Thanks for the input guys. Mine was damaged by a cleaner that left stains on it. The color has never turned purple although I have heard stories and seen others that have. From what I heard hard anodizing doesnt change color over time. This is the way I will be going most likely.

 

That purple look could be a thinning of the coating or just a bad anodizing job. It isn't a "tough" type of plating, so in a situation where it might see a lot of abuse or harsh environments, it probably isn't the right choice.

 

Yesterday I brought the tires/wheels to a local shop to have the tires pulled of the wheels to get ready for refinishing.

I called Applied Anodize and they said they dont strip or prep things for anodizing so I would have to go elsewhere to have that done since they are already anodized. They said the wheels could contaminate their tanks and they could look at anodizing them once that is done. Involving another place sounded like a hassle to worry about so I kept looking.

I decided to stop by Industrial Plating in San Carlos since they are closer. They took a look at the wheels and turned me down pretty quickly. They said that they have had to many complaints when doing wheels from customers and they dont want the trouble.

So this morning I drive out to Santa Clara with my wheels to stop off at Valley Plating to show them the wheels in person. They seemed nice, checked them out, and said that they couldnt really help me with them. They referred me over to Wheel Techniques down the street.

I drive down the street and stop at Wheel Techniques but they tell me that they dont do Anodizing at all. I asked them who anodizes wheels in the area and they said they knew of no one. Seems like alot of people must not get wheels anodized? After chatting with them a moment and showing them my wheels they said they could strip them, bead blast them, and coat them with a wrinkle black that will look the same way they do now and be durable. They mentioned it would take 3-4 business days. Tired of the whole thing, I left the wheels with them so hopefully thats true.

So getting wheels reanodized is not as easy as it seems. What a hassle, hopefully these come back ok. It seems like finding places that do anodizing isnt to hard, but finding ones that actually does wheels is another story. The vibe I got from everyone seemed to be that wheels are more complicated and nobody wants to touch them.

 

I figured the finishing places would strip and bead blast them themselves (to avoid contamination) and hadn't considered they might contaminate their tanks. Removing anodizing is usually a chemical process though...which would cause no damage to the metal, though media blasting would also clean up minor imperfections.

To me, powder coating is the best protection and I was going to mention, they could make them look very similar to how they looked before (I went with satin instead of matte and I was really pleased with it). If they're doing powder, yes it should only take a few days - probably one to two for media blast depending on how much they need and one to two for powder/bake.

 

Wheel Techniques will do it right, I'm sure you'll be happy with their work. Honestly 3 days is about normal for something like this.
Remember, a waiting list is a good thing:
My Grandfather used to say: never eat at an empty restaurant

 

Thanks guys, looking forward to getting these done and getting the car on the road.

Nice choice on the finish o4gg, looks great.

 

That sucks with the run around - sounds like one of my days - haaa.

I have had several sets of wheels worked on by Wheel Techniques and everything has been top notch. The more complicated set was a set of classic Toyota Supra 14x7 "pyramids" that I wanted done a particular way. I wanted a "Panasport look" so they blasted the wheels, polished the lips and then clear coated them. They were great. Other than that, they have welded a wheel with a crack, polished a couple sets and fixed some bends for me. No complaints on any of it.

 

The shop that did my powder coating also does paint and media blasting so I may take them there, but was going to take my other set of STI BBS that need refinishing to Wheel Techniques for a quote too.