I'm having my alloys refurbed on the cheap (I'm terrified to see what kind of colour they're gonna come back! Dont know how close to Shadow chrome they can get with paint!)
Just thought it was odd to see my Bravo back on steelies again! But somehow I dont think it looks too bad!! Just shows me what other mods actually help the look of the car, and it's not just all about wheels!
Well, OK it is mostly about the wheels!

Anyway, this is only as temporary as possible, can't wait to get the 17's back on ASAP. (Just hope they still have some bling left in them when I get them back!) I'll post some pics so everyone can see what a £25 per wheel refurb looks like!

looks nice

£25 per wheel does sound cheap. I paid £35 for plain anthracite. I think shadow chrome was another £5 or £10 per wheel.

Hope the finish will be good, and will last...

I'm terrified about picking the wheels up later this week! The best thing about Shadow chrome was the way they gleamed in the sun, and thats definately not gonna happen with a simple metalic paint, even if it is a supposed colour match

I had one sprayshop saying there's absolutely no way they'd attempt to paint my wheels, that I couldn't pay him enough to attempt it, that colour would be impossible etc, and another guy just went 'Yeah, No problem, £100 the lot'! so god know what his quality would be like!!

Thought I'd sacrifice gleam in exchange for having no kurb marks. Getting new tyres with rim protection too this time so hopefully they'll stay that way.

well mine are sprayed Ben and you know how much mine shine. just depends on how metallic the paint is and how well its painted. mine was £25 per wheel just to be painted (no refurb) and that was this time last year.
Now I have paint flaking off one of the wheels and one wheel needing completely redoing thanks to a rather jealous Ex.

I'm sure she'll turn out fine, you can always decline them if not done right and ask them to be done again?

Dan

I had my wheels painted as opposed to properly coated and the problems started when I got new tyres put on, there's some flaking around the outside Still, I plan to finish them myself over winter and the bit needing done includes the flaky bits so fingers crossed! Look forward to seeing yours and in the meantime, do what I do and have a spare set of alloys

Where is the best place to get them refurbed?

To do it properly you need the original finish sandblasted off and powdercoated back on. Shadow chrome is still a particularly tricky finish apparently, and wonderwheels (they may spell it with a z in the somewhere!) Quoted £85 Plus VAT per wheel! Your local motorfactors may be able to recommend somebody local, or try using yell.com

Still havent got mine back, getting them on monday. I've kinda resigned myself to the fact they're gonna look like dark metalic grey rather than shadow chrome, but it serves me right for curbing them so badly! I'll kepp y'all informed! (i've got used to the car on steelies now! saw it at 'just that right angle' today and thought 'that really doesn't look bad! MAybe I'll spare myself the cost oif the new tyres I was gonna get and just keep the steelies on!

Ben I'm sensing that won't happen when you see your new wheels (although if you got those dark metallic grey Hellfrauds hubcaps they do kinda match the colour of your car, I wonder if I still have mine :chin