Hiya quick question.. 

 

I am looking to have my alloys refurbished since the previous owner enjoyed a relationship with kerbs. 

 

Are Themisto classed as diamond cut??.. Some pages say they are and others say they are not.. 

 

Here is the old bus

 

https://goo.gl/photos/jEze9gH4EUuHKgeR6

 

I am thinking dark interior rims and a light anthracite finish... 

 

Or just factory standard.. 

 

Not decided yet but some corrosion  is not worth ignoring so rather get them sorted before they get any worst.. 

 

The Thermistos on our car appear to be machined (so it that is diamond cut then yes).

 

As you note your best bet is to get them all powder-coated or painted. This will be the cheapest option, unless you want to try plastic-dip/painting them.

Thermisto's are indeed diamond cut, to have them diamond cut refurbished means having them machined where a small skim is taken of the face of the alloy then lacquered, it the lacquering where the problems arise as moisture gets behind the lacquer causes them to oxidise and a white powdery reaction, All the people I know that have cars with diamond cut alloys have had exactly the same problem. Added to that it's about double the price per wheel. With all this in mind I had mine painted, yes I am a bit of a cheap skate but at £60 a corner I couldn't see the logic of getting a finish that cost twice as much and would almost definitely look crap in a couple of years.

Had mine done 3 years ago and this is a picture I took this morning.

 

Edited 9 March, 20179 yr by yesman

10 hours ago, yesman said:

Thermisto's are indeed diamond cut, to have them diamond cut refurbished means having them machined where a small skim is taken of the face of the alloy then lacquered, it the lacquering where the problems arise as moisture gets behind the lacquer causes them to oxidise and a white powdery reaction, All the people I know that have cars with diamond cut alloys have had exactly the same problem. Added to that it's about double the price per wheel. With all this in mind I had mine painted, yes I am a bit of a cheap skate but at £60 a corner I couldn't see the logic of getting a finish that cost twice as much and would almost definitely look crap in a couple of years.

Had mine done 3 years ago and this is a picture I took this morning.

 

Looks great. The added bonus is when your wife kerbs your painted alloys you can sand/fill/paint over the damage. I need to bit the bullet and get mine painted.

Also had mine painted silver in a deal with the dealer before I bought the car. Also cost £60 a corner (but had the bonus that I'd not actually taken ownership of the car so any screwups were the dealer's problem to sort!) and I'm pretty happy with the result. To be brutally honest, I just didn't like the design enough to spend more on a refurb.

 

I'd just go the painted route, especially if you're going to leave them on all winter.

 

Cheers,

Steve

Hiya,

 

Thanks for the replies...So now knowing they are Diamond (Machined) cut I can start to have a look at some options.

 

There are the curbing marks on the alloys but these are not tremendously deep, but as the face of some of the alloys has taken a knock, the usual water ingress causing the lacquer to lift is a problem I want to solve as soon as the weather gets nicer. One blast with a pressure washer (which I've stopped doing on the wheels for the time being) can cause large swaths of lacquer to be removed if not careful.

 

Looking locally and on this forum I have am probably going to give this guy a try

 

http://steve-edwards.com/smart-repairs 

 

Seems to get positive reviews and obviously I will get a few quotes from different people before committing.

 

Power coating doesn't sound like the best way forward tbh and I want a to have a hard wearing surface that is also attractive in its shine so painting/spraying sounds good.

 

Especially since I am wanting to darken the inside rim and add an a subtle anthracite colour to the front font face similar to VRS colour show in the attached photos.

 

Obviously I am not expert and do want to do a bit more research before committing..