ok that makes perfect sense. turbo would you say that a painted surface could be as durable as a powdercoated finish. also, can powdercoat be wet sanded and polished?
durability comes down to 2 things, adhesion & hardness. powdercoating is similar to paint, except it is electrostatically applied as a powder instead of a liquid, it is then baked at high temperatures which liquefies it & then it hardens when cooled where paint is based on either solvent evaporation or that combined with a chemical reaction in 2k components. powdercoating is very durable in that it is a very hard finish, very scratch resistant, BUT that don't mean that it's impenetrable, it can still crack & chip just like paint. many paints are softer than powdercoating so powdercoating is generally considered more durable than paint, but there are some epoxy paints that can be as durable & many good enamels also are not so far inferior to powdercoating, but were talking paints that are mixed with a hardener or an activator...
this is the drawback to spray cans, all spray cans. because of there pre mixed nature they cannot use a 2k (2 part) product, paint from spray can's only cure by solvent evaporation, where something sprayed with a spraygun can be an activated product with a hardener or even epoxy based & can be much more durable than anything out of a spraycan.
personally I'm not much of a fan of powdercoating, to me it is not worlds better than a good 2k paint & it's drawbacks are not having the ability to do a spot repair after the fact, so powdercoated wheels for example, if you scratch a rim you have to dismount it & send it out to repair it, where if it's painted it's an easy spot repair. either way, weather it's powder coated or painted, if you curb it it's gonna scrape down to the aluminum anyway, so powdercoating isn't some sort of miracle shield or anything, in the end powdercoating is a form of very durable paint more than anything...
many factory & aftermarket wheels are painted, brembo calipers are painted from the factory, paint can be durable too, I have never side by side compared to say 100% anything about the absolute differences, but I had a friend who went & powdercoated many parts under his hood & he still managed to chip some spots, my maya wheels are powdercoated, but that didn't stop a tire jockey from taking a chip off the finish with a socket dropped on the face...
& oh yeah, far as I know powdercoating can't be wetsanded & polished, it's too hard for that I think... along with this hardness though comes brittleness, paint can "flex & dent" where powdercoating will either come out unscathed or crack & chip... powdercoating is nothing more than a form of paint, durable & hard yes, but still a coating just like paint...
from the sound of it i think i might just confirm with this wheel shop that they are using an epoxy type paint, and make my move from there. 