Alloys Delivered

The wheels have all been delivered to Pristine Alloy Refurbishing for a full strip, blast and refinishing service.  Unfortunately, they were unable to remove the tyres from the wheels as their machine was suited to wider rims, so I had to take them back to Bedford to the fitters just down the road from where I live, get the tyres removed and then drive all the way back to Woburn again, making the first visit a wasted journey.  Unfortunately, it also works out very expensive to have the two-tone powder coat finish I wanted, though they could have been done in matt black and then had the front edges diamond cut and the whole wheel then laquered at the same price as having a single colour.  The trouble with that is that the laquered alloy tends to corrode again very quickly if the laquer is even slightly damaged by chips, cracks or scrapes, and almost any wheel more than a year or two old with that finish seems to be badly corroded again.

So, I have had to compromise by having the wheels finished in plain metallic (or “sparkle”) silver, just as LR finish most of their new Defender alloys and matching the finish of the TWR alloys on my RRC .  It means the whole wheel gets the maximum protection from corrosion and they should look reasonably standard in tone to the vehicle once fitted.  It also means that I can fit them to the RRC if something ever happens to its existing wheels, which would be relatively difficult to replace.

I could paint the refinished wheels with matt black aerosol enamel to get the look I had wanted, but it’d probably be too fragile a finish over the powder coat to remain in good condition long, so I doubt that I’ll do so.

A mildly disappointing day, really, but on the plus side, my local tyre fitters were full of praise for Pristine’s work while they removed the tyres.  They seem to have a very good reputation, so I’m confident the wheels will be like new or better when I get them back next week.  I have also put the nearly new 205/80 tyres that were on the alloys up for sale, so hopefully I should get some money back towards refurbishing the wheels.