This was my favorite lie by John. It's so indictive of his over-inflated ego and complete lack of real-life checks-n-balances. I work in the powdercoating industry, and a set of rims (cleaned & coated) is around $1000. That's having a professional sandblast the rims down to bare metal and then applying a powdercoat paint that is stronger than any liquid-based paint in any color of choice, for only $250 per rim.
The thought of John sitting cross-legged, sanding each rim by hand for hours on end, then buying and setting up the specialized powder coating equipment, and then using a repurposed kitchen oven to cure the paint is laughable. No way John does all that.
The most likely scenario? John sanded his rims for 20 minutes and then declared this was too much work for a noble of his bloodline. He packed up his rims, paid $1000 to the local shop, and never spoke of his home-coating endeavors again.