by maurice » Sat Sep 12, 2009 10:54 pm
digger, shagnasty- thanks for the advice.
For anyone else in the same boat, read on....
I ended up talking to several people 'in the trade' and they all agreed nobody on the island does true "Alloy Wheel Refurbishment", but there are many places who will clean them up and paint them, basically any body repair shop can do it. I expect they use the same paints as car bodies, I don't know if wheels have a different, harder wearing paint, e.g. stove enamelled or something.
I would have taken it to Autocrash as suggested but they closed early on the only day I could make it, so I went to Dale and Colvin instead. Got the two wheels back a few days later, nice and shiny and painted, all kerbing damage removed. I am happy with the work, even at Ă‚ÂŁ75 each wheel. If I had all four wheels to do then I would probably have shipped them across to get them done 'properly' i.e. at a dedicated alloy wheel refurbishing workshop.
I'll just have to wait and see now how the paint holds up after some road miles.
Maurice