Alloy Wheel Re-Furb

almostover

Anyone have any experience of using these guys for alloy wheel re-furb? http://www.wheeldoctor.ie/wheel-refurbishing.aspx

Kerbed 2 of my alloys off a footpath at the weekend (so p**sed off with myself :mad:) and want to get them repaired. Was thinking of doing a DIY job but if these lads are good and a fair price I'll just leave it to the pros.

biko

WheelDoctor in Tipperary have been recommended before in this forum.

fmcg_scribe

Most refurb specialists do a good job but if you are fussy about retaining the colour(s) and overall finish of the wheels from when they were new, that's tricky.

almostover

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

Most refurb specialists do a good job but if you are fussy about retaining the colour(s) and overall finish of the wheels from when they were new, that's tricky.

My main concern is if I refurb the 2 wheels with the kerb damage will they match the 2 non damaged wheels?

YbFocus

almostover wrote: »

My main concern is if I refurb the 2 wheels with the kerb damage will they match the 2 non damaged wheels?

If they were a tiny bit out put two on one side and two on the other.
Unless of course there staggered.

fmcg_scribe

almostover wrote: »

My main concern is if I refurb the 2 wheels with the kerb damage will they match the 2 non damaged wheels?

Depending on the alloys you have, many refurb specialists will probably be cautious about making any promises about whether all four wheel will look the same after the refurb. The stakes are raised if your wheels are two tone or diamond cut, and so on.

MarkR

Have used him a few years back. What wheels do you have, if they are a fairly standard colour, they should be easy enough to match. I think he just gets rattle cans off the shelf for touching up. Anyone more current experience?

almostover

MarkR wrote: »

Have used him a few years back. What wheels do you have, if they are a fairly standard colour, they should be easy enough to match. I think he just gets rattle cans off the shelf for touching up. Anyone more current experience?

They are Opel Vectra SRi alloys. They don't appear to have any special finish to them. They are standard specification.

fmcg_scribe

MarkR wrote: »

Have used him a few years back. What wheels do you have, if they are a fairly standard colour, they should be easy enough to match. I think he just gets rattle cans off the shelf for touching up. Anyone more current experience?

Ah well, now we're talking about a DIY / mobile refurb service that "touches" up the paint and lacquer of a wheel versus a full reburb where a wheel is repaired as required and repainted and given the appropriate finish.

If going the latter route, there are so many different shades of silver and several other colours.

If OP is fussy only about cosmetic look of two wheels, perhaps the DIY approach might be best because it will be cheap and less intrusive than a full refurb.

Personally, I would get a wheel or set of wheels refurbed only if wheels were losing air pressure due to paint flecking on inside rims or if paint on all four wheels was heavily damaged and spoiling the overall look of the car.

That said, the DIY approach always reminds me of Clarkson "detailing" that Rolls Royce he drove into a swimming pool:
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/pool-party

Slicemeister

fmcg_scribe wrote: »

Personally, I would get a wheel or set of wheels refurbed only if wheels were losing air pressure due to paint flecking on inside rims.[/url]

Apologies if this is is a stupid question but can that happen?
Have a set of alloys on my own yoke and I've been back to the tyre service with this problem only to be told everything is fine.
Might take 3 weeks but my back passenger wheel would go from 34psi down to 16 or 18 for no reason.

fmcg_scribe

Slicemeister wrote: »

Apologies if this is is a stupid question but can that happen?
Have a set of alloys on my own yoke and I've been back to the tyre service with this problem only to be told everything is fine.
Might take 3 weeks but my back passenger wheel would go from 34psi down to 16 or 18 for no reason.

The paint flecking problem happened to me with a used Lexus IS 300 I bought. On one wheel, tyre started to lose one psi per day.

Took the car to a tyre fitter who pointed out the flecking problem to me. There was no possibility of a slow puncture or a valve problem - all checked out OK. He added that only a refurb would solve the problem and that the same problem would soon start to affect the other three wheels.

So it was either a refurb or move to a different set of wheels. I wouldn't have refurbed those wheels for cosmetic reasons - loss of air pressure at that rate was just too big a problem to ignore.

To be fair, most of the wheel styles for the first generation Lexus IS were affected by corrosion, mainly because of the salt used to grit roads in some parts of Europe.

While the car was in production, Lexus generally replaced any corroded wheels under warranty. I'm not aware of corrosion affecting the wheels of the second and third generation IS or any other Lexus models before or since.

I suppose that you could rationalise the problem as a hark back to the first Toyota cars brought over to Europe during the early 1970s - many of them rusted badly and Toyota's brand reputation over here at the time was toxic but the company learned a harsh lesson and fixed those problems.

That said, there has been the occasional rust hiccup for Toyota/Lexus since then, for example:
http://www.autonews.com/article/20140522/OEM11/140529942/toyota-recalls-466000-vehicles-to-fix-rust-corrosion-brake-pedal

almostover

I'll take pictures later and post here. Those of you with experience in this area might be able to advise me on the best course of action then.

MarkR

almostover wrote: »

They are Opel Vectra SRi alloys. They don't appear to have any special finish to them. They are standard specification.

I think the german cars all use the "german wheel silver" colour. Look up wurth silver spray paint. Supposed to be a very good match for OEM colours. I bought some (and never used it actually) to touch up some alloys, but I sold them in the meantime. They've a place in Cork if I remember right.

That's if it's not a full refurb.

almostover

This is the damage - the alloy spokes stick out father than the tyres and got a fair ould rub off the footpath. Sanding and filling is definitely required and I'm unsure whether to tackle myself or get an alloy wheel specialist to refurb.

fmcg_scribe

almostover wrote: »

This is the damage - the alloy spokes stick out father than the tyres and got a fair ould rub off the footpath. Sanding and filling is definitely required and I'm unsure whether to tackle myself or get an alloy wheel specialist to refurb.

I could live with that damage - in fact, the wheels of my current car have lots of damage like that but not put there by me.

I can understand that you would prefer that the damage was not visible but honestly most punters and traders would not focus on that level of damage when you go to sell or trade in the car.

MetzgerMeister

almostover wrote: »

This is the damage - the alloy spokes stick out father than the tyres and got a fair ould rub off the footpath. Sanding and filling is definitely required and I'm unsure whether to tackle myself or get an alloy wheel specialist to refurb.

I would be pretty confident that he would be able to just repair the damage and not even have to refurb the whole wheel. The secret lies in machine polishing the face of the other spokes to match the lustre of the new paint on the repaired ones.

almostover

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

I would be pretty confident that he would be able to just repair the damage and not even have to refurb the whole wheel. The secret lies in machine polishing the face of the other spokes to match the lustre of the new paint on the repaired ones.

Think I'll give him a ring tomorrow. Any idea of the cost? If its dear I might give it a go myself.

MetzgerMeister

No clue I'm afraid. I haven't had any work done by him. At least if you try it yourself first, you can always bring it to him afterwards if you're not happy with your own job.