintiques so i can get them done also.

[special-K]

Very cool! I still don't get how they can do them so cheap when they aren't the one doing it. The place I use is a production facility and they can't do it that cheap. They also sandblast.

Are all Wheel Vintiques 5 on 5 steelies 3-nub wheels? These fit disc brakes?

[DaHos]

Originally Posted by special-K

Are all Wheel Vintiques 5 on 5 steelies 3-nub wheels? These fit disc brakes?

4 Nub and will clear stock calipers, NOT Wilwood D52's !!

[CG]

I buy 99 percent of my tires from Les Schwab I really like that company. Ive had them powder coat wheels from WV too also.

[68bowtie]

Originally Posted by sierragrande71

Cool! I work for them and ive had a bunch of wheels powder coated also through my work. Im waiting for my 15x10's to show up from wheel vintiques so i can get them done also.

cool!!

Originally Posted by special-K

Very cool! I still don't get how they can do them so cheap when they aren't the one doing it. The place I use is a production facility and they can't do it that cheap. They also sandblast.

Are all Wheel Vintiques 5 on 5 steelies 3-nub wheels? These fit disc brakes?

they actually blast and coat them in house, but in my case their automated system didn't work so they shipped them out.

i can't speak for other models/sizes but i got series 62 15x8's and they clear at least 3/16" all around. here's a pic of them with a 71-72 setup...

[Nitis]

IN all honesty powdercoating isn't that hard to do if you have the right equipment $25 is very fair I would have a hard time paying much more than that unless I was doing a special color

I actually started doing some on my own with the harbor freight gun and its pretty slick

Only real limitation is the size of your oven

[special-K]

Originally Posted by 68bowtie

cool!!



they actually blast and coat them in house, but in my case their automated system didn't work so they shipped them out.

i can't speak for other models/sizes but i got series 62 15x8's and they clear at least 3/16" all around. here's a pic of them with a 71-72 setup...

Ok, good to know. Now we'll have to watch for Wheel Vintiques 3-nub wheels making an exception to the age old drum vs disc wheel standard of 3-nub vs 4-nub. I passed on a set of Kelsey Hayes 5 on 5 8" steelies at a swap meet because those would have been for older drum brake Ford products. Those you have clear just as the old Kelsey Hayes 5-luggers do. At this point the drum brake 3-nubs will obviously be older wheels while the WVs will show less age. I'm talking buying them used. But a freshly sandblasted powder coated old wheel can look brand new.

Originally Posted by Nitis

IN all honesty powdercoating isn't that hard to do if you have the right equipment $25 is very fair I would have a hard time paying much more than that unless I was doing a special color

I actually started doing some on my own with the harbor freight gun and its pretty slick

Only real limitation is the size of your oven

I'm familiar with the process. I have had countless parts done for 30 or more years. The place I deal with charged $25 a wheel back then ('80s). Now that I know Les Schwab does these in-house I am sure they are doing it at a loss at $25 and figure it helps sell more tires and wheels to make it worthwhile (they made profit on the wheel sale). Just like a shop that does free mounting and balancing. I know I would want more than $100 to do a set. There are materials as well as facility and equipment expenses to take away from that. I can't imagine a paint shop doing a set of wheels for that little.
In the end, to buy a set of Wheel Vintiques steelies from Les Schwab and have them powder coated it will cost more than $25 a wheel. They screwed up on your order and had to eat the cost of outside sandblasting ($156). So my shop charges $260 a set for what Les Schwab would charge $256 to do on wheels they made money on. That's making more sense.

Sorry to distract from your thread, but I felt the 3-nub info was essential info for all. The cost thing I only intended to make the one comment, till other comments on it came in. I have a set of gloss red 8" Kelsey Hayes steelies I had done 10 or more years ago for a truck that never happened. I'll work them in on the '67 I'm doing. I also want to run drag radials on 10" wheels for more frisky times, while retaining 4 tire rotation with the 8s for distance driving. I'll be ordering a pair of 10" WVs at some point