I have carelessly kerbed my front n/s alloy on my two-months old Octavia vRS. It didn't sound much but the scratching looks bad.

Any suggestions/recommendations please for a repair?

Try ChipsAway International - SMART automotive repair service

They do wheels aswell as bodywork.

Damian van Aswegen of Automotive Repair Systems did mine when the tyre fitters mucked up 3 wheels. He was really good. The tyre people had to pay so I don't know how his prices compare but I seem to recall being told it was £38 per wheel.

You did well, mine lasted 3 days :( I was very tempted to get it fixed but it WILL happen again so, much as it pains now, think how you'll feel once you've blown another £60 on the wheel - you're fighting a losing battle mate...

AWR in BURY do a great job £40 a Wheel just had mine done, LIKE NEW NOW. I've posted a link for you below.

alloy wheels refurbished based in bury

Craig.......

You did well, mine lasted 3 days :( I was very tempted to get it fixed but it WILL happen again so, much as it pains now, think how you'll feel once you've blown another £60 on the wheel - you're fighting a losing battle mate...

Unless you have a crack at it yourself! I think this is the second time I've been touting the DIY approach on a thread like this but it really isn't that difficult. It took me one weeked to do all 4 of mine (with 24 hours in between paint / lacquer).

Trust me, I'm not great at this sort of thing but so far everyone I've shown has not been able to spot the repairs. All it takes is patience and about £20 of kit, and I've still got enough materials left over to do probably about 20 wheels(!) so the next time I do it will probably be just before selling.

There's one little scuff I missed when I did it, so if anyone's interested let me know and I'll take some photos as I tackle that one and post a little guide up.

Unless you have a crack at it yourself! I think this is the second time I've been touting the DIY approach on a thread like this but it really isn't that difficult. It took me one weeked to do all 4 of mine (with 24 hours in between paint / lacquer).

Trust me, I'm not great at this sort of thing but so far everyone I've shown has not been able to spot the repairs. All it takes is patience and about £20 of kit, and I've still got enough materials left over to do probably about 20 wheels(!) so the next time I do it will probably be just before selling.

There's one little scuff I missed when I did it, so if anyone's interested let me know and I'll take some photos as I tackle that one and post a little guide up.

Sounds interesting, a guide would be great, what paint did you use to ensure a close match? Cheers

Halfords Volkswagen Diamond Silver is a virtually perfect match. Note that I'm talking about vRS wheels - I'm not sure if all octavias are the same colour (I think they are though).

Will try and get a short guide together this weekend.

VW Diamond Silver was perfect match for my 2.0FSi as well. (and also for my old Mk1 vRS.)

Unless you have a crack at it yourself!

Trust me, I'm not great at this sort of thing but so far everyone I've shown has not been able to spot the repairs. All it takes is patience and about £20 of kit, and I've still got enough materials left over to do probably about 20 wheels(!) so the next time I do it will probably be just before selling.

Sounds like an offer to help out several of your fellow forum members wheels?! I accept! Where do I bring the car please?

A guide would be very useful too..

I wouldn't be DIY'ng alloys on a couple month old VRS on the cheap :eek:

You could get the whole lot refurbished and even change the colour if you wished.

I'd rather DIY it than cough up hundreds for a full refurbish, only to kerb them again the week after! And if you're confident you can do as good a job as your local ChipsAway fella (which is hit and miss at the best of times), then why not?!

Kerbing is much less of a problem, I find, with the higher profile tyres. Had no kerbing trouble with my FSi as compared with my first vRS. Tyre "bulge" protects the rim!

But some makes of tyres also have protection built into the moulding design.

Someone suggested using Halfords kit for repair of alloy wheels , i bought one i think it was about £29. Took tyre off and followed instructions, took 2 days for one wheel, it looked good.Wife came out to see and said " its not the same as others", i could have swore at the time that they were closematch but when it dried it must have changed colour.No way was i going to touch the others especially as they were perfect.Wished i had lived with the small scratch/rub.

Chemical metal (Most DIY stores, screwfix, even saw some in morrisons)

Halfords VW Diamond Silver spray can

Halfords Clear lacquer spray can

Masking tape / newspaper

Some sort of degreaser

Wet & dry paper (various grades 240, 400, 2000)

It's worth mentioning now that I actually filled the scuffs and left them for a week before going any further, allowing me to spread the job over two weekends. Chemical metal is supposed to be solid enough to sand within 15 minutes, but I'm not convinced! Give it at least a few hours to cure properly. Apologies that my first picture is after filling, but suffice to say it was your standard kerb-edge scuff, around 3 inches of the rim.

Filling

Give the wheels a very thorough clean and ensure the area to be repaired is free of any grease or wax. Use the rough grit paper to gently sand off any loose metal. Mix up a small quantity of chemical metal as per the instructions. It sets very quickly, so dont mix more than you can use in 2 minutes!

If the damage is right on the edge of the rim, mask the tyre behind it to avoid contamination. Sparingly apply the chemical metal so that it completely covers the damage, and sits slightly proud. Obviously the more you put on, the more you'll have to sand away later! There's nothing more you can do now until the filler is fully cured, so leave alone for as long as you can.

Sanding

Using small sections of wet and dry paper, carefully sand back the filler to match the surrounding profile. This doesn't take long but be careful where you're scuffing! Inevitabley you'll scuff the surrounding paint - that's fine. Work your way up to the ultra-fine paper, and then just sand gently around the edges of the filler to feather the existing paint slightly. A little trick is to close your eyes and run your fingers over the repair - when you can't feel where it is it any more, you're proabably done After sanding, clean, rinse and degrease again thoroughly.

Masking

Dont be lazy with masking - it's amazing how far overspray can travel! Mask around the tyre and nearby panels. Don't worry about masking the actual face of the wheel too much - the last thing you want is hard lines in the paint, where it met the edge of some masking tape. Poke newspaper inside the wheel to mask the discs and calliper.

Painting

Before painting, ensure the paint is at room temperature and shake the can furiously for a few minutes. The key to this stage is absolute PATIENCE! Many thin coats will look a million times better than rushing it. Remember you can always put more paint on, but you can't take it off! Spray from about 30cm away, keeping the can upright and moving. Just one or two quick passes is fine for the first coat. I can't stress enough how thin the coats should be - don't worry if you can hardly see any coverage with the first one! Now leave it alone for at least 15 minutes.

The paint might have feint orange-peel effect initially - don't panic, this will improve as it dries. Repeat this for 3-4 coats leaving plenty of time to dry in between. If you're doing a couple of wheels, you can move between them to get more done. If you're not happy with the result at any stage, once it's dry you can gently sand back with the 2000 grit paper before re-applying paint.

After painting, allow at least 24 hours before lacquer. If you dont need to use the car, even better, you can leave all your masking in place.

Lacquer

All the same principles as the paint: Cover the painted area with 3-4 thin coats of lacquer, allowing plenty of drying time in between.

That's it! A lot of instruction there, but really it only takes around 2 hours per wheel. Don't be tempted to wax or protect the repaired area right away. The new paint needs at least 2 weeks to harden up. After that you can tidy the area (if required) with a gentle polish. These photos are recent but I did the first set of these repairs around 8 months ago and they're holding up fine.

You should be able to pick up all of the materials on the high street, except maybe 2000 grit paper, which is harder to come by. Mine came from ebay - I have a stack of it though, so if you want some, PM me your address and I'll put a couple of sheets in the post.