The Autowerks (Slough): Our Wheel Refurbishment work

Harry @ The Autowerks said:

Robertb said:

What do you charge for a straight forward (non split-rim) wheel refurb- a proer job, inside and out?

Pm me if you prefer.

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the cost to refurb the above would be £65 + vat per wheel. the cost goes up from there depending on whether the finish is to be powdercoated in high gloss black for instance, and obviously as you said, whether it's two or three piece.

The process will be as follows:
- remove tyre, valve and wheel weights
- strip the wheel completely of any paint and lacquer
- remove any kerbing
- powdercoat the primer
- wet paint the colour
- lacquer
- then bake in the oven in order to cure the lacquer
- fit a new valve, re-fit the tyre, balance the wheel
- fit it back on the car

Click to expand...

Thanks Harry, pics look superb.

For me and everyone else can you elaborate on 'remove kerbing' please. I've read about various 'processes' for this including 'we only use alloy welding'. What I'm concerned about is fillers etc that are natural weak points that easily damage when put on tyre removal machines.

Secondly on OE wheels the inners are usually the harder grey powdercoat, but on most refurbs I've seen the inners are silver or have significant overspray through the spokes. Where do you stand on this?

Hiya Harry,

Great pics, work looks good. I was wondering if you could quote me on 18" Porsche Classic II Split rims?

They're all kerbed and have had a poor refurb done on them prior to my purchase of the car, and it's peeling badly.

PM me if prefered.

Cheers!

Taran :thumb:

Chris W said:

For me and everyone else can you elaborate on 'remove kerbing' please. I've read about various 'processes' for this including 'we only use alloy welding'. What I'm concerned about is fillers etc that are natural weak points that easily damage when put on tyre removal machines.

Secondly on OE wheels the inners are usually the harder grey powdercoat, but on most refurbs I've seen the inners are silver or have significant overspray through the spokes. Where do you stand on this?

Click to expand...

Chris,

90% of all kerb damage is removed via the use of various grades of sanding discs. if you imagine that when a wheel is kerbed, the damage has to pentrate the lacquer, colour, and primer coats before it actually hits the wheel. and as you say, most wheels have a powdercoated basecoat which is thick and hard. so once we chemically strip the wheel we then assess the real damage caused to the wheel. as i said, most of it is machined out, but we do use metal filler if there is a significant chunk taken out of the wheel. once the filler is dry enough to work with we'll sand it back down before we powdercoat the primer. the wheel is baked at 200 deg C during the powdercoating process, so the filler is cured absolutely solid.

there is never any reason why a tyre machine should put enough stress on the rim of the wheel to damage it. all of the lacquer, paint and powdercoat would have to be ripped off before it were to get to the filler. the areas of contact when fitting a tyre are between the wheel rim and the tyre itself, the fitting arm of the machine should never touch the rim. we've fitted alot of run flat tyres to BMW wheels that we have refurbed, and the wall of a run flat tyre is VERY thick, and has absolutely no 'give' in it whatsoever, and these have all been fitted without any problems.

i hope that puts your mind at ease with regard to the issue of filler

as for painting the back of a wheel ...i prefer the OEM look of painted face and grey powder inner - although it is personal preference and we can do it either way. the issue of overspray is easily overcome by masking off the inner of the wheel prior to painting. the masking is removed before the wheel gets lacquered though, in order to avoid creating a ledge between the painted and powdered areas.

apologies for the long post, but there's no short answer really

regards
Harry

tazsura said:

Hiya Harry,

Great pics, work looks good. I was wondering if you could quote me on 18" Porsche Classic II Split rims?

They're all kerbed and have had a poor refurb done on them prior to my purchase of the car, and it's peeling badly.

PM me if prefered.

Cheers!

Taran :thumb:

Click to expand...

hi Taran,

can you forward any pictures of the wheels to me, my email address is

harry (at) the-autowerks.com

are the Classic similar to the Sport Design two piece wheels in that the rim is diamond turned as opposed to being painted?

if the wheels have been refurbed before did they get rid of the diamond turned effect by painting over it?

if they were diamond turned from the factory would you like them refurbed to that finish, or do you want the rim painted?

Harry @ The Autowerks said:

Chris W said:

For me and everyone else can you elaborate on 'remove kerbing' please. I've read about various 'processes' for this including 'we only use alloy welding'. What I'm concerned about is fillers etc that are natural weak points that easily damage when put on tyre removal machines.

Secondly on OE wheels the inners are usually the harder grey powdercoat, but on most refurbs I've seen the inners are silver or have significant overspray through the spokes. Where do you stand on this?

Click to expand...

Chris,

90% of all kerb damage is removed .....apologies for the long post, but there's no short answer really

Harry

Click to expand...

