Velvet Touch Wheel Service HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE
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Velvet Touch Wheel Service HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE
Just wanted to let you guys know that if you ever need any rims repaired to NEVER go to this place. Particularly NEVER deal with the guy named TODD. I was not going to make a thread but he keeps doing **** and he's pushed me over the edge. He is the local guy in the socal area that was going to be at the huntington beach meet but never made it, thank god for you guys he didn't. I was getting my JP's fixed because there were a couple of curb rashes. Well he had to strip the anodize, fix the curb rashes, then repolish. No big deal right? Wrong.
After he fixed the curb rashes he attempted to repolish. He spent about 4 weeks (literally) to do this. He told me he had problems with his girlfriend and couldn't work on my rims. Yea BS. And when I got them back, the result was like ****! I asked him.. is that the best you can do? And his answer was YES! I was like wtf? It was not even clear.. it was hazy and looked 100 times worse than before. So I said fine, since you apparently can't do your job, then just chrome the lips for me since that will give me the mirror finish i'm looking for. So he says no problem, give him about a week. Well three freaken weeks go by and I finally get my rims. Lucky for me the rims came out looking very nice.
During the fixing process he apparently "stepped" on 1 of my center caps and scraped the inside of it badly. He did pay me back to buy a new one though so that was fine. Problem is I have to get them from Japan and its been about 4 weeks already and I haven't gotten it yet, so its a real hassle. When I went to pick up my rims the tires were all UNMOUNTED so now i'm bringing it to my local shop to pay some more money to mount and balance my tires. In addition, he lost ALL EIGHT of my center cap screws. These are not normal screws that you can just pick up. So now I have to order from JP and god knows how long that'll take to get here for some stupid screws.
He's lucky my rims came out looking good. He was not the one chroming the lips, it's his employer Velvet Touch that did it for him. Well he's made a bad name for himself AND his company. Congrats Todd, i'm going to make sure people never go to your place ever again.
After he fixed the curb rashes he attempted to repolish. He spent about 4 weeks (literally) to do this. He told me he had problems with his girlfriend and couldn't work on my rims. Yea BS. And when I got them back, the result was like ****! I asked him.. is that the best you can do? And his answer was YES! I was like wtf? It was not even clear.. it was hazy and looked 100 times worse than before. So I said fine, since you apparently can't do your job, then just chrome the lips for me since that will give me the mirror finish i'm looking for. So he says no problem, give him about a week. Well three freaken weeks go by and I finally get my rims. Lucky for me the rims came out looking very nice.
During the fixing process he apparently "stepped" on 1 of my center caps and scraped the inside of it badly. He did pay me back to buy a new one though so that was fine. Problem is I have to get them from Japan and its been about 4 weeks already and I haven't gotten it yet, so its a real hassle. When I went to pick up my rims the tires were all UNMOUNTED so now i'm bringing it to my local shop to pay some more money to mount and balance my tires. In addition, he lost ALL EIGHT of my center cap screws. These are not normal screws that you can just pick up. So now I have to order from JP and god knows how long that'll take to get here for some stupid screws.
He's lucky my rims came out looking good. He was not the one chroming the lips, it's his employer Velvet Touch that did it for him. Well he's made a bad name for himself AND his company. Congrats Todd, i'm going to make sure people never go to your place ever again.
#5
damn, mike. you told me you got them back, but you didn't tell me about all of this.
he fixed my curb rash (still doesn't look all that "fixed" to me - ask mike, he saw it before/after). anyway, i went to grab a bite to eat and when i came back i saw him polishing my anodized lips. hmm, big no-no! no there is a ring of haze around the entire wheel. if i had known that was going to be the case (didn't know he would be polishing it), i would have rather lived with the curb rash!
he fixed my curb rash (still doesn't look all that "fixed" to me - ask mike, he saw it before/after). anyway, i went to grab a bite to eat and when i came back i saw him polishing my anodized lips. hmm, big no-no! no there is a ring of haze around the entire wheel. if i had known that was going to be the case (didn't know he would be polishing it), i would have rather lived with the curb rash!
#6
Sorry to hear about your bad experience Mike. Let this be a lesson to those out there who still think you can repair an anodized wheel lip. It CAN'T BE DONE. Well, it "can" but would be cost-prohibitive. I had a pair of Volks damaged by a detailer. I contacted multiple Volk dealers, Mackin (U.S. distributor for Volk Wheels), and several of the top wheel repair facilities. They all told me it couldn't be returned to the same condition as new. In the end, the detailer popped for a new set of wheels. I've heard several people tell me "Oh, I know this shop that can polish that out no problem." Let me tell you that's bull ****.
