[parapaul]

After some quite frankly ridiculous insurance quotes with aftermarket alloys, I managed to bag a set of MV3s on ebay last week. £450 for the set, all curbed but not badly, all 4 RFT tyres bald, which was exactly what I wanted.

They're booked in for a full refurb this week at Top Marques in Stoke on Trent, at £45 per wheel. I'm having them powder coated instead of painted, in the hope of a little extra durability. Colour match should be virtually OE. The refurb place will remove and dispose of the tyres, and just return the pristine rims to me, ready to have some nice new, non-RFT fitted.

I've got a 'before' picture, but it's pretty meaningless without the 'after' picture beside it. Can't wait to get this done, I'm getting quite nervous driving round on almost illegal rear tyres!

I'm going for an OE colour match unless anyone can convince me gloss black would work against Sparkling Graphite? I've got the shadowline trim, black grilles and black/white roundels...

[willhollin]

Stick with the OE colour, black makes them look small.

What tyres are you going for?

[parapaul]

I'm going with the new Kumho Ecsta KU39. I've used the KU31 a few times now, found them excellent value for money in terms of grip and wear, and the KU39 are supposed to be better.

I'd love to go for Conti SC3, but I don't think the price difference is justified, particularly when I don't really drive hard much of the time.

[raf555]

did u not consider refurbing them to the colour ferris grey?

[parapaul]

No... I was pretty sure OE was the only colour that would work against SGM paintwork. Black was an outside chance tbh, but I never even considered any kind of gunmetal or anthracite colour, I think it would just disappear in a mass of metallic grey.

[jquan1]

£45 is a good price if they are doing them properly.

Prestine Wheels in Woburn near Milton Keynes want £87+vat per wheel and keep them for 3 days!

[doughboy]

Nice one!

The wheel specialist in Manchester did mine for £250 for 4, including removing and refitting the tyres.

I went for hyper-silver, which is silver paint on black powder coat - then a clear powder coat finish on top, just gives them an extra something over OE with a very slight black/chrome reflection.

Looks great against Ti Silver...

[scooby-tc]

£450 for a set of wheels that need tyres and a refurb??? blimey I'll be sticking my 230s on ebay then

[MERLIN335i]

Originally Posted by jquan1

£45 is a good price if they are doing them properly.

Prestine Wheels in Woburn near Milton Keynes want £87+vat per wheel and keep them for 3 days!

WOBURN SANDS not WOBURN

Sorry, just thought I would correct town to avoid confusion..

[Hotcoupe]

Originally Posted by jquan1

Prestine Wheels in Woburn near Milton Keynes want £87+vat per wheel and keep them for 3 days!

Feck, is that for a 14 carat gold leaf finish?

[parapaul]

My other option was a local powder coating company, I've had other bits and pieces done by them before, with good results. The only problem was they couldn't remove the tyres themselves, so it would have been more expense. Similar price, too - I think they wanted £48 per wheel.

[Kerr]

I used the wheel specialist's online quote system before for the Edinburgh branch.

For my 230s to get done on a one day service they came back with £440.

Powdertec in Glasgow came back with £125 per wheel for a one day service.

It was Powdertec that eventually did them but it was not me who paid. It was Arnold Clark who damaged them.

How can people manage to do them for £40 a wheel?

It does seem that it is a genuine days work for a guy. So add all the overheads on top of 8 hours labour, £160 seems to be peanuts.

[parapaul]

OK, pics as promised. Taken on the phone, sorry for the quality of a couple. A selection of the damage to the wheels when I collected them:













And the finished product... New centre caps, new badges, honestly look like they're factory fresh. Well impressed. I ended up going for Falken 452s instead of the Kumhos, they were cheaper and they're tried and tested. Can't wait to see how the FK452s compare to bald flintstone RFTs!

[c-hri-s]

Anyone got any refurb recommendations near Bristol?

Ideally someone who will do the lot - wheels off, tyres off, whatever.

Do mobile units do this stuff?

[flip4335]

Originally Posted by parapaul

No... I was pretty sure OE was the only colour that would work against SGM paintwork. Black was an outside chance tbh, but I never even considered any kind of gunmetal or anthracite colour, I think it would just disappear in a mass of metallic grey.

Just an FYI--A set of gunmetal finish M3 wheels on an SGM vehicle...it really depends on the wheel style and whether or not you like the monochromatic look.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520950

[MattOz]

Originally Posted by dodgy

Anyone got any refurb recommendations near Bristol?

Ideally someone who will do the lot - wheels off, tyres off, whatever.

Do mobile units do this stuff?

Best place, in my experience, is Lepsons in Swindon. They've done 4 sets for me and all have been fantastic.

[parapaul]

Originally Posted by flip4335

Just an FYI--A set of gunmetal finish M3 wheels on an SGM vehicle...it really depends on the wheel style and whether or not you like the monochromatic look.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520950

Thanks for that - It's actually not as bland as I expected. Definitely something to consider for the winter wheels.

[Dizzle]

Looks good Paul, they seem to do a good job there.

[parapaul]

To be fair, it's not perfect, but for the price, I'm very impressed. There's a couple of imperfections on the inside edges of the rims, possibly where they've been stood on racks or laid down, but the faces are mint.

[yoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyy]

Well done, for £45 that is excellent value!

Im in the same boat, spent over the odds on the genuine wheels, that I should really get refurbished! But then there is tyres also to consider............so maybe we should have just got some mint ones for £750/800??

[katie.g]

howdy parapaul

glad you went with the oem wurth silver anything else would look silly

anyway when you next bash 'em give me a shout, i now have repairing them down to a fine art, can sort them overnight in my loft, virtually undetectable from factory finish

the next 3 i buy, i'd like to have mv3's again, but i'm gonna invest in the continental tyres that hugely overhang the rim, like you see on porche's

regards kathy

[parapaul]

Originally Posted by jackoe90

Well done, for £45 that is excellent value!

Im in the same boat, spent over the odds on the genuine wheels, that I should really get refurbished! But then there is tyres also to consider............so maybe we should have just got some mint ones for £750/800??

Fair point, but I now have a perfect set of wheels, with brand new tyres of my choice.

How many of the £800 mint sets on ebay a) are actually completely unmarked and b) have tyres fitted that you'd be happy with?