where do you guys go to fix your wheels?

everyone here is running stretched tires or big wheels... i'm sure many of you have had a bad one and damaged something.

there are no local shops in my area that can repair what i have (chrome). can i have recommendations from members here of a good shop that does shipping? 

[url]http://www.fixarim.com[/url] was the only shop i got a recommendation for... 2 months @ $360usd + shipping to rechrome a 20" 2-piece wheel with a curbed lip and dented inner barrel.

im going to quote something off zilvia

Hitting a curb is like shooting yourself in the head.
How could a sane person do it?


but yes, that sounds about right price wise

i ran over a partially open manhole cover in the middle of the night in the rain :(

Ok, well then its not your fault lol

but that does suck

Thats why its better to get rims with polished lips. It just cost me AUD$99 (US$75) to repair a 3" gash on the side of my rim.

And before you say something, I have no idea how it happened... but i'm starting to suspect the panel beater who fixed it last. I drive super careful and i never come close to curbs or anything that could damage the rims. Then one day i was washing the car and it was there.

you brought up another point i wanted to ask... how do you care for your polished wheels? i used to have blitz technospeed z1's on a previous car, and no matter how much washing and polishing i tried to do, the polished lips on the wheel became quite dull after a year of summer driving. i first tried waxing them with car polish, but it never stayed on for long, then i used wenol to polish it by hand... no luck.

Contact [email]sean@luxury-bippu-style.com[/email] 

Northern California if you or anyone needs wheels re-done.

[quote=thumper;43257]you brought up another point i wanted to ask... how do you care for your polished wheels? i used to have blitz technospeed z1's on a previous car, and no matter how much washing and polishing i tried to do, the polished lips on the wheel became quite dull after a year of summer driving. i first tried waxing them with car polish, but it never stayed on for long, then i used wenol to polish it by hand... no luck.[/quote]

Interesting point... Would love to know the answer to this as well. They are supposed to be clearcoated, but i imagine they cop more abuse than regular car paint, so possibly a proper buffing is necessary?

welllll
if you polish the wheel lip too much the clearcoat gets burned through

i learned that on a set of volks.
i found tha ta reallly good wax helps some times

my technospeeds never had clear on the lips. it was just bare polished aluminum from the day i bought the new.

the local repair shop told me that clearcoating a polished aluminum surface is not possible, because the clear cannot adhere to the surface. the same goes for chrome. i personally know someone who tried clearing chrome and it started looking like a bad sunburn within months.

the only non-painted surface that can be coated is machine or diamond cut finishes.

but then again, i've seen certain brands (HRE? iforged?) have some sort of special coating on their polished wheels... can someone confirm this?

[url]www.thewheelsupply.com[/url]  This is where I go located in SoCal around city of industry.

iforge/hre has CACA finishes.
its a hazy polish cuz its a bare high polish.
work, volk, ss-r, and stuff have a clear anodize lip i thought,
u lose a little shine but it sure as hell lasts longer and resists
dirt better than a polish.

ive noticed the same problem with polished lips and I absolutely cant stand it ! I have 2 friends with HREs on their beemers. both of them take really good care of their rims but on both of sets of wheels, the shine in the polished lips have gone COMPLETELY dull! it looks horrific. ive noticed this on most sets of wheelswith polished lips, unless they were recently purchased.

my new set of trafficstars are on the way and thank god they have an anodized lip. for those of you who are familiar , whats the best way of maintaining anodized lips ? leave it alone or clear coat it ?

Well as an update for my Work Eurolines, i've had the lip fixed now, and got some advice for maintaining them. He recommended a polishing compound that is not too grainy, but he said the deep scratches like what i have near the air valves cant be 'polished out'. He said the only way to fix them perfect would be to dismantle them...
 
