So i curbed one of my wheels pretty bad a couple of days ago. I brought it to a local wheels america near my work place and dropped off the wheel.

I'm just curious how many of you have had wheels fixed/painted (OEM 19"s) by a shop like this?

When i got the wheel back, the paint is off slightly, which they warned me it may be. It's pretty damn close, but off by maybe 1 shade.

The thing i'm most concerned about, is the wheel supposed to end up looking NEW? Because i can still see some small nick marks not on the face facing outwards, but i guess on "top" of the wheel, in the little space between the wheel and the tire. Is this considered "OK" in the industry? it doesn't seem like it.

Secondly, there is a ton of overspray on the inside of the wheel!!

Is this normal??

Thanks for any input!

 

You should post some pics of what you're talking about.

 

I've worked with Wheels America on more than one incident and they do "so so" work. They can work wonders on OEM wheels, but not too well on aftermarket rims. As for what happen with your rim, yea please post some pics and lets check it out. Try and take a pic with the wheel next to one that hasnt been repaired so we can see the difference.

 

I agree with you on the aftermarket comments. They wouldn't touch my rim, guess it was too difficult for them.

 

I'm at work now so i won't be able to take the picture till i get home.. The wheels are all on the car now so i guess it will be a little difficult to take them side by side, but i'll try to offer the best comparison.

Thanks for the input so far.

 

i had them repair my volks when i accidently curbed over half of the lip. i was satisfied with my repair and haven't noticed a difference in shading. the finish looked smooth and well done but if i feel it with my hand the outer edge is still gritty so i know where the work had been done.

 

On my old coupe, Wheels America (chicago) repainted all 4 of my oem 18s and the grayish color became a darker silver.

 

did any of you have overspray on the inside of the wheel?

 

No overspray here. The only problem I had was the color match.

 

I have had a terrible experience with them so far. To start off when i got my 4 wheels back from them ( the two rears had a slight curb rash, front two were slightly out of round). The rears had small pits that he said was the cast wheel. The front still was shaking and the clear was pealing off. Left it with them for two more weeks. Got them back the second time and when I put them on I still had a vibration. Washed the wheels and the clear coat started to bubble.

Then I took it to have balanced on the road force machine and the cone that they use for aluminum wheels pealed the paint right off. As if it was not cured or baked on at all. This is 1 week after the wheels were done. When they balanced the other wheel the machine stated it was still bent and recommended wheel replacement.

So they now have it for the third time and its been about 6 weeks without my wheels. Hopefully they get it fixed this third time. I will demand a refund if it doesnt come out satisfactory.

 

This is the stock wheel


This is the repainted wheel, taken at the same time in the same light. Do they look different? Is it bad enough that I could ask them to try again?


Here is where the wheel was curbed, there are still many nicks on it on this part of the wheel, though not on the "face" of the wheel.





Here is the inside, i'm not sure if you can see the overspray, it is hard to get the camera to focus so close. The "glittering" parts are basically overspray.

 

I forgot to mention that they didn't put clear coat on the inner half of the wheels. I was wondering why the hell there were areas where the paint was flaking off. Of course I took the wheels back...

 

Looks pretty good to me. I can't tell a difference.

 

But you can see the nicks right?

 

they fixed the curb rash, stripped and repainted the whole face of the wheel correct??