Wheel refurb and tyres question.

[mitalm]

Hi guys,

Bit bored doing work and have been thinking about things to do over the summer to my car.

I have some RS4 replica wheels on my car at the moment but they are curbed very badly pretty much all the way round on all of them (don't ask, mixture of brother and mother using the car and being unable to parallel park, and admittedly my fault a few times ).
So anyway I was wondering about refurbishing them, not currently with my car as it's at home and I am at uni so can't post any pics, but it's fair to say the edges are pretty bad.
I was thinking of taking them to The Wheel Specialist in Fareham which is the closest to me, has anyone used this exact branch or any of The Wheel Specialist branches? How did the wheels come out? I have heard good things so think it should be ok.
I was thinking Anthracite to go with the dark blue of my car, as opposed to the sports silver that the wheels are right now.

So then even after I get them refurbed the reason that they got so curbed in the first place is that the edge of the tyre stops before the face of the wheel so there is a good cm or so of rim sticking out that is continuously getting scraped against curbs, obviously this would still happen if I don't change the tyres.
So the next question is about the widest tyre that can fit onto an 8J rim? I have done a bit of looking around and it seems it is possible to fit wider tyres I'm just not sure if I need that 'special mate' at a garage to do it for me...?
I believe that right now I have 225 tyres on the car so was thinking either 235 or maybe even 245?

So yeah those are my questions, hope they don't sound too stupid.

Thanks in advance, I've usually been given really good advice so look forward to hearing from people

Mital

 

[dancarpy]

Ive had a quote from the wheel specialists in manchester and ive heard good things from them.
They quoted me something like £260 for refurb, powder coat gloss black and balance.
I think this is a pretty steep price so im hanging on at the moment but they do seem very professional.
Nilz18t recommended a place in Birmingham which refurbs for £20 a wheel but its a bit of a trek seeing as im in manchester.
Oh and most good tyres have a rim protector where the tyre sticks out half an inch or so.without going for a wider tyre.
I have 225 michelin pilot sport 2 on my avus s3 rims and they have the rim protector and it seemed to work the other day when i brushed a curb !
examples...
http://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/tiretech/rim_protectors/RimProtectorRaised.jpg

http://schuss.net/photos/mgmt/albums/userpics/10001/zrimshot_b.jpg

 

[mitalm]

Yeah I think mine was about that much, I was going to have my local garage take off the tyres and re-fit them as they would no doubt do it for a lot less, so it would probably take the £15 per wheel tyre removal and re-fitting cost off.

Yeah I'm in Portsmouth so it would be just as much of a trek.

Hmm the tyres on my wheels are the cheapo ones that came with them so clearly no rim protectors.

Do you know if it possible to fit wider tyres on the rim? Or is it worth just getting the same width tyres but ensuring there is a rim protector?

 

[Nilz]

I had mine done at City Powder Coaters in Brum, I know its a bit of a trek for you, but what they have done to my rims is AMAZING, if you take them with the tyres on, they will charge you £120 for allf four, or £80 without tyres.

They can do allsorts of finishes and will take upto a week to get them done.

As for the tyres, I think you could probably go upto 245, but im sure someone will clarify this, however, you need to remember, they need to fit under the arch and not scrape either.

Hope that helps, let us know how you get on and what you decide.

 

[A3Tom]

The Wheel Specialists in Birmingham did a good job on mine but were VERY expensive. I wont be going back there...mine cost pretty much £350 to do all four wheels. Hard to swallow when I can get them done for £120 all in down the road...at the place THEY SEND THEM TO!!.

So I wouldnt recommend them.

 

[mitalm]

Wow that does sound like a really good deal. Hmm still don't quite know if it's worth it, 6 hours there an back and also having to leave the wheels there for a week...

Yeah hopefully someone can clarify the tyre thing for me, by looking around I think that 245 is fine, but then again I'm not a tyre expert... Yeah I have to make sure I keep an eye on that because I am also going to be lowering the car soon.

Yeah of course I'll let you guys know what I decide.

 

[mitalm]

Sorry Tom you posted whilst I was writing.

Ah ok didn't know that they sent them there, how do you know that?

Also to nilz18t do you know if City Powder Coaters will let me send my wheels up by courier, it will no doubt be much cheaper than me driving them up in my mum's CRV...

Probs be best to give them a call I suppose.

 

[Nilz]

Give them a bell, there is a couple of guys there, Lee and John, Lee was the person I dealt with - their number is: 0121 448 7646, keep trying their number, as it can take ages to get through to them sometimes.

 

[mitalm]

Cheers, it's gonna be a couple of weeks before I'll be ready to start it all off as I'm still at uni now so the car isn't even with me.

May just call and see what they say anyways when I have a break from 'revision'...

Just wondering though if anyone else has used a decent place further down south?

 

[sportstractor]

Iv just started doing mine myself, mine are in a right state as for various reasons. iv just followed a guide so far and will probably only cost me 30-40 to do the whole set, but takes about 8 hrs per wheel. Just a case of sanding it all down, filling to chips and kerbing, sanding again, priming firstly with etching primer then filler primer, flatten down with some wet 1200 wet and dry, spray colour (about 5-6 coats) then once dry a thick spray of laquer.

quite a nice job to do on a sunny free day, only thing is that has slighty failed is that I used 'alloy wheel silver paint' from halfords and it has come out alot darker than the original paint.