alloy refurb

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bamboozooka

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Mar 10, 2018
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3
i've not seen many phevs with repainted alloys. is there a specific reason for this or is it ok to get the alloys sprayed a different colour?
 
I bought a set of alloys off ebay recently because I'm fed up of swapping tyres for summer/winter and worried about tyre/alloy damage - 2 are marked worse than I was led to believe :(

I've got quotes for diamond cutting around £100 per wheel and apparently depending on depth of damage they can only be refurbished 1 or 2 times :shock:

I have been told they have to be stripped and repainted as part of the refurb so colour can be changed if required :?

I'm considering having them powder coated instead as they are for winter - anyone been down this route :?:
 
Are they about to make diamond cutting before or after paint job?
If before its a pain to get mask tape cleared after coating as it melts in heating. If after they need to be lacquered to protect cutted surfaces.

If theyre fir winter use i’d just powder coat all over without cutting.
 
I bought a set from ebay and had them powder coated for winter use - cost around £60 each (for the coating). Paid £530 for the wheels. They were not blasted with any sort of medium, dipped in some sort of acid to remove the original factory finish and then powder coated. Dead smooth and shiny - they do look like new now. They were in very good looking condition when I got them - almost like new. Had to fit new TPMS valves though. Had a bit of trouble balancing them so far though (although this seems mostly due to the Falken Eurowinter tyres which I've sent back), not as easy as the 'summer' set that came with the car. Summer ones need around 45grammes to balance (with Toyos) these up to 100grammes. Here's a picture of them.

Ooh er, my picture seems to have come out really large? It's a 'save for the web' jpeg on an iMac which is 125k. Don't know why it's physically so large though. Is there any specification I should be saving pics too?
 

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Decided to go for Anthracite powder coating on my eBay winter set rather than get them diamond turned - I think they look good :mrgreen:

Getting tyres fitted Wed - reading posts on here I will also need to get TPMS programmed before fitting in winter :geek:

IMG_2759[57416].jpg

Now have a spare set of Toyo Tyres with 5.5-6.5 mm - can I advertise them on this forum and if so where please :?
 
Muddywheels said:
I'm not sure but for winter I agree powder coat is probably best

Nobody appears to give warranty with diamond cutting as metal is exposed to elements
It depends The alloys my winter tyres are factory wheels and still like new after four winters.
 
I agree jaapv - I took the opportunity to remove my factory fitted diamond turned alloys and clean them properly off the vehicle after 2 winters and a summer use - the grime came off easily with nothing more than a snow foam pre soak/jet wash then shampoo - I was advised not to use alloy wheel cleaner due to acid damage risk but it wasn't necessary anyway :mrgreen:

I used to clean the LR alloys off the vehicle as I had 2 sets and they needed alloy wheel cleaner to shift the dirt :roll:

Because I have been using the same alloys with 2 sets of tyres there were a lot of old sticky pads from balancing that needed to be removed which took a bit of effort but the end result was well worth it :cool:

I wasn't as confident an indi refurb would be as durable hence the powder coating on the second set :?
 
Muddywheels said:
Decided to go for Anthracite powder coating on my eBay winter set rather than get them diamond turned - I think they look good :mrgreen:

Getting tyres fitted Wed - reading posts on here I will also need to get TPMS programmed before fitting in winter :geek:

They look good in that colour. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the balancing. Had a lot of trouble with Falken Eurowinters (documented elsewhere on this forum) but Falken admitted that the tyres were too wobbly to balance and gave me a refund.

It does seem to help, if there's a red dot painted (at the tyre factory when it's made) on the tyre sidewall to align it with the valve position. Based on the assumption that the red dot indicates the high point for both radial runout and radial force variation (apparently). Not all tyre fitters seem to take much notice of this. Recently had a part worn Toyo R37 fitted and persuaded the fitter to put the red dot next to the valve, it only needed 45 grammes to balance. That's quite a lot less than some factory fitted Toyos on PHEVs I've seen (anything up to 100 grammes - including the other three on mine). Noticed one in the showroom the other day with over 100 grammes - red dot wasn't aligned with the valve though.
 
Wouldn't have thought the powder coating will make any difference to the balancing. Have you actually ever fitted any tyres to the 'ebay' wheel set pictured though? Presumably when you mention previously swapped winter/summer combination, that was on your original factory fitted alloys supplied with the vehicle.

My 'winter' alloys came from ebay too but I still haven't yet had the opportunity to fit any winter tyres that are actually round enough to absolutely confirm that the alloys are totally straight. My Falken Eurowinters weren't very round. The bloke who powder coated the wheels reckoned the alloys were absolutely straight and showed no signs of previous damage though. I'm soon going to try and get a set of Pirelli Sottozeros fitted (with the red dots positioned next to the valves!) in the hope that the 'premium' quality of the Pirellis means that balancing them will be ok. I remember reading somewhere that due to the softer compound of rubber used in winter tyres they were harder to manufacture. Falken certainly seemed to have some trouble with manufacturing them.
 
Have now got Pirelli Sottozeros fitted to my refurbed alloys. Pirelli's only had yellow dots painted on tyre wall, no red. I'm therefore assuming this is an indication that they are of sufficiently good quality not to require red dots. Took some persuading to get the tyre fitters to put the yellow dots in line with the tyre valve, a task in which they mostly succeeded. Tyre fitters in general seem most reluctant to try this, although what difference it would make to them where they aligned the dots is a mystery to me. Surely they may as well align the dots with the valves as not? Three wheels needed 65 grammes of weight and one needed 100. The one that needed 100 was the one where the yellow dot was not aligned with the valve!

Very smooth and quiet tyres although it was 30oC when I tried them so not entirely helpful in that respect. Don't worry though, in the Scottish Highlands cold weather is not unheard of...
 

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