Thanks appreciate you explaining. I just wondered if the powdercoat has less of a bond on the filler than bare metal. I have had my rim damaged in the past (at a respected Indy) and assumed this was the reason for paint to flake/crack.

Cheers Harry, i'll email you in a bit mate.

Taran :bandit:

If a tyre-fitter damages a wheel then they pay for it to be fixed - simple. As Harry pointed out, there's no reason for it to happen other than carelessness.

I don't know any wheel refurbishment companies that use alloy welding unless the damage is severe - the industry uses specific alloy wheel fillers developed for the purpose.

Harry do you powder your lacquer or is it a 2 pack HS? Have you moved to water-base for your color coats?

stats007 said:

If a tyre-fitter damages a wheel then they pay for it to be fixed - simple. As Harry pointed out, there's no reason for it to happen other than carelessness.

I don't know any wheel refurbishment companies that use alloy welding unless the damage is severe - the industry uses specific alloy wheel fillers developed for the purpose.

Harry do you powder your lacquer or is it a 2 pack HS? Have you moved to water-base for your color coats?

Click to expand...

good post.

we only powder lacquer over diamond turned finishes, as we find it binds better than a 2 pack lacquer. otherwise we use 2 pack lacquer over all the painted finishes

and yes, we use water based paint, DuPonts tinter and binder system.

Email sent to [email protected]

Let me know if you don't get it.

Taran :thumb:

tazsura said:

Email sent to [email protected]

Let me know if you don't get it.

Taran :thumb:

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replied :thumb:

Chris W said:

Harry @ The Autowerks said:

Chris W said:

For me and everyone else can you elaborate on 'remove kerbing' please. I've read about various 'processes' for this including 'we only use alloy welding'. What I'm concerned about is fillers etc that are natural weak points that easily damage when put on tyre removal machines.

Secondly on OE wheels the inners are usually the harder grey powdercoat, but on most refurbs I've seen the inners are silver or have significant overspray through the spokes. Where do you stand on this?

Click to expand...

Chris,

90% of all kerb damage is removed .....apologies for the long post, but there's no short answer really

Harry

Click to expand...

Thanks appreciate you explaining. I just wondered if the powdercoat has less of a bond on the filler than bare metal. I have had my rim damaged in the past (at a respected Indy) and assumed this was the reason for paint to flake/crack.

Click to expand...

For what its worth, I touched in a bit of rim damage on one of my Lexus alloys, and the touch-in paint did not flake off at all when I had some tyres fitted. Saying that, the paint on all 4 wheels on our Audi flaked when a guy fitted some tyres, but I'm inclined to blame a cheap shoddy refurb rather than the tyre guy.

Harry @ The Autowerks said:

Robertb said:

What do you charge for a straight forward (non split-rim) wheel refurb- a proer job, inside and out?

Pm me if you prefer.

Click to expand...

the cost to refurb the above would be £65 + vat per wheel. the cost goes up from there depending on whether the finish is to be powdercoated in high gloss black for instance, and obviously as you said, whether it's two or three piece.

The process will be as follows:
- remove tyre, valve and wheel weights
- strip the wheel completely of any paint and lacquer
- remove any kerbing
- powdercoat the primer
- wet paint the colour
- lacquer
- then bake in the oven in order to cure the lacquer
- fit a new valve, re-fit the tyre, balance the wheel
- fit it back on the car

Click to expand...

Thanks Harry- that seems very reasonable. How long does the process take for a set?

Hi Harry, I'm interested.

Quality wins over price anyday and my Sport Classic split rims and centre caps will need a makeover when it comes to changing my tyres in a couple of thousand miles.

Are you hooked up with a competitively priced Michelin tyre shop with a decent well looked after wheel balancer?
Sorry for sounding fussy but my wheels have been around more wheel balancers than my old 78's round a gramophone

Just a thought, don't suppose you paint PU bumpers and stuff as well?

Robertb said:

Thanks Harry- that seems very reasonable. How long does the process take for a set?

Click to expand...

generally speaking it's a 2-3 day turnaround. most of the time it's 2, but it just depends which part of the'cycle' we are in when we receive the car.

obviously split rims and special finishes take longer

oze172 said:

Hi Harry, I'm interested.

Quality wins over price anyday and my Sport Classic split rims and centre caps will need a makeover when it comes to changing my tyres in a couple of thousand miles.

Are you hooked up with a competitively priced Michelin tyre shop with a decent well looked after wheel balancer?
Sorry for sounding fussy but my wheels have been around more wheel balancers than my old 78's round a gramophone

Just a thought, don't suppose you paint PU bumpers and stuff as well?

Click to expand...

we supply tyres, at competitive prices, and have an excellent wheel balancer! so let me know when you need tyre quotes and i'll see what i can do.

and yes, we do all manner of bodywork