Paint spots after alloy refurb

[Axegrinderturbo]

Hi,

I had a full refurb done on my alfa Brera wheels on Thursday. They're 18 inch and we're not in great shape before hand but didn't have any major corrosion.

I got a mobile alloy refurb specialist to come out and he spent about 5 hours on all 4 wheels. They generally look great but I've spent some time cleaning the car etc today and noticed a couple of paint spots an there is one spot that come off and left a black mark. You can see this in the pic as well as another paint spot to the left.

I understand the alloys are probably a pig to do however I think I'm going to have to get back in touch tomorrow to get this sorted. I paid £200 for the whole job and don't think they look perfect.

If you look at the outer edge of the close up pic, I am being picky in thinking this should be smoother that it is?

I just wanted to see if I'm being to fussy or if anyone has had a similar experience. The guy does this full time and has great reviews so don't want to get on google reviews just yet.

There's a pic a bit further out and they look great.

Thanks

[paintman]

What exactly did the refurbisher do?
Were the wheels taken off the car?
Were the tyres taken off?

The black bit in your pic looks like road tar - there's another lump of something under the paint in the area to the left of it. I wonder if that's tar under the paint as well? That and the total time involved would suggest that the wheels might have just had a bit of a degrease & clean, the damaged areas have been gel filled* & then they've been blown over with colour & clearcoat.

• Wheel repair gel is put onto the damaged area & sprayed with its hardener. Almost instantly hard & can then be sanded. This sort of stuff:

www.spraygunsdirect.co.uk/preparation/adhesives/im...

Edited by paintman on Monday 30th October 09:01

[steveo3002]

looks like he painted over blobs of tar ..

[Axegrinderturbo]

Thanks for the replies.

The black mark was a lump of paint silver paint that I flicked off and left the black underneath. I don’t want to flick the small blob on the left as it will leave the same black mark.

He took the wheels off and deflated the tyres, masked off the tyre grinding back the outer damage with a grinder and the rest was done by hand. It was a mobile person but had all of the equipment in his van. He said he would be applying primer, 2 coats of paint and 3 coats of laquer.

On the whole the wheel looks great but I was expecting a perfect as new finish however this isn’t the case.

I just don’t whether I’m expecting too much or whether I should be adamant with him that I want the imperfections refinishing.

[yajeed]

50 quid a wheel sounds pretty cheap, IMHO.

[paintman]

Axegrinderturbo said:

On the whole the wheel looks great but I was expecting a perfect as new finish however this isn’t the case.

I just don’t whether I’m expecting too much or whether I should be adamant with him that I want the imperfections refinishing.

Whilst I agree you want defects sorting out if you wanted 'perfect as new' then I'd suggest you need to have the wheels off, tyres etc all off, wheels stripped back to bare metal, all defects sorted then respraying. Tyres refitted balanced etc.

I doubt that's going to be a man-in-a-van refurb & I also doubt it's going to be £50 a wheel - but there are any number of companies out there that do alloy wheels so the market is very competitive.

Perhaps those who've had a full refurb done could give an idea as to what sort of money is realistic.

Edited by paintman on Monday 30th October 12:03

[Axegrinderturbo]

I had a few quotes from £40-£60 per wheel but the company I used had good reviews. The guy does this full time.

I’ll message him the pics and see what he says as I don’t think I should be having to touch it up myself after spending good money on it.

[Squiggs]

I'd say £200 for 5 hrs work is cheap.
By the time he's paid out for materials, tax, NI, insurance, fuel, etc, etc, etc then he's not really making much.

If you called a plumber out to do 5 hrs work they'd at least be charging £50 per hr (plus materials!)
(And plumbing doesn't get a scrutinised as paint work)

[designforlife]

For £50 a wheel from a mobile outfit, i'd say you've done pretty well there...they look pretty well done on the whole.

Perfect finish in that environment and price point is optimistic.

Down in the home counties you're looking at about £300 to do a set of 17s, and that would be over a day or two, tyres off, shot blasted etc.

[Scimitarinjection]

£50 a wheel is hobby pricing, not professional rates. I would be grateful that they are as good as they are.

[Axegrinderturbo]

I’m getting them touched up tomorrow so will hopefully be all sorted. Thanks for the replies

[Quattromaster]

Axegrinderturbo said:

I’m getting them touched up tomorrow so will hopefully be all sorted. Thanks for the replies

Thank god for that, I've nothing booked in for a touch up tomorrow, my company refurbs alloys, and we did a set of Alfa alloys last Thursday, for the price you paid, Ive been worried all week it was these, lol.

[7even]

I think you got a good deal at £200, id want almost that to do one of those. Your not going to get a perfect new wheel from a man on a van, unless the wheel has miniscule damage.
Hope you got a satisfactory result after the revisit.