Alpina 16" Wheels BACK ON THE MARKET
Back on the market.
Back on the market.
Last edited:
Alpina 16" Wheels only $1,400
- Thread starter verde2002
- Start date
decoupe
(deceased)
Came off an E24 parts car in Virgina. http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1923023 Less than ideal shape with flaking paint on some parts of the certain rims, probably the results of some cheap paint job. By the time they are refurbished and painted, one is looking at the total investment in take low $2K range or possibly more. Not a good buy IMO.
How much does it cost to refurbish these wheels??
Inferior flyby night shops (Wheels America and such), charge about $75-100 per wheel, whereas quality wheel restoration shops about $175-$200+ per rim. Speaking from personal experience here, I've had a very bad experience with WA in Hayward, CA.
It cost me $600 to have mine trued and refinished, plus about another $700 in crazy expenses when I ended up buying a non disclosed Chrome wheel on Ebay.(Under the car in case it falls) and making 5 trips back and forth to various wheel specialists when all was said and done. I'd add another ten hours of travel time to it. Sounds reasonable?
It cost me $600 to have mine trued and refinished, plus about another $700 in crazy expenses when I ended up buying a non disclosed Chrome wheel on Ebay.(Under the car in case it falls) and making 5 trips back and forth to various wheel specialists when all was said and done. I'd add another ten hours of travel time to it. Sounds reasonable?
Wow!!!! That extra $700 must have really hurt.
Once in the Vortex I had no choice but to continue.
Here is my adventure when and after I bought my staggered 16" Alpinas from a certain CS parts vendor. Paid $1600 for supposed nice repainted set, but they turned out to be an atrocious rattle can home paint job. Only saving grace was that the rims were pretty true and with virtually no curb rash.
Went to Wheels America in the SF Bay-Area to have them repainted again and what a nightmare it was. Absolutely no prep work was done prior to a very inferior paint job, when I went to inspect the rims, I noticed certain surface irregularities that were specified to be corrected were still there, it was very obvious they were just painted over. The paint job was so bad that when I lightly scraped on the paint with my finger nail on one of the rims, part of the paint started flaking off. I was so disgusted that I refused to pay and walked out with the ruin rims.
To correct this mess, I spent another $700 at Wheels Technique near San Jose to have the whole set stripped and repainted again. All told, $2300 was spent on the Alpinas, plus another $700 or so on new tires, so that made a total investment of $3K.
Someone buy these wheels. For less than $2,000 you can have a set of Original Alpinas fully refurbished. He is asking only $1,400 for the set.
Majority of the quality wheel shops only charge $100 in Socal. Maybe things are a bit expensive up north. If the wheels need major repair it will obviously be more but the wheels being offered in this thread hgave minimal curb rash only.
waynesie
Well-Known Member
there are several posts on painting wheels on this forum including color and style. Materials are less than $60 + bead blasting. Proper prep is important. Bead blast (not sand), proper aluminum etching primer, several light coats of paint, and clear coat. I did mine 5K miles ago and they still look great.
I do have a my own bead bast cabinet, so I did that myself too.
Bent wheels are more of a problem than paint. Getting a bent wheel fixed proper can be a hassle.
I do have a my own bead bast cabinet, so I did that myself too.
Bent wheels are more of a problem than paint. Getting a bent wheel fixed proper can be a hassle.
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decoupe
(deceased)
A bit off topic - I'll search wheel finishing next. If you want to polish the lips of a two piece wheel (Style 5, or 42) would you still bead blast the wheel barrels?
Doug
Doug
Thanks, it was a co-production. I took them to Carcone's wheel refinishing north of Toronto. They are a very big operation and not a Boutique place, so I'd suspect their standards are good, but not typically show grade. They charge $150 to straighten and re-finish per wheel using paint rather than powder coat. The wheel in the photo could not be straightened using their equipment and prompted me to buy the wheel I did not know was Chromed (Under the car).
