[itsnotanova]

Thanks for your help guys. The coating had covered up the pre-blemishes pretty good. Most of the finished blemishes look like fisheye or orange peel. A lot of that was caused by me trying to get powder into the lug holes. I should have started with the hard to reach areas first and then a final cover of the powder. I had cured the wheels the day before and that might have a little to do with the blemishes. We had a few things working against us. First, the sandblaster didn't do that great of a job. We didn't cure and clean them good enough. Our ground wasn't that great. Moving from the spray area to the oven was difficult. The oven was too small. I couldn't even fit my 18's in it. The oven temp was questionable too. We had two digital thermometers and they both were reading differently. You can tell when the powder has set because it will get glossy, and then you bake for 20 minutes. But it was still a guessing game on the temp. My friend wants to borrow my equipment and keep trying. My cheap Chinese 18's wouldn't fit and I'm hesitant subjecting them to that heat, so I'll be painting mine. To answer Steve's question. Powder coating is so much more durable than paint. It's not bullet proof and it has it's cons, but it's better than paint.