OEM D-Spoke Wheel Refinishing: Factory Balance Weight?

I recently picked up a used set of the 3rd-gen SR5 dark grey anthracite wheels (part number PT946-35160). After a thorough cleaning, the condition isn’t as good as I had hoped (lots of fine scratches in the paint). I am now looking into options of having them refinished. Powder-coating is currently at the top of the list. However, one or two wheels have what appears to be a factory balance weight on the inside of the rim. The weight strip does not have any marking or indentations like a tape-weight. I am concerned these may not make it through the powder coating process.

Does anyone know how these weights are attached to the wheel? Would they survive a powder coating oven?

Thanks!

 

They are double sided taped on …. With really good adhesive

 

Rats - that’s what I was afraid of.

thanks for the reply!

 

I don't see why you wouldn't want to just remove it and replace it later. I've never seen a wheel come from a dealer with a weight already applied. Weights are to balance the tire, not the wheel. (Technically, the weights are there to balance the WHOLE assembly. But a weight designed to balance only the wheel is pretty much useless and if you try to keep a weight like that it may complicate balancing and/or require the use of more weights than necessary.

You should be able to treat this situation like any and all other auto wheels out there. Take off all weights. Refinish. Mount tires. Balance. Done.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I had assumed if the wheel required that much weight after manufacturing, the weight would also be required for balancing the entire wheel and tire assembly. And adding the weight back would be more difficult.

 

I've never seen a wheel which was balanced with weights like that BEFORE a tire was mounted. They don't make the wheels, balance the wheels, then mount tires and then add more weights to balance the tires. I've bought many sets of brand new wheels - both aftermarket and OEM. Never, not once, have they ever come with any sort of weights.

That might be a "factory" weight but it would have been applied after the tire was mounted, not before. Even if that were not the case I would want to remove ALL weights and refinish the wheels like you normally would then balance like you would a normal wheel/tire.

Either way, adding weights is not hard, its easy. Your tire shop will take care of that when they mount your tires. That said, I do recommend going to a trusted tire shop. Many places suck and either do a crappy job or don't take special attention to not cause damage to your wheel finish.

 

It's probably applied with double-side tape, and removal is aided by a heat gun, which means it probably will make a mess in the powdercoating oven if you leave it on.

 

That is a 3M tape weight. It is fine to remove and you should before powdercoating.

They are not used at the factory but I know some ports use them rather than the traditional adhesive weights that we are used to seeing. Some operations like these more for better inventory control because it comes as a big roll rather than having to order individual gram sizes and cut as needed to balance the assembly. They are cut either manually or by an automatic machine that cuts them as needed based off the balancer read out.

 

After looking up the 3M product, you are right. I will remove the weights on those wheels.

Thanks Texas!