Wheel refurb - is this true?

[joebloggsVR69 0]

I've been meaning to get my wheels refurbed, so I took em to a place near me to see what they charge/quality of work.

 

First of all, the guy charges £200 for a set of 4, but he doesnt supply wheels to use whilst mine are off the car...

I was ready to walk away because I know other places that charge the same, and *do* provide a set of wheels.

 

He wont go any cheaper than £200, after a lot of shaking his head and telling me how hard they are to work on....

They're solitudes ffs!!! :roll: So I point to a set of cross spokes in his garage and point out that they are a lot harder to work on than mine! At which point he agrees & smiles.

 

He goes on about how good his wheels turn out after he works on them. He shows me a wheel he's working on and I'm thinking :confused4: - He's spraying a wheel which has a tyre on! He's used masking tape around the wheel rim.

 

Am I wrong in thinking other places sandblast/machine/spray the wheel before the tyre goes back on?

He insisted that every refurb place puts the tyre back on after the wheel is machined, and sprays it with the tyre on!

I told him the paint would peel off if that's what he does.. and he even said 'yeah, but not for ages..' blah blah 'we've been here for 20 years, no complaints' blah blah

 

He kept saying that if the wheel was sprayed before the tyre goes back on, the tyre fitting machine would damage the paint

 

Is this guy talking nonsense? Do all refurbishers do it like this?

[LicklePaulie 0]

Is this a serious post? IMHO the guy is talking cr*p. It's the wheel that's being refurbed, not the tyre! £200 is about the going rate for a decent job... but for the wheels only :?

[slot 0]

:lol: Too right , you need to take the tyre off to do the rim , and get a good seal on the paint !!

Even a half desent tyre place , sould have a good machine , that's why people go back !!

What happen's next time you get new tyre's !!! , all the paint flake's off , give him the v's and take'um else were !! :fist:

[Jim 2]

Yep - move along and try somewhere else. Guy doesn't sound up to the job at all!

[pablo_vr6 0]

he is correct in that they can get scraped a little but it depends who you use.

 

spraying with the tyre on (altho its a hell of a lot easier) isnt the way to go.

[joebloggsVR69 0]

Yeah I thought as much.

 

And I'm under the impression that proper wheel refurb places put the wheels in an oven, dont they?

The guy I saw says he leaves em to dry naturally.

 

He did say the tyre comes off for him to sandblast the wheel, but once thats done, he sticks the tyre back on before doing the spraying :roll:

[theRuler 0]

he probably sprays them with the tyre on, as he scrapes the shiiit out the rim whilst fitting the tyres.

 

the guy's having a tin bath. maybe a good bet for some old xr2 pepperpots but not if you have some nice rims.

 

ovening is the pro way to dry the paint. bit like in the same way the "pros" use kit that doesnt chew the wheels whilst fitting the tyre.

[pablo_vr6 0]

he is just making work for himself then cos masking them up will be a pain in the ass!!

 

stay clear methinks.

 

as for the oven it speeds up drying time - overnight vs a few days natural drying.

[theRuler 0]

heat is great for paint

if you are ever using a spray can for something, get it hot first. leave it on a radiator, or in the airing cupboard.

in the past, i have boiled a kettle, then dropped the can in afterwards (with the kettle lid off) to get it nice and warm. it increases the pressure in the can, and makes for a nicer finish. top tip!

[pablo_vr6 0]

few mins with the heatgun on it also works wonders :)

[chrishill 0]

not too long though, you dont want it going pop!

[pablo_vr6 0]

:evil:

[Henny 0]

joebloggsVR69, he's taking the psssss mate... a decent re-working on an alloy wheel should include:

 

Tyre off

Chemical bath and then sand/bead blasting back to raw alloy

re-finishing/ reprofiling of the outer rim lip if there's any damage

then depending on the finish you want:

Powder coating followed by oven baking of the paint:

Powder coating of some of the parts followed by oven baking, then polishing

or just straight polishing

re-fitting of tyres and re-balancing with new valves.

 

My local place charges £35 per wheel and does a superb job... 8)

 

Fitting a tyre to a wheel SHOULD NOT scratch the rim if care is taken and the correct tools and procedure is followed... anyone who can't do this would not get my wheels to refurbish for definate! :roll:

[theRuler 0]

thats a good price. do you have a number for that place? i am in staffordshire and where you are aint too far away!

[Henny 0]

it's a place called "top Marques" in stoke... I actually screwed up with my last post, he normally charges around £40, not 35, I got a discount, sorry...

 

details can be found HERE

 

He's good though... 8)

[Ice White Socks 0]

Yeah that guys having a laugh. One important thing that Henny mentioned is the reprofiling of the rim. When I took my solitudes in there were great chunks out of them from spin damage. They came back like new :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

heat is great for paint

if you are ever using a spray can for something, get it hot first. leave it on a radiator, or in the airing cupboard.

in the past, i have boiled a kettle, then dropped the can in afterwards (with the kettle lid off) to get it nice and warm. it increases the pressure in the can, and makes for a nicer finish. top tip!

 

Great tip!

 

Also make sure the area you are spraying is up to a good temperature too...

[theRuler 0]

heat is king in spray land

 

wet the floor around the area you are spraying too. if its a whole car, then wet the entire floor. the dust sticks to the water!

[slot 0]

heat is great for paint

if you are ever using a spray can for something, get it hot first. leave it on a radiator, or in the airing cupboard.

in the past, i have boiled a kettle, then dropped the can in afterwards (with the kettle lid off) to get it nice and warm. it increases the pressure in the can, and makes for a nicer finish. top tip!

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: Put it in a brazier , that will warm it up !!! :onfire:

[pablo_vr6 0]

i just stuck a car of laquer in the fire for a few minutes - wont be doing that again :oops:

[StuartFZR400 0]

Any one know the going rate for the Lacquer coat only [ie take the rims already clean/polished] ? :?:

[crazymarcel 0]

I know a place near Norwich that does wheel refurbs for 100quid a set, they currently doing my old Kahn's in anthracite colour, think its called that anyway, kinda dark grey.

 

and they take the tyres off, 200quid and he dont even takes the tyres off, :lol:

[Storm 0]

You should publish this guy's trading name as a piss taker to avoid like the plague. Effectively this is a rip off.

 

Like Henny says a proper job involves chem strip etc for a lasting job, not a quick lick of paint for 200 sovs, what a to55er :evil: , its just sad that there are people taken in by this sorta-ting!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Having refurbed my Speedlines myself - took 2 weeks of evenings - I would recommend getting it done professionally!!

 

I'm very happy with the results of my efforts and only cost me a few bits of emery cloth and some VW diamond silver paint, but the labour involved is excrutiating!

 

I did mine with the tyres on. No problem with that, so long as the masking is up to scratch and you laquer behind the bead lip.