Hi All -
I have some wheels I need to strip. Will my "normal" (harbor frt) sand blaster be able to do this? It is plenty big to fit a wheel inside, and I have a decent 80 gallon 3 phase compressor (I think it is 5 or 6hp). The cabinet was recently emptied, so chnaging media is no big deal (if my gun is compatible)

I have never had to remove powder coating before - thought I had better ask before creating a mess.

Thanks!
Scott S

You can have it baked off. Which probally isn't a great idea for a wheel, or you can try Redi-Strip?. Scuff up/score the pc abit so the paint remover can work its way in. Sandblasting won't get it off. Aircraft Stripper doesn't work very well either.

Should be able to just blast it off. Powder coating is just melted paint. Some of mine actually came off with parts cleaner when I was cleaning it for the new engine.

I used heavy duty paint stripper from home depot. Gets the flat surfaces off easily but its the nooks and cranies that are a bitch.

Powder coating is melted plastic not paint. You can try dusting it in the cabinet to give it a texture to hold a good stripper and see how that works. I know I've seen a powder coat stripper advertised.

My nephew has a powder painting business. . here's the scoop. . Blasting 'will' remove it but it's a bitch. . . it's hard. . they burn it off in a 600 degree oven, but striper will remove it. . use 'aircraft' stripper. . let it soak for about 30 minutes. . rinse off . then blast them to get the little pieces off that remain. .

Use chemical resistant gloves with the stripper. It does disolve latex - quickly. Also face and eye protection.

Depends on the powder. Aircraft stripper is very messy. You can bake powder at 400 for 30 min and it will become "brittle". Sand blasting or any media will work at that point.

We build large industrial powder coating systems for appliance manufacturers (well just about any industrial manufacturer).

Most powder paints are polyester. They have been formulating/reformulating powder for many years. Most powder paint is CURED at around 400 deg for 30 minutes.

Some of the responses here say that powder can be burned off. This is true and most of our customers own burn off ovens to remove the powder from hangers and hooks that become coated along with the parts they paint. The burn off ovens run at very high temperatures and the pieces being burned off can warp in the heat. The powder turns to ash and can be beaten off at that point.

I have seen burn off ovens that ran at 800+ degrees. The racks would enter and burst into flames. Amazing to watch, but not cost effective for job shops or small operations.

Blasting can work, but if blasted too aggressively, it can damage the part. Soaking in some solvents can soften the powder and it can be scraped off. Aircraft stripper is known to attack some powder coatings. Sanding is also known to work. Because powder paint works so well, it is difficult to remove.

Whatever method one tries, there will be a lot of work involved.

Good luck.

It takes time but can be done at home. Mark

The BEST method is soda blasting, it will not remove the metal, but is agressive enough to get the powder off. Not something you can do in your garage without making a big mess, we use it to stip Duricron.

Last thing I want to do is blast all the detail out and open porosity in my wheels. I use stripper also. Be patient however.

I'm surprised soda will remove powdercoat since glass bead won't touch it.

What about using a Mapp torch then blast off the remainder?

I tried that. Makes a mess.

I just removed powder coating from a fan housing recently....what a pain in the rear!

The fan housing was soaked in aircraft stripper (equivalent) for two days, then I tried removing most of the remnants in a solvent, then I attempted to bead blast the remaining coating from the detail spots.

The bead blasting was virtually useless on the remnants. The problem was that the powder coating turned to a sticky rubber-like consistency and the bead blasting material just bounced off the leftover coating. I ended up spending hours scraping (and picking with a dental type pick) the rubber-like coating in the solvent tank, until I could bead blast a relatively clean housing. Did I mention this took hours?

The end result was great and my friend appreciated the hard work. Yes, that's right, it wasn't even my own fan housing.

So, in my experience, it was the intricate detail spots that were the most difficult parts to remove. The flat areas were not so difficult. Just be prepared to scrape all the powder coating off before blasting.

Good luck!

Based on all of this, I am not even gonna try. I had these wheels powdercoated to match my truck. They have been remounted once, rotated a ton and rebalanced a ton. After 52k miles they still looked great. Went back to the same Discount Tire that has always done all of this prior work as it was time for new rubber. Took the truck to the car wash afterwards and noticed that they had damaged every single wheel. The lips had deep scracthes and two of them looked like they had been dropped on thier face. Even the edges of the center caps looked like they had tried to use a screw driver to pry them off (they are held on by a very visible allen bolt).

I threw a fit. They replaced them all for free with a newer version (that I am not having powder coated this time around). I cant sell the old ones in their current condition, so I will most likely just toss them. Kinda sad. I think I paid north of 1200 for them after powder coating. My plan was to strip them, and then maybe drop them off at a Maaco type place and have them painted. But it now seems like that in not worth the hassle.

Really appreciate the input - you guys saved me from a mess.

A month before:
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After:
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The old set would be perfect for snow tires.

They'll make great hose hangers in the shop Scotty.

We don't actually do it inhouse. We use these guys as they are local, with very good results.
http://www.soda-blast.com/?gclid=CO2F646ioa4CFYoZQgodVRODSw

We have a local soda co. I will try it next time since I don't ever want to do the paint stripper thing again.

My experience with soda is it's much milder than sand thats why it's used just for paint removal. I don't think it will remove powdercoat.