Refurbishment
| Our alloy wheel refurbishment is an in house service, unlike the smart/quick repairs that people operate from their vans. These smart repairs are generally just a quick fix and often only last as long as the tyre, as when the tyre is changed the repair is damaged, quickly degrades and before long needs repairing again. Our refurbishment is complete process and you can be secure in the knowledge that when we have finished, your wheels will be totally restored and will have a long life span ahead of them. |  |
These are the stages we go through to refurbish an alloy wheel.
Firstly the old paint is stripped from the wheel. We do this using a special chemical. See the paint stripping. The next stage is repairing. Most wheels will require some repairing before getting repainted. Light curbing, scratches, chips or small dents can be ground down but sometimes the damage is more severe such as cracks. In these cases we would need to weld them and then grind it back into shape. See our technicians at work. Next we aqua blast the wheels to give them a really good clean. Before we can start painting we have to be sure the wheels are completely clean, so we put them through another washer, this rinses them off in hot water and then finally dries them off. Now the wheels have been repaired and cleaned thoroughly they go into the paint plant and the first stage here is to add the primer coat. The primer starts off as a powder that is blown over the wheel completely covering it. The wheel then goes into one of our large ovens. In the oven the primer is heated to a point that it starts to melt and it flows over the wheel. When the wheel comes out of the oven the primer has coated it in a smooth surface ready for paint. Now it is the actual painting, we can paint in any colour but by far the most popular is Silver. Again the wheel goes into an oven where the paint is then baked hard. The final stage is the protective lacquer coat. This is very similar to the painting process and again the wheel is heated in an oven. The lacquer goes hard and leaves a shiny protective surface. |
This is the process for a basic wheel refurbishment, however there is more we can do here at Atomic.
Wheel Straightening - Potholes are an all too common problem on our roads and can cause a lot of damage to wheels. When hit hard a pothole can easily buckle a wheel which will affect the handling and can cause the tyre to deflate. With our specialised machinery we can straighten out many buckles and get your wheel back into working order. See a wheel being straightened. Wheel Repairs - Most wheel refurbishments require a certain amount of repairing, however sometimes the damage is more severe. Cracks in a wheel can be fixed using a welding technique. Once the crack has been welded it then needs expertly grinding and finishing to match the rest of the wheel. Diamond Cutting - This is a very specialised service which we are proud to offer. Using a lathe designed specifically for wheels we are able to cut a thin layer of paint and metal off of the face leaving a polished finish. This is a popular look on modern alloys. Ceramic Polishing - Another technique to give alloy wheels a high shine. This method is very different to the Diamond cutting above and gives the entire wheel a mirror finish. See the polishing in action. |
