Wheel repair saga...advice please

[MichelleRoze]

So, for anyone who has been in Probie's photo thread has heard the beginning of this saga. For those that haven't, here's a recap.

So, I dropped my wheel off on Monday, August 23rd to have a bend fixed. They told me, no big deal, it'll be done Wednesday. They'll call when it's done. I prepaid.

Wednesday rolls by...no phone call.

Thursday I get a call. They made a mistake, didn't call any of their clients to let them know they were having machine issues. Wheel won't be done til Friday.

Friday I get a call, the wheel is done. I go to pick it up, only to have to complain. 1st off, it's the wrong silver color. 2nd there is a bunch of trash in the paint. And 3rd and what irritated me the most...the inside of the wheel was BLACK. So, we take it back in, tell them we have a problem. They say they need to see another wheel from the set to match it....

Saturday Matt is kind enough to take another wheel up to them so they have one to compare it to.Wheel will be done on Wednesday.

Wednesday rolls by, no word. So I call them. "Oh yeah, you're wheel is done". I go to pick it up. It looks like it should. Still not 100% happy because it looks refinished, but nothing I can do.

So, today I go to mount my other set of 18's only to realize my lug bolts are too fat, so I have to mount the Millis instead. I go to mount my freshly resurfaced wheel. Kinda excited to see how it'll look compared to the other wheels on the car. I go to tighten the lug bolts...and I hear the sound of paint cracking. I look to be sure, and sure enough the paint on my newly resurfaced wheel is chipping off. I have flakes of paint in my hands. I wipe off the area to see how much damage was created and more paint comes off. I realize I can actually stick my nail underneath the paint and peel off some more..... After it was mounted...here's what it looks like now....



My freshly resurfaced wheel looks WORSE than my factory wheels. I'm soo irritated.

My question...does anyone have experience with resurfaced wheels? Is this normal? Or should I take it back YET AGAIN and make them fix it? Or just ask for my money back at this point?

[DZLBUG]

That really sucks. They have two choices, they fix it, or they give you your money back. That is not normal, and it was clearly a prep/painting flaw.

If they give you your money back, maybe see if you can get a body shop to do it for the same price. Good luck.

[MichelleRoze]

I've been told by a few people that I can't ask for my money back. Since the initial repair was for wheel straightening, and resurfacing is just included. :rollseyes: whatever! It's taken them twice to resurface the wheel and it's still not right. The wheel SEEMS straight but who knows.

[Supercharged98]

May that sucks. My friend owns a rim repair company, but he moved to Orlando, Fl. I could of got them fixed for free. I think his brother is still around here, I'll see if he still is repairing rims. Maybe he can fix them if you don't get matters settled with this company.

[pm22071985]

that sucks.
i'm not an expert on wheel painting but it seems like they didn't put enough clear coat on top of the paint to protect it.
i would give that shop hell...

[MichelleRoze]

So, I tried to call the shop back. It went straight to voicemail, for a number that I didn't dial. Which was weird. So I ended up calling another shop and asked them how long it would take for paint to peel off of a resurfaced wheel...he said "10-15 YEARS!" I said "how about 1 day?!" So I drove....well over an hour in Atlanta traffic to get to this place, and when I got there, the guy was like "ok which wheel?" I said, "You tell me". He spotted it INSTANTLY! The paint is now peeling worse because I've been driving it. :rollseyes:

This guy seems VERY nice and upfront with me, which I like. He said my wheels are "hyper" silver. It is a lead based paint and of course in the US we can't use lead in our paint anymore. So, there is a whole special process required to resurface these wheels. He said when he takes in hyper silver wheels....he requires 5 to 7 DAYS to resurface it. It takes him atleast 2 DAYS to get the paint completely off the wheel. He said a hyper silver wheel is 5 layers of paint. And for him to resurface this wheel....would be around.....$275!!!!! And it would still look different from the other wheels of course because the finish on it wouldn't be the same.

So he recommended re-doing ALL the wheels. Which I will say...I had thought about. He had like a paint designer person come out and we decided that if I were to redo all my wheels, that I should redo them in body color, which is very close to hyper silver anyway. It just makes the car "pop". Each wheel is going to cost around $100 to resurface... I had a nice long chat with this guy, he knew EXACTLY what wheels I was running, knew they were Italian made, he even had my exact wheels black in a 17". So I felt comfortable that he knew how nice these wheels were.

So, I decided to call the other shop back again and raise hell. Finally I got a person on the phone. I was trying to be direct and clear about my issue. I told them the paint was peeling, I just put the wheel on the car, etc etc. .... They said "hmm, that's weird. Bring it back and of course we'll fix it, but we won't be open until Tuesday due to the Labor Day holiday". So I said, "I'll see you Tuesday....." When I go there on Tuesday, I'm going to show them the wheel, give them the estimate that the other shop gave me, and demand my money back. Because even though the initial job was to straighten the wheel...they have now RUINED my wheel by resurfacing it. They SAID they were going to strip it down and put a silver base instead of a black base....they did not, they just painted the inside of the wheel. The paint is sooo weak, I can't even tighten my lug bolts without it cracking and peeling. They didn't strip it down to bare metal, I think they just painted over it. So, their 24-48 hour turn-around policy is CRAP. I'm going to raise hell on Tuesday and sadly I'll probably have to bring Matt with me because they don't seem to take me seriously.

I'm just sooo irritated because I LOVE these wheels, I even have new tires to put on them, but I don't dare because who knows how long these wheels will be out of commision getting "fixed". As it is, it's been 2 weeks and they STILL aren't right. But I'm going to take it to this other place once I get enough money, resurface ALL of them, and just have a nice plain 'ole paint job on them. No hyper silver crap with lead based paint...ugh. What was supposed to be a simple fix has become a MUCH bigger problem than I had expected.

Now I need to find lug bolts that'll fit in the other 18's so that I can run on those things with good tires for the time being

[Supercharged98]

Michelle, measure across the "seat" and let me know. I have a extra set I'm not using.

[notfastenuff]

Wow. Saga is right. Can you not just pick up an extra wheel to replace the boogered up one? $400 to refinish a set of wheels is a bit much. That's getting into replacement territory for me. I know I can get new 18" wheels and tires for $800. Just seems steep to me, but then, I've not priced Milies in a while. Good luck with it.

[MichelleRoze]

Saga continues....

...shop refuses to refund my money because "..the labor has been done". WHATEVER! Drove down to St. Augustine and got a rock chip on the spoke already!!

Sadly, these Millis are rare and discontinued And they just look SOOOO nice, I can't stand the thought of parting with them. Right now...all I want is my money back.

[notfastenuff]

I hate to say this, but maybe you should seek legal advice. They ruined your wheels. Take the estimate from the other shop to the lawyer. This is the kinda stuff that can put a small shop under, and they need to remember that.

[4SEVEN3]

Want my .02 cents. Pull the wheels off the car. Have a good shop take the tires off. Have them powercoated by a reputable shop. To powercoat them they will have to media blast them to the bare aluminum and you will not have any issues with cracking or peeling paint and a extremely durable finish.