But he did give me some great advice to keep the lips shiny - wash with HOT water. Get 2 buckets, one that is bath temperature hot, with a detergent in it (he actually recommended dishwashing detergent!), and another that is too hot to put your hands in. Wash the wheels with a very soft rag/cloth and the soapy water. Then once clean rinse the soap off with the very hot water. There should be no need to chamois the wheels because the hot water evaporates before it can leave watermarks...
 
According to him the real killer for shiny lips is water stains from washing with cold water... I tried his technique and it not only feels great (brake dust comes right off with the hot water), but the lips seemed to dry very shiny...

Thanks Dominik! Great info! I will definately keep this in mind everytime I wash my car/wheels. It seems to make sense.

[QUOTE=Dominik;43256]Thats why its better to get rims with polished lips. It just cost me AUD$99 (US$75) to repair a 3" gash on the side of my rim.[/QUOTE]

your not jokeing? It was that big? I just ran a sinkhole in the same allyway Ive been takeing for a long time, it was coverd with fresh slush. Haveing sport tires I gassed it a bit before I got to it and let off (not to get stuck) so that made it all the more worse, a bit of chewed metal on all 4 and a big gash in the front drivers side. Something that big can be fixed?
Oh and I know they shouldnt be there this time of the year to start with but I needed them on for an Inssurance claim.

Anyone in the Eastern PA/ W.Jersey area that can fix wheels?

[QUOTE]But he did give me some great advice to keep the lips shiny - wash with HOT water. Get 2 buckets, one that is bath temperature hot, with a detergent in it (he actually recommended dishwashing detergent!), and another that is too hot to put your hands in. Wash the wheels with a very soft rag/cloth and the soapy water. Then once clean rinse the soap off with the very hot water. There should be no need to chamois the wheels because the hot water evaporates before it can leave watermarks...[/QUOTE]

I found that clear windex works the best for me.  Its non-amonia so it wont hurt the tire. It makes chrome really shine for the chrome fans.

It looked like i had tried unsuccessfully to make love to a curb - I should have taken pics, but i just wanted it fixed. but yeah $99 for removing the tyre, removing the blemish and polishing it back to a bright shine, and replacing the tyre (he had to go to a tyre shop to replace the tyre because it was stretched on there.

My wheels have polished lips so according to him its easy to fix - no need to re-chrome etc. Not sure if he had to build up the missing metal with a welder or if he just grinded the rest down to meet it - it looks perfect though

[QUOTE=1_VIPd_LS;44011]
I found that clear windex works the best for me.  Its non-amonia so it wont hurt the tire. It makes chrome really shine for the chrome fans.[/QUOTE]

bringing this back from the dead!

what is the technique to this? spray and wipe off? wash off with hot water?

[QUOTE=thumper;43290]the local repair shop told me that clearcoating a polished aluminum surface is not possible, because the clear cannot adhere to the surface. the same goes for chrome. i personally know someone who tried clearing chrome and it started looking like a bad sunburn within months.[/QUOTE]

clear anodize.

is clear anodizing something any wheel repair shop can do, or is it a specialized process?

does anyone have a pic online of a clear anodized wheel?

The JP Scaras have Anodized lips....which is by far the best lips I've had......
 
 
you gotta be careful though with anodized lips.....when repairing.
 
Discount tire cracked one of my wheels.......so they payed for the repair.......only problem is that when I got the wheel back.....they somehow brushed the lip and shot it with clear:mad:  ( this was done from an outside vendor)
 
it looks dull compared to the rest........the shop who fixed it said that a machine that fixes the crack in the inner barrel automatically brushes and refinishes the lip........................:confused: 
 
I believed it at first.......but not until I took the wheel off the car yesterday and noticed they didnt even fix the crack....they just put some goo on it......Bastards..

you should take it back to them.....did they say they were going to weld it shut? or just 'fix' it like they did.

[quote=Caoboy;53675]you should take it back to them.....did they say they were going to weld it shut? or just 'fix' it like they did.[/quote]
 
yeah they said they would weld it shut.
 
I can get the crack welded anyday......but the problem is that they messed with the lip when they didnt have to...
 
its a pretty big big place.....very well known.

