Alloy Wheel Damage

survey

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So hot today, I must have taken my eye off the road and managed to scuff one of my alloy wheels (yup, low profile). The damage is limited to the outer ring but raised scuffing to about 50% of the outer circumference; also managed to rub off about 75mm of the thin tyre ring. Car drives fine and no real damage to the tyre.

So I have choices:
Do nothing
Get the wheel polished to some semblance of normality
Replace the wheel (seems a bit extreme)

Can one get scuffed up alloys repolished and if so what is the likely cost and then I have to find someone near me (Norwich/Ipswich)?
 

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A picture of the wheel is worth so much, bad luck it happens to most of us
 

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You could just sand off the damage,,,an example here

I used a belt sander after having the tyre pushed off the rim and finish off with 1000 paper wet







 

redjules51

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Damage doesn't look too terrible. Would have thought decent repair about £60-£70 for one wheel. Pro rata price for more is a fair bit cheaper. Last time I had two done at a site based Chips Away and they charged £100 for both but they were doing some other work for me. Try to avoid the mobile companies but that is my opinion. At the very least the tyre should be deflated rather than masked.
 

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This is a diamond cut wheel and much more expensive to do than a standard one colour wheel
 

SJMaxwell

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Full refurb by Lepsons is about £80 but they do guarantee the diamond cut finish now. There are a few second hand ones on eBay but make sure you get the right part number - W212 are used for both E Coupe and E saloon but they have different off sets! Don't know about other models though
 
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survey

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I have located a reasonably local company. Their proposal is as follows:

To get the wheel back to its original condition we will need to go through this process:

- Remove tyre and wheel weights
- Sand blast wheel
- Acid dip wheel
- Prime powder coat wheel
- Silver powdercoat wheel
- Spin and diamond cut the flat surfaces back to bear metal
- Clearcoat lacquer wheel
- Refit tyre
- Balance wheel


They say they need to diamond cut the whole wheel despite the damaage being limited to just the circumference. I am concerned about whether the treatment will result in the wheel not matching the others. The company has said:
Unfortunately there is no way to diamond cut just one area of a wheel, the entire face needs to be re-skimmed. It the silver may be a slightly different silver to the others but the only way around that is to do either all 4, or 2 on the same side of the car so you would never notice

Any comment upon this? And the cost at £100 plus VAT?
 
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television

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Yes that is all true, sand it off as I did and see how it looks, it may hardly show
 
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survey

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Yes that is all true, sand it off as I did and see how it looks, it may hardly show

Would the wheel need re-balancing and relacquering then?
 
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brick10

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Yes that is all true, sand it off as I did and see how it looks, it may hardly show

I agree with Malcolm, I did the same with two of my
wheels, I will add it wasn't me who did it.
You have nothing to lose by having a go.
ps a mechanic friend of mine couldn't tell which wheel's
I had done.
 
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survey

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I agree with Malcolm, I did the same with two of my
wheels, I will add it wasn't me who did it.
You have nothing to lose by having a go.
ps a mechanic friend of mine couldn't tell which wheel's
I had done.

Thanks. That's really encouraging. I don't mind the cost (within reason) but don't want to end up with a poor result. I may well get the perimeter affected ring area just sanded down as suggested Malcolm and then have a look. What about balancing & re-lacquering?
 
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brick10

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wheel damage

Hi, the wheel will not need to be balanced, as for the
lacquer you can just respray it with clear lacquer.
 

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The wheel in my picture may have some High temp silver paint on as it is the brightest silver that you can get, it will not take clear on top
 
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survey

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The wheel in my picture may have some High temp silver paint on as it is the brightest silver that you can get, it will not take clear on top

Hi Malcolm, thanks for your good advice as usual. As I said I think I am going to go down the route of just trying to get the perimeter smoothed down and see how it looks. Then will get some lacquer and spray the flattened area.
 

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Hi Malcolm, thanks for your good advice as usual. As I said I think I am going to go down the route of just trying to get the perimeter smoothed down and see how it looks. Then will get some lacquer and spray the flattened area.

Go to a tyre place and just have the tyre pushed back on the rim, do not take it off and most places will do it free. I have a belt sander but if you do not have one start off with a 200 grit paper over a block of wood and about 6" long.

You must use a block to keep it all level. do keep the block on the rim edge to avoid further damage to the spokes, you can feather this later when you are up to 1000 wet paper

Once you are up to 400 wet and dry a block is not needed

Yes the wheels in the bottom 2 picture have Plasti kote hot paint from B&Q or halfords and about £5 it dries in minutes and you van recoat after 10 mins. it goes off very hard after a week but you can use the wheel straight away.

The other thing is there is the odd wheel that comes up on Ebay, reduce the search to exactly what you are looking for, handy for a spare later on.
 
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survey

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Go to a tyre place and just have the tyre pushed back on the rim, do not take it off and most places will do it free. I have a belt sander but if you do not have one start off with a 200 grit paper over a block of wood and about 6" long.

You must use a block to keep it all level. do keep the block on the rim edge to avoid further damage to the spokes, you can feather this later when you are up to 1000 wet paper

Once you are up to 400 wet and dry a block is not needed

Yes the wheels in the bottom 2 picture have Plasti kote hot paint from B&Q or halfords and about £5 it dries in minutes and you van recoat after 10 mins. it goes off very hard after a week but you can use the wheel straight away.

The other thing is there is the odd wheel that comes up on Ebay, reduce the search to exactly what you are looking for, handy for a spare later on.

Malcom - thanks for your advice on this matter. In the end I did just go for the perimeter ring being rubbed down. All done within 24 hours and a perfect job. I wont post a photo because it looks just like new. In fact they did manage just to rub down the affected 50% of the rim and you can barely see the start & finish. When I asked about lacquering, they had already done that. Cost £50. A good result.

MB wanted £500 for a new alloy!!!!
 
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television

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Thanks for the feedback :D:D
 


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