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Journal: Are You Going To Redo Your Wheels?

Are You Going To Redo Your Wheels?

By
November 13, 2015
14 comments

Photography by Afshin Behnia, Edward Marius, & Courtney Cutchen

One of the hidden benefits of working for Petrolicious is that I am essentially in a constant dialogue with “the community”. I get to meet die hard car enthusiasts from all walks of life who have extremely deep opinions on what exactly I should do with each nut, bolt, and grille on my car. “Shave the rain gutters down!” “Backdate the bumpers, man!” are regular phrases I hear from mostly positive Porsche guys when I pop by the shop on a Sunday afternoon. All fine recommendations, but never have I more consistently seen polarization than when I talk to people about redoing my wheels.

Here in L.A., it seems everyone knows a guy who knows a guy who does the best “wheelwork you’ve ever seen”.

There’s always a reference to a guy with a “3 year waiting list” to redo Fuchs, who for an ungodly amount of money will happily take my original, patina’d 15-inch wheels and make them better than new. It’s an attractive offer, but I can’t quite make up my mind about what I should do with them, and I have a feeling there’s a few people out there like me.

So, are you going to redo your wheels? Or, perhaps more usefully, how did yours turn out?

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Phil Fugate
Phil Fugate
8 years ago

Wheel re-do places might be a dime a dozen in Socal, but does anyone know of a place in south western Ohio?

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Jeremy DeConcini
Jeremy DeConcini
8 years ago

Keep the originals with their patina, then buy a brand new set of replica Fuchs. Best of both worlds. How about that?

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Stefan N
Stefan N
8 years ago

Love the Volvo above with it’s non-periodic Turbo wheels. Looks clean.
Here are mine – also redone:

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Benjamin Shahrabani
Benjamin Shahrabani
8 years ago

I am still waiting for my Fuchs to be refinished – been waiting a while but not 3 years – but i have refinished other wheels before, mostly painted finishes, and have been happy with the results.

I hate tatty wheels, especially curb damaged! that being said if your wheels echo the general condition of the car – weathered, patina, etc – that’s OK in my book. Just no curbing!

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Noor Ali
Noor Ali
8 years ago

Guitar Slinger – you’re back! Damn you, I’ve even had to sign up to welcome your return (I was a faceless lurker for a loooong time). You are controversial, sometimes well off beam but sometimes so painfully right. I’d actually stopped passing by for a while as there little interesting debate going on.

Anyway, re: wheels, I agree that it depends on how poor they are – I recently refurbished a set of Enkeis (for my extremely modest NA Miata – no Ferrari’s or Porsche’s here I’m afraid) as they were well beyond a patina level of ageing. Let’s see some photos Ted then we can help you decide!

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Christopher Gay
Christopher Gay
8 years ago

What’s wrong with your wheels? Are they cracked?

Why don’t you just put in some elbow grease and give them some love? It’s not rocket science… they’re just wheels.

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olddavid
olddavid
8 years ago

I am perpetually looking to upgrade the look of my cars. My wife’s Infiniti was easy, as everybody and their brother makes something to fit in 14 to 22. I am NOT a dub guy, however, so when a set of cherry 19 Pirelli’s came up from a total, I jumped and her car looks great. My Lincoln Mark VIII, however, has an unusual 108 mm spacing it shares with Ferrari and very few others. I am currently trying to make the five spoke 16’s from a Taurus look like an American wheel of the early 1970’s. I am losing two inches of diameter, but I still have the Fondmetal 18’s for my summer tires. Besides ride height, wheels are a great way to inexpensively change your look. Great fun, I think.

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Nate Jones
Nate Jones
8 years ago

Definitely redoing my wheels at some point. Early 2000s BMW Style 71 two-piece wheels with horribly scuffed and curb rash’ed, peeling clear coat polished aluminum? They’re in poor shape now, but when they’re polished up and pretty they look amazing.

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Matthew Lange
Matthew Lange
8 years ago

I’m actually toying with getting the wheels on the Daytona re-done. One of them has gone past the point of nice patina into looking tatty, mainly due the paint lifting where the wheel weights were moved when I had a new set of tyres put on last year.
More than likely I will have them restored in their original colour, but a small part of me wants to paint them gold like the Daytona race cars had. Although to complete that look I really need a set of the 9″ wide rears which is another slippery slope.

Pic of another Daytona with Gold wheels that I saw recently

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Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
8 years ago
Reply to  Matthew Lange

Mr Lange .. I know its a bit of a slippery slope…. along with being a fair bit more expensive to boot … but if I were in y’alls shoes … with that drop dead gorgeous red Daytona of yours …

……. I’d go for the ‘ gold ‘ … hands down … no questions asked .. wouldn’t even give it a 2nd thought in fact 😉

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Christopher Gay
Christopher Gay
8 years ago
Reply to  Guitar Slinger

Go gold, no doubt. I wouldn’t think twice.

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jimmy savile
jimmy savile
8 years ago

[b]:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p licking ya nannaz bati[/b][i][u][/u][/i]

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Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
8 years ago
Reply to  jimmy savile

Hmmm … y’alls one sick little puppy … aint ya Senor Savile . I mean really . Not only is your comment both profane , xenophobic . racist and insulting towards whoever it was intended for … but your word order is .. out of order … not to mention misspelled and misplaced to boot not to mention completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand . In future you might want to consider the fact that more than a few of us here are bonafide polyglots before posting

Mr Moderator ? Methinks your services are required on this one

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Guitar Slinger
Guitar Slinger
8 years ago

It would help immensely if you had included a couple of detail photos of the specific wheels in question . Otherwise its kind of hard to proffer an informed and intelligent opinion when there’s nothing to base it on … other than a ‘ blind ‘ opinion .. which is pretty much no opinion [ worth considering ] .. at all

I will say this though when it comes to a fair amount of the so called classic wheel refurbishers doing business presently [ especially in the LA basin and SF area ] Buyer Beware … there’s a lot more Dog & Pony Show going on than genuine substance and craftsmanship lurking out there ready to take bundles of your dollars out of your wallet for little or no [ other than immediate short term gratification visuals ] benefit what so ever … especially when it comes to the more desirable ‘ classic ‘ wheels such as Fuchs etc

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