Alloy wheel refurbs. Am i a **** or did i have a near miss?

[pilchardthecat]

I've wanted a second set of OEM wheels for a few months now, as mine have been badly refurbished by a prior owner and are in a bit of a state with some corrosion, rough patches etc. Finally got some on ebay which looked decent and were described as follows

"... restored to factory shine by BJV Engineering near London..."

"...have done our wheels there many times and their work has always been superb. Your fingers will glide smoothly on the freshly painted and waxed/polished surface."

"The wheels are now immaculate, as if taken off the box...

"...the wheels are pure perfection..."

Now I don't know anything at all about wheel refurbishment. I was quite surprised therefore to discover that the silver paint finish hadn't been applied to the entire wheel (the outward face of the wheel was silver, but the rest was a sort of whitish powder coat/undercoat, although there was some overspray there was little paint beyond the first 2" of the wheel, and the white areas would have been clearly visible.... the things didn't look right, so i reneged on my ebay purchase.

Felt slightly bad as the fellow had driven 2 hours to deliver them. Did i do the right thing? Do properly refurbished wheels actually look like new ones or was i expecting too much?

[davemac250]

I have had three sets refurbished. All of them have looked as good as new.

Painted and lacquered completely.

What you describe sounds more like the wheels were touched up.

[Ian974]

I've not had wheels refurbished myself, but new wheels 'fresh out the box' wouldn't be half painted.

[Deerfoot]

pilchardthecat said:

Did I do the right thing?

If you weren`t happy with them, you`ve done the right thing, absolutely.

[Stedman]

Yes done the right thing completely. My Dad had some wheels done there was the wheels came back quite good!

[Tsippy]

I've refurbed wheels myself in the past and not had overspray, so sounds like it was an amateur job.

[Jayho]

Maybe he should have stuck around while you opened the box to inspect them? That would sound like the sensible thing to do, and when you see that there weren't as discribed just refuse the item and have him take it back down to save another trip?

[John D.]

Don't know much about alloy refurbs but BJV are very highly regarded amongst my local petrolhead mates. Did a nice job on the wheels from my old car.

Whether they actually touched these wheels or not is a different matter.

[poo at Paul's]

No,it sounds exactly like the way BJV do them. And it is all powder coat and will be hard as nails.

It's just the sparkel silver that do the faces in is pricier than the "grey" colour powder you describe, which is used as the base coat. Dont know the wheel manufacturer but proper BBS wheels often have a very thin final coat of metallic on them with the base grey showing through, and that is even on the front face, particularly around deep set wheel bolt holes.

BJV stuff is very good. If the owner takes them back and mentions it, they will probably redo them for him, if it is needed.

BTW I had some wheels done there and had noticed the grey powder used on the inside of the wheel, so asked for them to be done front and back. They did so and charged a nominal sum extra.

But whatever the finsih, compared to oem paint, it will be far harder wearing, whatever.

[pilchardthecat]

poo at Paul's said:

No,it sounds exactly like the way BJV do them. And it is all powder coat and will be hard as nails.

They looked rubbish. I would have thought they would at least paint all of the visible parts of the wheel?