New Wheel Vintiques Steelies - blast and powdercoat or just paint.??

[kitsbeach]

Just got myself a set of steelies from Wheel Vintiques. The powder coat guy around here always seems to insist that I sandblast (or media blast) pieces before he powdercoats them, due to "welding slag" or whatever.

How have your wheels held up without blasting and powdercoating.?

I've heard of rust appearing in a pretty short time on some people's parts and I know a buddy with reproduction parts on his '56 Chevy that are all rusting after 5-6 years.

I want to do things right but, on the other hand, I don't want to spend money on my low-buck build if I don't have to.

They are nicely painted right now brand new out of the box, so the other option is to paint them the color I want (white to match bumper and grill).

And do people powdercoat over paint.? I could get the powder coat guy to do that. Otherwise I'll find someone else to paint them.

Keep in mind it is pretty wet up here in Vancouver, Canada.