oz wheel refurb...where?

[laz11]

i have OZ wheels on my pre cat Griff and want to get them refurbed but having contacted PX wheels and found they no longer refurb them I wondered if anyone could recommend anywhere else?

cheers
Lawrence

[magpie215]

not sure where you are in the UK but

www.wheelrepair.co.uk

very good customer service and great refurbs highly recommended on a lot of car forums

[laz11]

cheers just spoke to them...could be as much as £500 for all 4 so will need to have a think!

[WorAl]

£120 per wheel or is that including pick up and drop off???

[DavidLScott]

If they are 2 or 3 piece rims the price starts rocketing as they have to take them apart - otherwise around £60 per wheel seems average.

Just seen you are in Brighton - I had my BMW wheels done at Lepsons in Gillingham - excellent job.

Edited by DavidLScott on Friday 23 January 15:43

[laz11]

WorAl said:

£120 per wheel or is that including pick up and drop off???

yep including pick up and delivery but that's only £50 both ways

[glow worm]

My BMW BBS split rims(2 piece) cost £400 to refurb and they didn't put new bolts in and that was 3 years ago, diamond cut and lacquered. (I think the new centres were £40 each from BMW).

My OZ split rims were already refurbished when I bought them, but the going rate 4 years ago was £600'ish then. They're not lacquered, so its a constant job keeping them smart, but they look better when shinney than lacquered ones. I have a spare set of std. wheels for winter, I smear the OZs with oil and store in the garage. One issue with the BWM BBSs was that when the bolts were torqued , the new lacquer cracked and the had to be done again and lacquered bolted up.

So my recommendation is buy new bolts,don't have them lacquered and buy a tin of Meguairs Metal Polish.

(oh... and get a spare set of std wheels/tyres for winter)

Edited by glow worm on Friday 23 January 16:18

[RUSSELLM]

Laptab in Birmingham

[crossle]

These guys near hemel Hempstead did a fabulous job on my OZ split rims - same as Griff but with polished rims and painted honeycombe centres.

Cleaned, trued, stripped, repaired, painted/re-polished, new bolts, new tyres fitted & balanced for a VERY reasonable price...

I paid cash...

http://www.wheelrefurbishing.co.uk/

Edited by crossle on Friday 23 January 16:29

Edited by crossle on Friday 23 January 16:29

[tom's dad]

I think I`m right in saying that the original finish is clear laquer. Refurbished ones appear to be coloured laquer or non laquered, the latter requiring a lot of maintenance.

[crossle]

tom's dad said:

I think I`m right in saying that the original finish is clear laquer. Refurbished ones appear to be coloured laquer or non laquered, the latter requiring a lot of maintenance.

Mine were originally laquered, and looked crap. The refurb guys left them bare metal polished, and recommended a "Car Plan" product to spray on. As I only used the car in good weather, this wasn't a problem.

The refurb guys reckoned that their polishing method meant that any laquer would not "take" to the metal and would either just peel off, blister, or pin-hole.

Edited by crossle on Friday 23 January 19:26

[glow worm]

Agreed , best left unlacquered... If it does start to peel it's a bigger mess. The lacquer is starting to go on my BMW wheels, I don't think re-lacquering is as good as the original, even after baking in an oven.

Edited by glow worm on Friday 23 January 19:22

[Hoover.]

The original wheels were laquered.... a very strong laqueur which lasted years protecting the shiny rim underneath....... but some tree hugger somewhere decided that these laquers were not for our planet...... so the new laquers do whimpy in comparison and only last a minimal amount of time as they do adhere to well to the polished rim.

I've had my wheels refurbed twice now.....

1st time was bare exposed rim......... these look fantastic when new..... but you soon realise they are a pain the arse to maintain to the shiny rim.... lots of polishing, pitting occurs v easily....... Ok i suppose if you do small mileages, and can be bothered.

