The Lotus Grand Tourers

I'm about to send my Elite Turbine wheels off for a refurbishment.
Spit & Polish in Tonbridge are the only place I've found to date who have a CNC lathe compatible with the Turbine profile. Many places have "upgraded" there machines since COVID and are incompatible with Classic Car wheel profiles . S&P have done wheels for Andy & Roddy on this forum, so at least I'm confident they know what they are doing.

S&P can do a grey finish but it would be Wet paint, not powder coat. I'm hesitant about how durable this would be, particularly as it looks like they will charge an additional premium for a bespoke colour.
I'm considering therefore going Black, but then when I get them back, doing the wheel centre with a rattle can grey. There is so little of the outer turbine 'blades' seen, that I can live with them being black ( they'll be black with Brake dust anyway after a few hundred miles ).

Any considered wisdom in the forum if PPC is that much better for wheels ( or worse).

Tony

Might be worth checking what paint they will be using and what primers. Pretty much anything a professional shop will use will be more resilient than something from a rattle can. If you do paint yourself make sure you use an appropriate primer - 2k epoxy (isocyanate based - so take care of your lungs) or an etch primer.
You can also use a 2k direct to metal paint - again breathing protection. This wouldn’t need clear coat.
A normal base coat rattle will need clear coat. Ideally a 2k clear (again breathing protection) for good chemical, brake dust, road grime etc protection. You can get proper 2k clear in rattle cans - you can tell if you need to press something to mix the 2 chemicals in the can. These have a working time before the paint will harden in the can.

Also depends if you’re going to leave a bare metal machined surface or plan to have the whole wheel clearcoated to protect it. Then it would be best for the wheel repairers paint and powder coat clear over it all in one go.

Hi Tony have had both done in the past personally I found paint to be the best , the two sets I had powder coated deteriorated the fastest...
Ray...

Honestly, I don't see the obsession over powder coating. Once it chips, and it will. It's game over. 2k professionally painted is the only way imo. There's a good dose of stubborness and hatred of powder coating biasing my opinion so do with it as you may

Pretty much anything a professional shop will use will be more resilient than something from a rattle can.

My thoughts was to have Powder in black baked on professionally, then over spray the grey in the centre wheel nut area.

Things have moved on though. They would do either grey or black in Powder, - but I do understand Dwayne's position on this.

Dwaynem884 wrote: Wed Apr 02, 2025 10:08 Honestly, I don't see the obsession over powder coating. Once it chips, and it will. It's game over. 2k professionally painted is the only way imo. There's a good dose of stubborness and hatred of powder coating biasing my opinion so do with it as you may

there is powdercoating and powdercoating. cheap single stage improperly baked, or exterior quality stuff with a basecoat properly applied makes a difference. But any coat wil in the end suffer from rustspiders growing underneath. And powdercoat is usually very thick, so it obscures details. Masking is also not very sophisticated