You mean you guys aren't just replacing the wheels? :) Seriously though, I've been thinking about taking my wheels to have the lips refinished because the previous owner has put some blemishes and some nicks in them I guess from tire mounting, but after all this talk about clear anodized lips, I'm not sure what I have anymore and not sure if I want to risk taking it to my local wheel refinishing place. [url]http://wheelrefinisher.com/[/url]

So just from listening is it save to say most the wheels members have from Japan have anodized lips? Also what do you all use to polish the lip?

[quote=solini;53765]So just from listening is it save to say most the wheels members have from Japan have anodized lips? Also what do you all use to polish the lip?[/quote]
 
you dont have to use anything special on an anodized lip....
 
anodization is awesome....hardly ever scratches and always stays shiny....I just clean my wheels with warm water (daily:p )

[URL="http://fastforwardwheels.com/"]http://fastforwardwheels.com/[/URL]

Anondized wheels can be repaired but do most places re-anondize them????:confused: 

My buddy was told his could be fixed but they would have to polish the lip. and it would look different than the rest of the wheel. His lip is pretty rashed up too.

[quote=gato;53757]yeah they said they would weld it shut.
 
I can get the crack welded anyday......but the problem is that they messed with the lip when they didnt have to...
 
its a pretty big big place.....very well known.[/quote]
 
It goes to show that even the "pretty big big place" can mess up. Take it back to them like Caoboy said. And since they are reputable, they should know how to do things the right way.

Thanks Dee, that site is the shit

clear anodized is a good idea, anodize in general is $$$$ 
I would rather buy another set of used wheels before anodizeing old one

clear anodization (or similar process)  is very common on most, if not all aluminum wheel outer barrels that were polished prior to treatment [vs those with coatings such as chrome].

some things i learned about clear anodize on alum wheels throughout the years:

if the lip is damaged...

1) small lip scar, they can buff through the clear, repair and polish to almost match the anodization depending on the type of finish/color that was used...  some clears reflect kinda bluish, these are hard to match since polished alum doesn't have these color characteristics.

2) large areas, they will remove from probably the entire lip.  the only real option is to polish it afterwards.  most, if not all wheel repair shops will not anodize in house...  they may send it out to get it clear coated, but chances are the wheel will not match the others.

cracks...

they weld them, then throw on a lathe and turn down the excess.  this also gets them true again.

same deal with finishing, you're probably sol.

[QUOTE=simplename;54055]clear anodized is a good idea, anodize in general is $$$$ 
I would rather buy another set of used wheels before anodizeing old one[/QUOTE]

oh yeah even if you had a lot of money and found a good source to anodize your repaired wheel, it's much like painting a car...  the prep work will never be the same as factory (pulling, sanding, filler on a car versus, filling, sanding, polishing, and prep) prior to finishing.

so even if you had the formula to reproduce the exact same finish, the prep, and process of coating would most likely yield different results.  this can even be seen by a good eye, comparing the finish on a set of ssr wheels from one month to the next, the same way a keen eye can tell a body panel was repainted on a car.

luckily your wheels arent all connected like panels of a car.

if you are a real stickler and perfectionist... and want a odd ball repair wheel to match the other three, take them all in to the same person and have them remove the clear, mirror polish them up (hopefully on a machine (not by hand)), and then have them all clear coated at your favorite paint shop.  that way they will all look new, and match.

just a thought.

[quote=viplife;54082]oh yeah even if you had a lot of money and found a good source to anodize your repaired wheel, it's much like painting a car... the prep work will never be the same as factory (pulling, sanding, filler on a car versus, filling, sanding, polishing, and prep) prior to finishing.
.[/quote]
 
true that.... I have a source that is willing to re anodize that one odd lip.....but he said without knowing the alloy/metal code...there is no telling what color it will come out:sad: 
 
I'm gonna try calling Riverside in Japan....but I doubt they will reveal what metal code they use..........you think they speak english???:confused: