Lotus

What someone is prepared to pay! The fact that you say they need refurbishing means your question is akin to the "How long is this bit of string I'm holding?"question...

Google gives new repro ones weighing in at £350 each. Refurb should cost

Is that per refurbished wheel or what to expect to sell a wheel that needs refurbishing, if the former it will cost more than that to refurbish!

:Jerry: ( snipped-for-privacy@INVALID.INVALID) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It seems fairly obvious that that's the cost *for* a refurb...

If new repro are worth £350 each, then I'd think that good originals would be roughly similar.

My concern, though, would be what these wobblies are for - if they're for track use, then they're going to need much more than a mere cosmetic refurb to make sure they're strong enough, and that will ramp the cost.

Which is the point I was making, you couldn't bead blast and paint the wheel for 30 quid, never check properly for cracks, run-out and balance - and this is not just a consideration for track use either.

If all you want is something that looks 'nice' the first time it's bolted to a stationary car then that is another ball game...

It's a toss up as to which would be more dangerous - old rubber or old magnesium.

Ron Robinson

:Jerry: ( snipped-for-privacy@INVALID.INVALID) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Yes, you could. OK, it's a few years since I had a set of alloys refurbed, but they were less than that - and that was in the SE. As Doki said, given that there's a large stack of 'em, you'd easily get a bulk/trade discount.

Checking for runout and balance is quick and easy. It's the crack testing that'd be the specialist bit.

You couldn't buy the paint for that - unless you use Dulux! Also the blaster needs to take a bit of care when blasting, otherwise you'll end up spending even longer attempting to get half decent finish at the paint stage, this is all going to cost real money as there are easier ways of making money out of blasting cast iron or steel plate-work etc.

It still takes someone's time or you having the equipment, and who has a dynamic balancer in their shed?..

Sadly not much. They're made of a somewhat temperamental alloy (there's magnesium in it) and are quite unlikely to still be fit for use. It was a big issue in classic race scrutineering some years back (effectively a blanket ban on them) and it won't get better over time.

You're talking shit, Jerry.

Blasting takes next to no time at all, and they don't paint the wheels, they're powder-coated, which means a decent finish can be applied in seconds.

A full set of 4 wheels can be done in well under an hour.

Called - Inter granular corrosion.

To refurbish a wheel. No crack testing included.

Yeh right, so that's why my mates company has been involved in painting such parts for the last 25 odd years - and I might add, for some very high profile companies, unfortunately NDC's apply do I can't name them.

Yes, to do badly, I've seen alloy wheels that have been blasted so badly (aka quickly) that they have been reduced to nothing but scrap metal...

Only if you want a crap finish, sure the powder-coating gives a tough finish but you only get the finish looking as good as the base metal, unlike with paint.

Total frecking bullshit, unless you want a totally crap finish...

Whooosssshhhh....

Hells-bells, a pig has just flown over the roof tops!

Andy Dingley ( snipped-for-privacy@codesmiths.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Ah,

In that case, NCS... How much for one to hang on the garage wall?

Be careful with the descriptions - it's intergranular corrosion because that's just the preferred location for it -- eventually they'd do it through the grains themselves. If you surface coat and store such alloys correctly, you might avoid this long-term.

What it's _not_ is intergranular _precipitation_, the problem you get with the early diecast zinc alloys, owing to iron _impurities_ in the alloy. There's nothing you can do about that, short of using a purer alloy.

Oh, probably a fortune 8-) They're cute, retro and recognisable. Polish and paint them nicely beforehand (bright yellow, naturally), get yourself an eBay shop and punt them out as wall-hangers for 200 quid a piece.

That's not a decent finish though - if there's magnesium in the alloy then you _must_ prime it between those steps, and with something like a zinc chromate primer (or this week's non-carcinogenic replacement).

The idea of a bare magnesium-alloy suspension component with powdercoat over it is frightening. If you're lucky, it would look like an inflated balloon. If you're unlucky the thing has turned to muesli and you can't even see it.

Andy Dingley ( snipped-for-privacy@codesmiths.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :