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Sandblasting and powdercoating: Les Schwab or dedicated shop

webwrangler
Explorer
Explorer
I want to take all my 2004 TT's wheels off this winter and have them sandblasted and powder coated. The rust is getting pretty bad, and I'm too lazy to clean and paint them myself.

The local Les Schwab store will do them for $35 a wheel. I called a couple of dedicated shops, and they quoted me $55-$65 a wheel.

I'm guessing that the dedicated shops will do a more thorough job, but I wonder if I really need to spend that much more. It's just a trailer, after all. I could buy new wheels for $55-$65 a wheel.

Anybody been down this path?
2005 Rockwood 2104
2011 Toyota Tundra SR5 5.7L 4WD
Equalizer
Prodigy
14 REPLIES 14

ScottG
Nomad
Nomad
If you're going to take them to Les Schwab, don't bother doing anything to them. They will clean and media blast them perfectly clean before coating. They are used to doing this on rusty wheels and will remove any trace of corrosion for you (mine were a lot worse than the pics above).

webwrangler
Explorer
Explorer
opnspaces wrote:
I hear you on the lazy to clean scrape and paint route. But I'll give you my ultimate lazy mans way to deal with this.
Below are my wheels from September 2018. I had been meaning to get on top of it for years.


And below are the wheels today.


It sounds dumb, and really redneck, but it works. Right after I took the rusty wheels picture I went to Walmart and bought a spray can of flat black Rustoleum paint. I unbolted the wheels and laid them on the grass (front lawn to be exact). I took my hand held (not powered) wire brush and quickly knocked off any huge rust flakes. I seriously spent no more than 10 seconds per wheel. Then I sprayed them with the flat black paint. I painted right over the rust, the dirt, and everything. No masking no additional prep, just spray the wheel. I even ignored any overspray onto the tires, it won't show up anyway.

I took the picture of the black wheels just now, for this posting. You can see they are dirty, but even after a year of weather they look a heck of a lot better than they used to.

If you think about it you really don't have anything to lose. If you don't like the way they look you can still get them blasted and painted.


Well, those look pretty good in the "after," and the "before" looks worse than mine. I think I want to at least try to get the rust off, though. One spot of rust looks like it's in a weld and a spot that would be difficult to get a wire brush into.

I'm thinking I will probably take them to Les Schwab.
2005 Rockwood 2104
2011 Toyota Tundra SR5 5.7L 4WD
Equalizer
Prodigy

Grit_dog
Nomad III
Nomad III
Well learn something new every day!
I got a couple sets of wheels that could use a $35 refresh!
Thanks for sharing.

Fwiw, to openspaces post, I tried plastidip on my sled trailer wheels.
While I don't use the trailer too often, it does sit out in the wet weather all year. 3 or 4 years now, wheels still look decent. Same thing, pressure washed them, knocked off some flakes with a wire brush, taped off the tires and sprayed. Way nicer looking than half chrome half rust.
The trailer was an experiment. Did the wheels and frame up front at the tongue with plastidip. Surprisingly has held up pretty well, but I wouldn't consider it better than painting by any means.
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5” turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold

deltabravo
Nomad
Nomad
I was in the same situation on a trailer I bought last year. The previous owner had brush painted over the original powdercoat finish, which made a mess.

I ended up buying new wheels for about $35.00 from E-trailer Here's the project
Then I got new tires too
2009 Silverado 3500HD Dually, D/A, CCLB 4x4 (bought new 8/30/09)
2018 Arctic Fox 992 with an Onan 2500i "quiet" model generator

ScottG
Nomad
Nomad
ksg5000 wrote:
Lived in Les Schwab territory for 40+ years and never knew they did that - nice to know.


Same here. I was standing at the counter in LS one day just waiting for my tires or something and I happened to notice a brochure laying there. I was shocked! They had a ton of colors and at the time, it was only $23/wheel!

BTW, Les has some decent prices on really nice trailer wheels too.

