It's far more durable than paint, well, in a traditional paint. There are very hard paints that are heat-cured like powder coating and they are also electrostatic applied. You typically see these on OEM wheels. If you are going to have them coated, they will strip them down to bare metal first. You can only powder coat over powder and it has to be done right after the first coat, so you would have bare metal-powder-cure-cool-powder-cure. I don't know how much abuse your wheels will see, but I've had great success with normal spray paint (enamel) on wheels. IT's cheap and easy to touch-up if anything happens. Hell, scuff your wheels now, go grab several cans of paint, paint the wheels and see how it lasts. IT may cost you $30 and some time, but you may find it a cheap alternative to powder coating which could easily run $100+ per wheel. IT also give you the ability to easily touch up whenever you need. They won't see too much abuse since they will be the street wheels. Maybe some dirt roads but that's it. And touching curbs with my tires is unlikey I looked at a neighbors freshly refurbed wheels (sandblasted then powdercoated) and they turned out ok. Powdercoating was $5 / wheel, sandblasting was $30 for all 4. Not an outstanding job but way better than how mine look now, they are in horrible shape. For how much the powdercoating costs I don't think it's worth spending my time painting them. Otherwise I'd paint for sure and touch up when needed. WOW! At that price, it's a no-brainer. Yep, HOLY SHEEEE-ITE We'll see how it turns out. I just got the wheels back from sandblasting, everything good so far. Color ideas ? Supposedly I have 160 color options What color is your car? Pix or gtfo