Alloy wheels look pretty awesome when they are brand new. I know this sounds a little sad, but some look so shiny and clean that you just want to eat your dinner off them! Of course, in reality I wouldn’t advise that you do such a thing, because alloy wheels are designed to help you propel your car forwards or backwards, and aren’t a particularly light or practical substitute for a plate.
Sadly, alloy wheels don’t always have that shiny, unblemished look about them and considering the amount of abuse they get (i.e. being driven over potholes, into kerbs and so forth), they end up looking pretty sorry for themselves.
When I was giving my car a wash the other day, I gave my alloy wheels a good scrub with a special brush which can fit through the spokes, and I even used an alloy wheel cleaning product (Meguiar’s Hot Rim Wheel & Tyre Cleaner, in case you wondered), but despite my best efforts the alloy wheels were still nowhere near as great a condition as they were brand new.
The lacquer (i.e. the clear coat of paint layer applied to all paint finishes on cars) on the outer surface of the wheels was peeling, and the front wheel on the passenger side is badly scuffed due to various kerb mountings in the past; some by me, some by the car’s previous keepers.
Considering there is nothing more I can do in terms of using cleaning products on the wheels, the only options left to me are to either buy brand new alloy wheels, or refurbish my existing ones.
As I don’t have a huge disposable income, I have decided not to opt for brand new alloy wheels mainly because they cost around £200 each from my local main dealer, but also because I would have a set of alloy wheels left over that I would realistically have no use for.
Perhaps the most-popular way of turning those sad-looking alloy wheels into showroom condition items like they once were is to get them refurbished by having them powder coated. There are numerous alloy wheel refurbishing experts across the United Kingdom that can refurbish your wheels, and the best ones often use expert equipment from companies such as PB Powder Coating Plant.
One of the main advantages to powder coating alloy wheels, apart from their low cost, is that the paint coating can be applied onto the wheels thicker than simply spraying the wheels with paint. This results in longer-lasting wheels which still look as great as painted ones!
How alloy wheels are powder coated
In a nutshell, alloy wheel refurbishers tend to prepare your wheels by stripping off any oxidation and lacquer from the outer surfaces and repairing wheels that have bent or missing pieces of metal (9 out of 10 times this is on the lip of the alloy wheel, where it meets the tyre).
Once the wheels are ready, they are then powder coated in a colour of your choice. Some refurbishers tend to ‘heat up’ the wheels beforehand, so that there are no problems with contaminants getting in the way of the powder coating process.
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