2nd time I had the rims adonised..... does not look as bling as the polished wheel but a lot,lot,lot less on the mainatance...... on a note on the adonising front mine are just adonised, but you can have them "brite (or is it bright) adonised" which leaves a polished looking finish

[laz11]

Hoover. said:

The original wheels were laquered.... a very strong laqueur which lasted years protecting the shiny rim underneath....... but some tree hugger somewhere decided that these laquers were not for our planet...... so the new laquers do whimpy in comparison and only last a minimal amount of time as they do adhere to well to the polished rim.

I've had my wheels refurbed twice now.....

1st time was bare exposed rim......... these look fantastic when new..... but you soon realise they are a pain the arse to maintain to the shiny rim.... lots of polishing, pitting occurs v easily....... Ok i suppose if you do small mileages, and can be bothered.

2nd time I had the rims adonised..... does not look as bling as the polished wheel but a lot,lot,lot less on the mainatance...... on a note on the adonising front mine are just adonised, but you can have them "brite (or is it bright) adonised" which leaves a polished looking finish

Thanks for that...I live in Brighton where the car lives outside and I put a lot of mileage on it so will look into seeing if I can get the wheels adonised. I'm a driver rather than a polisher! But the wheels are looking bad enough for me to want them redoing...

[Tuscan Tart]

Have you actually spoken to PX wheels or just seen on their website that they no longer do them?

They did our split rims on the Griff by PX, but when it came to the Tuscan (No idea what wheels we actually have.) we sent them off to PX, they were were then refurbed and sent back. Superb service 10/10

[laz11]

Tuscan Tart said:

Have you actually spoken to PX wheels or just seen on their website that they no longer do them?

They did our split rims on the Griff by PX, but when it came to the Tuscan (No idea what wheels we actually have.) we sent them off to PX, they were were then refurbed and sent back. Superb service 10/10

emailed them and reply was that they don't do them anymore

[Hoover.]

laz11 said:

Tuscan Tart said:

Have you actually spoken to PX wheels or just seen on their website that they no longer do them?

They did our split rims on the Griff by PX, but when it came to the Tuscan (No idea what wheels we actually have.) we sent them off to PX, they were were then refurbed and sent back. Superb service 10/10

emailed them and reply was that they don't do them anymore

he had a lot of his stock stolen following a breakin this time last year....... which ment certain wheels he could not do px on

[Hut49]

Hoover. said:

2nd time I had the rims adonised..... does not look as bling as the polished wheel but a lot,lot,lot less on the mainatance...... on a note on the adonising front mine are just adonised, but you can have them "brite (or is it bright) adonised" which leaves a polished looking finish

At the risk of being branded a pedant, and while the Greek god Adonis has been adapted in the modern vernacular to convey a "handsome" quality to a youth (rather than to a wheel), I think you mean anodised, an electrolytic process used to increase the resilience of a metal to corrosion, by increasing the thickness of the natural oxide layer that forms on the exposed surface.

[laz11]

any one had any experience using these guys? http://www.smartalloyrefurb.co.uk/
Austec use them and considering using them for my split rims. please pm me if appropriate
cheers
lawrence

[Hoover.]

Have you actually spoken to them.....

a lot of companies do not do split rims.

There is a massive difference to stripping old paint, grinding / filling etc and repainting a normal wheel in the back of a van to ........

to stripping the wheel
remove all bolts - either zinc coat them or replace
polishing rim send away for adonising (if bright adonise... I think its adonised, polished again and then readonised... not quiet sure but its how i seem it was explained).
striping, painting and baking wheel center
bolt back together/resealing rims
leave 48hrs (IIRC) to let the seal cure
put on tyre and valves....

I used a company in Sevenoaks (Diamond Style ????? or something like that.... very near the Quaife Gearbox place) ... not cheap at all even with folding ( I think it was a 2 - 3 week turn around as well... I borrowed a set of wheels for the month (Thanks Jon) )

I also had new retaining bolts and key engineered for the center caps by a an enginnering company in Chatham (again name escapes me ).... I could not find for love or money replace bolts that fitted.