Hi All,

Apologies for the length of this post but I would be hugely grateful for your help before I decide what to do about my wheels.

I recently got a set of 19" E46 M3 Wheels Powder Coated Matt Black. I had to look around for a while as I wanted a Flat Matt Black rather than a Satin Finish, which proved more difficult than expected.

My experience with Powder Coating is little to none so I would appreciate anyone's input who has had some experience. From researching I thought Powder Coated Wheels would be more robust against any small knocks or chips in comparison to standard paint.

When I received the wheels by courier I was delighted with the Colour and Finish. However, I encountered the below problems:

1. When I unwrapped them there were small chips on the paint of two of the wheels, admittedly very small and a risk with receiving them by courier.

2. When using a deep socket, to bolt on the wheels the black at the entry to some of the bolt holes came away.

3. I was putting in the bolts and twice a bolt dropped from the centre of the wheel(my fault I know), where the sockets are, down onto the face of the wheel, can't be more than a few inches, and the paint came away and exposed the silver metal underneath both times. I 100% take the blame in that I shouldn't have let the bolt drop in the first place.

I fitted them a week ago and straight away I contacted the place who powder coated them asking did something go wrong given how delicate the Powder Coat on the wheels seemed to be. I got a polite response but absolutely no admission of any fault in the powder coating they did, not saying there should be. It seems they are saying it is a characteristic of the Matt Black(If correct, and had I known I would have stuck to Plasti-Dipping them myself). The response was as follows:

"no its nothing wrong matt black as a colour is not kinetical proof - what does it mean ? That if you drop a socket over it or slide a socket over the edge you might chip the surface or the edge , the good news is that once wheels are fitted they are safe from fitting damage , your matt coating is safe against basics like jet wash and chemical cleaning products bot not undestructable, you need to be cautious while handling and fitting them or especially fitting new tyres. Customers that have fitting wheels or changing tyres out of our garage often chip the alloys slighlty , while during this processes. Also if you chip alloy slightly it's not going to be a chain reaction - the coating is rock solid and will go nowhere unless hit or kerbed or damaged by tyre machine , nothing else can chip the alloy then this. You can use a bit of black paint for metal to touch up exposed aluminium. Hope this info will help. Don't hesitate to contact us if there anything else we can do for you."

So basically, I wanted to know should powder coating be a lot more durable and harder than this? Does it sound like something has been done wrong? And if so, any advice on what to do if anything? I am keeping the guys I used nameless as I am not trying to effect anyone's business. Especially, since I'm not sure whether this has been a botch job or not yet.

Again, I am totally aware I made the mistake of dropping the bolts etc. just wouldn't have expected that to be enough to damage the powder coat.

Also, apologies again for the length of this post and any help is appreciated.

Thanks!