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It sucks to learn the "Hard" way. I set out to have my RPF1's powder coated in BBS gold at the centers and the lip and rim inset polished. I made my phone calls, shopped around, and settled with a company called "Wheel Techniques"...aka: "SIK industries." They have two show rooms: Santa Clara & Sacramento. It turns out that the Sac location is just a hole in the wall shoebox sized showroom...and that the representative of that location actually drives 2 to 3 times a week down to Santa Clara - where the actual shop(s) are located to have the necessary work done. The agreed upon price was $600. for the aforementioned work...upon drop off, I was told that was a mis-quote, and that the normal price is usually about $100 more. The rep "Pat" said that he would honor the quote anyway. Pat, you see, is trying to grow the Sacramento business - and bases his reputation on the 21 years of experience Wheel Techniques brings to the table. They're even a member of the Better Business Bureau. Two weeks later, I rec'd my rims. Let's just say that they looked much worse than what you see in these pictures...if you can believe that. I took them home and proceded to put them on my Z. When I took a closer look, I found the runs, the piss poor tape job, and the second a lug hit the outer edge...off came the paint. I could still smell the paint gassing! I confronted Pat about it and he said I could bring them back and he would fix everything. Before bringing them back, I stopped off at another local shop "Precision Wheel Works" and showed them to the owner/fabricator "BJ." Besides being thrilled that this was the quality of his competition, he doubted they had ever seen an oven. Moreover, he mentioned that the entire rim is usually powder coated, and then the lip is machined and polished after...not machined/polished first, taped off, and then powder coated. Unfortunately, at this point, I had already paid the $600 and felt like giving them another chance to fix the rims. I told Pat that it appeared as if the original powder coating had not been stripped off, and that maybe that's why the so called powder coat that they used didn't stick as it should. Imagine my disbelief when I scratched the gold right off the rim w/ my fingernail. The inside of the rim was done as well, and revealed the dirty black gunk underneath the gold when I scratched the surface w/ my finger...proving that the rims hadn't even been cleaned off. I then spoke w/ "Jeff," the man in charge of the Santa Clara operation. "I've been powder coating rims for over 20 years," he said after my barrage of questions regarding proper powder coating procedures. Jeff assured me that he would walk the rims through each of the "10 steps" he puts them through in order to ensure a pristine end product. Two weeks later, after being reassured by both Jeff & Pat that the rims look fantastic and that I would be thrilled, I rec'd my rims. Within 30 seconds of inspecting, the following pictured detail my findings: 
Needless to say, they offered to give me my money back. I'm assuming they didn't want me to make a big stink about it and be the fly in their ointment. I took the rims to BJ @ Precision Wheel Works yesterday, and he will be done by Friday the 18th. He charges $50 more per rim ($800 total for everything), but after looking at the quality of his work and listening to his honest opinions and explainations...I'm positive I will finally acheive the end result I'm looking for. I hope this email steers any future powder coaters in the right direction.
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Knowledge is power...with that said... - 
