<VV> Powdercoating Magnesium (No direct Corvair)

[Sadek Charles H DLVA]

Are the Ferrari racing wheels of the 60s that are "gold" (1) made of
magnesium?  And have that gold-colored finish; (2) are they finished in what
is called "Chrome salt"?

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Elliott [mailto:Corvair@fnader.com] 
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 11:59 AM
To: virtualvairs@corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Powdercoating Magnesium (No direct Corvair)

Posting to VV because this is a technical subject that some of us could
possbily be faced with....

I recently purchased a set of magnesium alloy wheels (not pure magnesium but
an interesting aluminum-
magnesium alloy which was delveoped by J.A. Pearce, a supplier to many
factory racing teams int he 
60's.)  These are not Corvair, but I do have a potential line on a set that
might fit an early Corvair...

Anyway, it appears these rims have been spray-painted over a gold-colored
finish (which I'm told is 
"chrome salt", the traditional way of coating magnesium.)

A quick web search shows that "chrome salt" is pretty nasty stuff and
virtually impossible to find now. I 
was considering powdercoating, but was concerned about getting the old
finish off AND concerned 
about powdercoating magnesium. (It's "common knowledge" that you shouldn't
powedercoat 
magnesium... except that virtually every powdercoating company I've found on
the web says they do 
powdercoat magnesium.

What's the thought of some of the experts on the list? 

(Actually I have two sets of these rims... one set is rather common (a few
dozen made and maybe 
another 15 or so still known in the world) while the set I just got is
EXTREMELY rare... one of six sets 
known to be made and one of two sets known to still exist... so I'm not
taking any chances with them....)

Thanks!!

Bill Elliott
Urbana, MD