Alloy Wheel Refurbishment

[MonkeyVR6 0]

Hi chaps,

 

The time has come for me to get the standard 15" Speedlines refurb'd on my Corrado VR6. I'm having some bodywork done this Thursday (wife+garage wall) and it just so happens that the bodyshop in question does alloy wheel refurbishment for 40 Euros per wheel :afro:

 

Now, I know that things over here in Germany are FAR cheaper than sunny England, but surely 40 Euro's is a bit too cheap, however upon asking peeps about their opinions on his work (just like his reputation for bodywork) the replies I get are outstanding.

 

I doubt I'll get some spare alloys to baz about in while 4 x wheels are being done, but for 40 bucks I can't really argue.

 

Whats the general script for refurbing an alloy wheel then? Do they take the tyres off? Put the alloy weights on the inside of the alloy and how on earth do they fix wife/stevie wonder stylee kerbs and the odd stone chip? Some kind of putty I presume?!

 

Cheers,

 

D.

[MonkeyVR6 0]

Bump.

[was8v 0]

Normally they take the tyre off, blast all the paint off, fill any holes with body filler, paint up, remount tyre and balance putting stick on weights in the inside.

[yeti 0]

what he said ^^^^

 

they can also acid dip the wheels but blasting sems more common, the quality of the blasting reflects in the finish though, heavy blasting means a 'rippled' surface, whereas blasting using softer materials, like recycled sand, or walnut shells i think doesnt damage the alloy so much! ... i'm getting a set of 20yr old wheels acid difpped atm because i didnt want to mark the surface at all, but for 40 euros a corner all in, you cant argue :-)

[coolrado 0]

some wheels like BBS's ect do have quite a strong and thick finnish which is not very easy to remove with the more gentle media blasting processes like bead blasting or nutshell blasting, so steel shot is sometimes used, but as mentioned this tends to pit and roughen the surface which can sometimes show through, although the rougher finnish does act as a very good key for the paint or powdercoat.

 

When chemical dipping is used it's usually,

Acid dipping for steel wheels or steel parts,

Alkali dipping for alloy wheels or aluminium parts.

 

 

There wont be much left of an alloy wheel if you put it in an Acid tank :lol:

[yeti 0]

some wheels like BBS's ect do have quite a strong and thick finnish which is not very easy to remove with the more gentle media blasting processes like bead blasting or nutshell blasting, so steel shot is sometimes used, but as mentioned this tends to pit and roughen the surface which can sometimes show through, although the rougher finnish does act as a very good key for the paint or powdercoat.

 

When chemical dipping is used it's usually,

Acid dipping for steel wheels or steel parts,

Alkali dipping for alloy wheels or aluminium parts.

 

 

There wont be much left of an alloy wheel if you put it in an Acid tank :lol:

 

well done that man! oops, well it was early and i am at work! :sleeping: lol