Researching how to get the chrome off I found a guy in Brampton Ontario called Dr Detail. After driving the wheel out there, he then said he knew a CNC guy who could straighten many wheels no one else could, so I went back to Carcone's, picked up the bad wheel (The pretty one in the photo) had him straighten it using their technique, then took it back for paint. I specified that the wheels be done in Satin Polaris, but when I finally got them home notice they were glossy. Took them back (Each one of these drives is 1 hour out of Town) and they then wet sanded them and re-shot them with Satin Clear.
I made the templates to get the Black portion out 2mm past the cavity. For some reason the painter did not place them perfectly on all the wheels, but the original masking was very poor on more than 1 Alpina I have seen, so in a sense it is kinda original. I love the look of them on a Polaris car. I would be a bit leery of powder coating an Alpina wheel as you have to typically heat the rim up to 400F or so for some powders. I have heard of Vette wheels cracking after powder coating.
Both of these businesses were a pleasure to deal with.
http://www.carcone.com/wheel-refinishing.html
http://www.drdetailinc.com
waynesie
Well-Known Member
no, you can polish lips back to perfect... bead blasting is for removing old paint and preping the surface for new paint. If the barrels have clear coat you can chemically strip them to clean them up. If you want to do a good job on two or three piece rims, take them apart and finish them separately. Lots of work, but good results.
So, why aren't they yours? :confused:
It has nothing to do with the quality of the wheels or the seller who is very trusworthy and honest. Unrelated issues.
Now in my shop
After debating these in my head, I finally decided to buy them and after a bit of negotiating Trevor shipped them to me, packed amazingly well, and I'm starting the process of stripping. When I unpacked the wheels they actually looked a lot better than expected. However, they have four or five coats of finish and the last one is too dark. In the blasting cabinet I tried glass beads with almost no success. Went the next step up to Starblast and it is better but still really slow. It will take about two hours per wheel, I think, to remove all the layers which appear to have been applied using quality products. Too bad someone didn't strip and start over before I got them but in the end I'll have what I hope to be wheels that look as good as Nicad's.
Following recommendations from this forum, I'll use Polaris with a satin clear. I might just flip a coin to decide whether to do the 2 mm overlap on the centers
After debating these in my head, I finally decided to buy them and after a bit of negotiating Trevor shipped them to me, packed amazingly well, and I'm starting the process of stripping. When I unpacked the wheels they actually looked a lot better than expected. However, they have four or five coats of finish and the last one is too dark. In the blasting cabinet I tried glass beads with almost no success. Went the next step up to Starblast and it is better but still really slow. It will take about two hours per wheel, I think, to remove all the layers which appear to have been applied using quality products. Too bad someone didn't strip and start over before I got them but in the end I'll have what I hope to be wheels that look as good as Nicad's.
Following recommendations from this forum, I'll use Polaris with a satin clear. I might just flip a coin to decide whether to do the 2 mm overlap on the centers
After debating these in my head, I finally decided to buy them and after a bit of negotiating Trevor shipped them to me, packed amazingly well, and I'm starting the process of stripping. When I unpacked the wheels they actually looked a lot better than expected. However, they have four or five coats of finish and the last one is too dark. In the blasting cabinet I tried glass beads with almost no success. Went the next step up to Starblast and it is better but still really slow. It will take about two hours per wheel, I think, to remove all the layers which appear to have been applied using quality products. Too bad someone didn't strip and start over before I got them but in the end I'll have what I hope to be wheels that look as good as Nicad's.
Following recommendations from this forum, I'll use Polaris with a satin clear. I might just flip a coin to decide whether to do the 2 mm overlap on the centers
I am glad someone from the forum purcahsed these wheels from Trevor. He is definitly an honest and trustworthy guy. If you are refinishing the wheels yourself it would be interesting if you post photos of the progress and finally finished product. I have never refinished wheels myself but would love to have the knowhow to do it one day.