Phimosis

Agreed. Make sure not to buy any powder coated wheels as they will be significantly weaker than painted ones or ones that are bare aluminum. I haven't seen any like that, but I'm sure they are around.

>>>Volk Racing Wheel TE37 Spec. List :
>>>Material is 6061 aircraft grade aluminum. This material is hot forged. 1st >>>forging process is done with pressure of 5,000 kilograms per square >>>centimeter. 2nd forging process is a slow process
>>>with 3,500 kilograms per square centimeter. The lip is also forged to 3,500>>> kilograms per square centimeter. This allows the wheel to have less >>>material than other wheels, but have more strength and durability. The >>>excess material is machined off (to tolerance of 1/100 of a millimeter). >>>Powder coating and clear coating is done by a special proprietary process >>>to ensure long lasting quality and durability


Ok. Let me edit this for those that don't see my wry wit. Almost every wheel on the market is powdercoated. If it's not chrome or some type of metal coating, it's a baked on plastic finish. Paint just won't hold up to the abuse of even mounting the tires at the factory. There are some processes that bake plastic sheets onto the wheel, so it's technically not powder coating, but it's still a baked on plastic. The wheels have to be forged first, or it would melt the plastic finish off. So the Volk wheels above are powdercoated and made by Rays. I don't have the exact info on the stock Rays wheels, but based on the durability of the finish and how hard it was to remove, the stock wheels are powder coated, too. I'm not sure where this idea came from that powder coating wheels will weaken them, but it doesn't make sense from a technical standpoint. how hot do the wheels on your car get when racing on a 100 degree day? Air is 100 degrees, pavement is 200 degrees, disk brakes are glowing hot, well over 1500 degrees, transmitting lots of heat to the wheels. If your wheels hit 200 degrees every day doesnt that not effect the strength of the wheel, but heating it to 400 degrees for an hour does?

I think the weakness issue is overstated. If I break or bend a wheel, I will surely let you guys know.

Here is powdercoat curing info:
A convection oven uses a heat source, most commonly a gas burner,
and a fan to heat the interior of an insulated enclosure. Different powder
materials require different cure temperatures, commonly in a range
between 350 °F and 400 °F (177 - 204 °C). The part is heated by the
hot air in the oven and it in turn conducts heat into the coating.
The coating must be held at temperature for a predetermined length of
time to reach full cure. So the cure cycle is so many minutes at so
many degrees of temperature. The time it takes to bring the metal up
to temperature must be added to the cure time requirement to determine the full cycle time in the oven. Convection cure time may be as short as 10 minutes or as long as 30
minutes, depending on the mass of the substrate and the cure requirements of the powder.