Refurbished Wheels

[Fat Audi 80]

As you all know, I am a perfectionist.

My 10 year old BBS's had started to show their age. Although they looked good from a distance, up close there was a lot of embedded brake dust and crap and a few marks and also a small amount of corrosion. Added to that at the end of last year I managed to kiss the curb with both nearside wheels doing 80 mph.

This gave me excuse I needed to have them refurbed.

The company entrusted with the work intially completely mucked it up with a very poor flat lifeless inconsistent finish and added insult to injury by trying to paint the centre caps with rattle cans!

After complaining, they agreed to repaint them with in a different colour.

I am now happy with the finish. (They were fully stripped, powdercoat base, wet coat colour and powdercoat lacquer).

They are quite different to the original finish, which I am still getting used to, but the colour is growing on me, and my OCD is back in check as they are completely mint again!

Before:



Afters:











Cheers,

Steve.

[Smiley]

Perfect You are reminding me that my Avus 16" need this, too

[S2central.net]

Looking sweet Steve...

Here's a wheel refurb question though - I have two piece H/D rims on the allroad that have definitely seen better days - these will need to be separated for a proper job, but is it normal practise to renew the bolts connecting the two pieces ? Just wondering if they are a stretch bolt or not... I cannot find torque information on them so far.

Also not sure if I can trust a local wheel place to match colour with fresh plastic centre caps.

[Rusty]

Nice work Steve, at least they resolved their **** up. Some wheel places do have a strange idea of what's acceptable.

If they tap into the alloy then I doubt they're stretch Could get the centres colour-coded to the car.

[Big Lee M]

I know that on BBS's that you can use the bolts over and over as I just polished my bolts up(took a while) and I torqued upto 15nm. That what I wa told the setting was for the bolts anyway. Never had any bother with them.

@ Steve how do you get your wheels that dirty when you don't drive it, I thought it lived in the garage? They look really good,awesome finish.

[S2central.net]

D'oh yeah - steel bolts, alloy wheel - not going to be stretchy !

15Nm seems low - will have to try one or two and see where they sit.

What is going rate for a decent wheel refurb these days ?

[Fat Audi 80]

Looking sweet Steve...

Here's a wheel refurb question though - I have two piece H/D rims on the allroad that have definitely seen better days - these will need to be separated for a proper job, but is it normal practise to renew the bolts connecting the two pieces ? Just wondering if they are a stretch bolt or not... I cannot find torque information on them so far.

Also not sure if I can trust a local wheel place to match colour with fresh plastic centre caps.

Yes they will need splitting to do a proper job. I think colour matching the plastic centre caps could be an issue. You would probably need to find a split rim specialist on the mainland for a pukka job...

Cheers,

Steve.

[Fat Audi 80]

I know that on BBS's that you can use the bolts over and over as I just polished my bolts up(took a while) and I torqued upto 15nm. That what I wa told the setting was for the bolts anyway. Never had any bother with them.

@ Steve how do you get your wheels that dirty when you don't drive it, I thought it lived in the garage? They look really good,awesome finish.

You are right I don't drive it much now. I think it has done less than 2000 miles in the last 12 months.

It is surprising how quickly it can get dirty when you try and keep it clean ALL the time like I do.

I will give it a bath again tomorrow as I have taken it to work today.

Thanks for all the kind words. The colour is slighly less shiney than before, but I have decided it is a little more OEM and subtle now...

[S2central.net]

Centre caps have a circular Audi logo so I suppose its easy to mask that out and ensure a perfect colour match when the wheels are sprayed. I assume they have an oven at the local place but I will have to check it out.

[Fat Audi 80]

Nice work Steve, at least they resolved their **** up. Some wheel places do have a strange idea of what's acceptable.

If they tap into the alloy then I doubt they're stretch Could get the centres colour-coded to the car.

Yeah, to be fair they didn't quibble at all about doing them again, and also threw in some nice chrome valve tube covers and caps.

I would not wholly recommend them to others, although they are part of www.thewheelspecialist.co.uk chain, they are new franchise and I think they lack the experience...

[GazzaG60]

glad your happy. pristine did mine a few weeks ago. they are as factory finish.

[s2driveruk]

looking great

[Ross]

Looking good Steve Edit: see they are swindon based.

What's the cost behind a good wheel reburbish? I am thinking of putting my cup1 reps in but they're a touch egg-shaped thanks to a pothole, hoping they're not beyond repair...

[Fat Audi 80]

I paid £300 for mine. That was with the 20% easter discount! Not cheap, but a decent job in the end.

If I was going to do them again I would definitely go here: http://www.rimfurbish.co.uk/ I have heard nothing but good things...

Cheers,

Steve.

[anthonys2]

Very nice Steve alloys look great but i think ive said before i think your s2 looks fab nice combination of wheels and colour and condition