When I first bought my JP Scaras (same wheels as imalazeeass), one of the lips was bent during shipping. Again, I took it around to several shops but no one could return it back to new condition. The shipper filed a claim with FedEx and I got a new wheel from Japan.
My G is in the shop right now to repair some damage from a recent parking lot incident when a lady backed into my car. She also damaged the lip on one of my rear JP Scaras. I told the insurance company it couldn't be fixed but they had to send it to the wheel repair place to see if it got rejected. No surprise, it got rejected a couple of days ago. So now they've got to buy me a new wheel.
So, that's three times I've encountered this problem. Moral of the story is...save yourself the time and aggravation. Wheels with anodized lips cannot be repaired to the point where the lips look like new. You can have all four of your wheels polished to match or chrome them as Mike did. That's your best alternative to buying new wheels.
When I first bought my JP Scaras (same wheels as imalazeeass), one of the lips was bent during shipping. Again, I took it around to several shops but no one could return it back to new condition. The shipper filed a claim with FedEx and I got a new wheel from Japan.
My G is in the shop right now to repair some damage from a recent parking lot incident when a lady backed into my car. She also damaged the lip on one of my rear JP Scaras. I told the insurance company it couldn't be fixed but they had to send it to the wheel repair place to see if it got rejected. No surprise, it got rejected a couple of days ago. So now they've got to buy me a new wheel.
So, that's three times I've encountered this problem. Moral of the story is...save yourself the time and aggravation. Wheels with anodized lips cannot be repaired to the point where the lips look like new. You can have all four of your wheels polished to match or chrome them as Mike did. That's your best alternative to buying new wheels.
Last edited by k67p67; 07-15-2007 at 02:34 AM.
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damn kurtis that is pretty painful! Honestly though, my chromed lips looks better than the anodized lips. But chroming is very costly. If i had to do it over i probably would not have fixed my curb rashes because they were not all that bad. But in the end, at least i have nice looking rims.
OH KURTIS one thing I wanted to ask you. Since all 8 of my sockethead screws were lost, I can't use my center cap right now. The problem with the screws is that they are "metric" and stainless steel so i can't find a local hardware store that carries it. I found a couple online vendors that offer metric socket head cap screws but I have no idea what the size is. Do you think you can find out for me? I don't want to order 8 screws from japan cuz thats going to take forever and I need the screws b4 HIN. I would hate to roll around with no JP center cap! You know how lame it looks without it!
OH KURTIS one thing I wanted to ask you. Since all 8 of my sockethead screws were lost, I can't use my center cap right now. The problem with the screws is that they are "metric" and stainless steel so i can't find a local hardware store that carries it. I found a couple online vendors that offer metric socket head cap screws but I have no idea what the size is. Do you think you can find out for me? I don't want to order 8 screws from japan cuz thats going to take forever and I need the screws b4 HIN. I would hate to roll around with no JP center cap! You know how lame it looks without it!
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#11
Originally Posted by redlude97
Thats not exactly true. Wheels can have the anodizing stripped and polished, and will look exactly like an anodized lip. The problem is that the rim is now bare and needs to be maintained every few weeks with a good metal polish
Originally Posted by imalazeeass
OH KURTIS one thing I wanted to ask you. Since all 8 of my sockethead screws were lost, I can't use my center cap right now. The problem with the screws is that they are "metric" and stainless steel so i can't find a local hardware store that carries it. I found a couple online vendors that offer metric socket head cap screws but I have no idea what the size is. Do you think you can find out for me? I don't want to order 8 screws from japan cuz thats going to take forever and I need the screws b4 HIN. I would hate to roll around with no JP center cap! You know how lame it looks without it!
#14
yeah he was kinda =\ I gave him two sets of volks to work on and they all came out great but damn he screwed up on mike's JPs.. I had to get on this guys *** to work on these rims and the only way we had this done in a reasonable amount of time is because I have his boss (Mike)'s number here at work and contacted him directly to get the wheels finished. as for why the couldnt mount the wheels, I dont know. Sorry about the tires tho we only had time here to do one (tried to get it mounted at work for mike). But just let me know how much the bolts cost and he'll cover it
and yes stainless metric bolts are hard to find you can only get standard stainless in hardware stores
and yes stainless metric bolts are hard to find you can only get standard stainless in hardware stores