Terry Oxandale
Skinny Man
This may seem like an obvious issue, and at first it appeared that way to me, but I let the concern lapse until a recent observation of it's possible hazard. I run powdercoated wheels on my car, street and track, and always wondered about the wheel mounting surface being powerdercoated, versus left natural metal (uncoated on this specific surface). It didn't seem to be an issue, and I would imagine if it was a potential issue, manufactures wouldn't paint that surface...right?
So, I recently completed a very successful track day with the M8B look-alike, with a personal best in the car. Obviously a personal best means hotter components, and in particular the brakes/wheels/tires. Shaved 4 seconds off my previous time with a really good setup on suspension, fuel metering, and tire pressure. Anyway, getting to the chase, I got home, and proceeded to prepare for the next track day, and was taking off the wheels to bleed the brakes with fresh fluid, and made a disturbing observation was that the lug nuts did not offer much, if any, resistance to the impact wrench in their removal. Also, once the lug nuts were removed, the wheels stayed attached lightly to the brake rotor/hub flange. They were easily "broken off" the flange, and upon inspection I found what I believe was the powerdercoating on this surface of the wheel had softened due to the record heat, squeezed out from the mating surface, and then re-solidified upon cooling. My guess it that the thickness of the layer of powercoat was now less than when the wheels were mounted initially. Thus, with the wheels retracted inboard toward the flange due to the softening, and the torque of the lug nuts, I no longer had what I would consider sufficient torque on the lug nuts.
I will go ahead and remove any paint (powerdercoat) from this surface. I've always questioned the practice of applying paint on this surface in the first place, but this observation pretty much cinched it for me that this area should never have any paint, at least of any appreciable thickness.
So, I recently completed a very successful track day with the M8B look-alike, with a personal best in the car. Obviously a personal best means hotter components, and in particular the brakes/wheels/tires. Shaved 4 seconds off my previous time with a really good setup on suspension, fuel metering, and tire pressure. Anyway, getting to the chase, I got home, and proceeded to prepare for the next track day, and was taking off the wheels to bleed the brakes with fresh fluid, and made a disturbing observation was that the lug nuts did not offer much, if any, resistance to the impact wrench in their removal. Also, once the lug nuts were removed, the wheels stayed attached lightly to the brake rotor/hub flange. They were easily "broken off" the flange, and upon inspection I found what I believe was the powerdercoating on this surface of the wheel had softened due to the record heat, squeezed out from the mating surface, and then re-solidified upon cooling. My guess it that the thickness of the layer of powercoat was now less than when the wheels were mounted initially. Thus, with the wheels retracted inboard toward the flange due to the softening, and the torque of the lug nuts, I no longer had what I would consider sufficient torque on the lug nuts.
I will go ahead and remove any paint (powerdercoat) from this surface. I've always questioned the practice of applying paint on this surface in the first place, but this observation pretty much cinched it for me that this area should never have any paint, at least of any appreciable thickness.