Lwiddis
Explorer
Explorer
You can get new tires and rims from eTrailer shipped without additonal charge at a reasonable price.
Winnebago 2101DS TT & 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71, WindyNation 300 watt solar-Lossigy 200 AH Lithium battery. Prefer boondocking, USFS, COE, BLM, NPS, TVA, state camps. Bicyclist. 14 yr. Army -11B40 then 11A - (MOS 1542 & 1560) IOBC & IOAC grad

opnspaces
Navigator
Navigator
I hear you on the lazy to clean scrape and paint route. But I'll give you my ultimate lazy mans way to deal with this.
Below are my wheels from September 2018. I had been meaning to get on top of it for years.


And below are the wheels today.


It sounds dumb, and really redneck, but it works. Right after I took the rusty wheels picture I went to Walmart and bought a spray can of flat black Rustoleum paint. I unbolted the wheels and laid them on the grass (front lawn to be exact). I took my hand held (not powered) wire brush and quickly knocked off any huge rust flakes. I seriously spent no more than 10 seconds per wheel. Then I sprayed them with the flat black paint. I painted right over the rust, the dirt, and everything. No masking no additional prep, just spray the wheel. I even ignored any overspray onto the tires, it won't show up anyway.

I took the picture of the black wheels just now, for this posting. You can see they are dirty, but even after a year of weather they look a heck of a lot better than they used to.

If you think about it you really don't have anything to lose. If you don't like the way they look you can still get them blasted and painted.
.
2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton **** 2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH **** 1986 Coleman Columbia Popup

ksg5000
Explorer
Explorer
Lived in Les Schwab territory for 40+ years and never knew they did that - nice to know.
Kevin

ScottG
Nomad
Nomad
Les Schwab does it and they do a good job (I was shocked to find this out too, Grit). I sent my vintage cars steel wheels to them and had them done. They media blast the entire thing and have a choice of many colors.

These 50+ y/o wheels were extremely rusty and having trouble holding air. After powder coating, they look and work like new.


My TT wheels are so fugly that I'm considering having them done as well.

Grit_dog
Nomad III
Nomad III
Are we talkin Schwabs or Earl Scheibs?
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5” turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold

drsteve
Explorer
Explorer
Les Schwab powdercoat is probably the same quality as a Les Schwab paint job, I would think. Were it me I'd just spring for new wheels.
2006 Silverado 1500HD Crew Cab 2WD 6.0L 3.73 8600 GVWR
2018 Coachmen Catalina Legacy Edition 223RBS
1991 Palomino Filly PUP

Ductape
Explorer
Explorer
I’d just buy new wheels. Removing rust properly is not cheap, neither is powder done properly.

Doing a half baked job will just hide the rust. Temporarily.
49 States, 6 Provinces, 2 Territories...

Huntindog
Explorer
Explorer
webwrangler wrote:
I want to take all my 2004 TT's wheels off this winter and have them sandblasted and powder coated. The rust is getting pretty bad, and I'm too lazy to clean and paint them myself.

The local Les Schwab store will do them for $35 a wheel. I called a couple of dedicated shops, and they quoted me $55-$65 a wheel.

I'm guessing that the dedicated shops will do a more thorough job, but I wonder if I really need to spend that much more. It's just a trailer, after all. I could buy new wheels for $55-$65 a wheel.

Anybody been down this path?
Not sure it is cost effective.
My Discount will mount and ballance for free, if I buy the rims from them. They also have the best pricing I have found.
Huntindog
100% boondocking
2021 Grand Design Momentum 398M
2 bathrooms, no waiting
104 gal grey, 104 black,158 fresh
FullBodyPaint, 3,8Kaxles, DiscBrakes
17.5LRH commercial tires
1860watts solar,800 AH Battleborn batterys
2020 Silverado HighCountry CC DA 4X4 DRW

Grit_dog
Nomad III
Nomad III
Schwabs does powder coating?
$35 sounds like a good deal if that's what you want to do.
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5” turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold