Wheels

[fil4362]

I have had my is now about 5 years. When i first got it the wheels where the usual grotty things that come standard. I Had them powder coated at "The wheel specialist" costing about £380 back then. I was never 100% happy with them as they didnt have the polished faces on them any more. I have looked around ever since bought a couple of un used spares from crashed cars trying to get a full set. I have tried many styles of after market ones nothing really took my fancy. So today i bit the bullet I rang my local Lexus dealer. I sat down, got comfy and waited for the slap when i said "how much for 4". "£89 delivered each" came the answer "£89 i said are you sure whats the catch". No catch sir as long as you return your old wheels thats the cost. Hang on he said where did you say you was calling from, I told him the name of my garage and he knocked of another £9 a wheel. So on the 18th of this month i will be taking delivery of 4 factory reconditioned original wheels. Now all i need to do is cross my fingers i dont mark them putting the tyres on when they get here!

[janet]

fil ! I'm in Derbyshire...was it Lex Derby? Do you reckon I could do the same???

[Rich OB]

What?!

[fil4362]

To be perfectly honest i saw a set on eBay last week from a guy down south somewhere he was asking about £450 for a set. said he got a good deal and i was tempted at that price. THe only down side was he was in devon and was collect only. So taking him at his word of a "good deal" i thought i would try my local dealer. Now either his local "good deal" isnt that good or hes getting the same price as me and putting a mark up on his prices. I have a set due in on the 18th, seems cheap to me so am waiting to see what comes but if they are correct i will be willing to arrange anyone a set if their local dealer doesnt do them at that price, thats with the agreement of the admins in the group of course. There is a Lexus mechanic on this forum maybe he can get a better discount then me as he works for them. Maybe worth an ask. As far as i am aware though the price should be the same regardless of where you live

[clossie]

Sorry..89 for four? That's blooming marvellous.

[fil4362]

ye i think myself and everyone else on here hopes they are £89 for 4. thats £89 per wheel, which as used tatty ones on eBay sell for between £40 and £60 and mint unfitted sparse sell for £80,, £89 is still a good price as i get £9 knocked of the list price technically its £80 a wheel plus vat

[Rich OB]

Ohhhhhh you mean £89 per wheel! I was understanding £89 for a set. So you're still talking over £400 inc vat.

[krisby1]

my local tyre place quoted me £69 a wheel to refurb yesterday. I've got two sets, so I might slowly get one set done, then a second set to sell on eBay.

[fil4362]

check the difinition of "refurbishment" http://www.thewheelspecialist.co.uk/?adw&gclid=CNPvisK10bECFcNN3wodK0QAqArb" that place charges about 69 quid a wheel. this is just a powder coat in one colour. I know places that sand and paint for 50 a wheel, neither has the diamond cut polished finish of the origianl wheels.

[ridgersIS300]

I agree with you Phil, the diamond cut alloys need to go on specialist machinery. When I was getting quotes for my alloys they all said it would bump the price up by 20-30 quid a corner due to the machine finish

[krisby1]

check the difinition of "refurbishment" http://www.thewheels...K0QAqArb" that place charges about 69 quid a wheel. this is just a powder coat in one colour. I know places that sand and paint for 50 a wheel, neither has the diamond cut polished finish of the origianl wheels.

I know, and that is what they do, a refurb, and powder coat, special painting, i.e. metallic or two colours is extra I believe, and the price assumes multiple wheels, single wheels carry a £5 surcharge. The before and after wheels they had on display were a good example of what they did, not that the wifes wheels are as bad as the one they had on show.

[fil4362]

The above mentioned place is my local wheel refurb place. They are abotu 5 minutes away from me. I had my wheels done there abotu 2 years ago. Fisrt time you put a little curb mark on them the "powdercoating" seal Is broken and the water get underneath. They really have started to flake and deteriorate quickly. The bill for them at the time was aprox 350 all in. I recently sent a customer there to get a quote for her wheels to be done. 18 inch wheels single black coating. The quote was over 400. Now if this is their current price then wheels direct from lexus are cheaper than their refurb quote. The 4 i have ordered from Lexus including my discount is under 400. Just need to tell the wife now that i am orderign 4 new tyres as well, that another 100 a corner lol.

[dave1]

So on the 18th of this month i will be taking delivery of 4 factory reconditioned original wheels. Now all i need to do is cross my fingers i dont mark them putting the tyres on when they get here!

Might be worth seeing if the price includes fitting. Lexus Coventry supplied my 18" GS430 Sport wheel (refurb) for £96 inc VAT and swapped the tyre and balanced wheel. Definately worth checking.

[fil4362]

Just took delivery of 4 grands worth of tyre and balance equipment. Latest bit of digital balancing gear and tyre fitting equipment from Bradbury. Should manage to get them on now and i have a few days to practice witht he new kit. The old equipment was about 10 years old and had marked the odd wheel with very low profile tyres.

[fil4362]

well to my suprise my new wheels turned up a week early and are now on the car. Even more suprise they worked out cheaper than quoted. 362 including vat was the bill. Now if you do the math thats 72.40 per wheel. Now that is a deal if you ask me

[wicked677]

I am currently waiting on mine to be refurbed by Toyota Stourbridge and they are doing 4 for £50 a wheel as they have really bad damage. They charge £40 if there is slight curb damage. I'd recommend you guys speak with Toyota dealerships as a lot of companies milk prices.

[fil4362]

Yes perfectly exceptable price for refurb on the wheel pictured above. Sand and painting and a bit of filler is 40-50 a wheel.

My wheels are the earlier wheels which have the diamond cut edge. Its a major process to referb my style wheels. Firstly they are shot blasted then tig welded to fill any curb damage. They are then powder coated or painted. Then they go on a cutting machine to machine finish the rim and the outer edges of the spokes ,the machine has to be programmed to follow the contours of the spoke as they are not flat. Then is back to the paint shop for several coats of clear coat/laqure. Trust me if your paying 50 pound a wheel its paint and maybe clear coat. I had mine done years back at a wheel specialist they charged 360 ish for 4 wheels repaired and powder coated. All the mobile ones i contacted where about 40/50 pound a wheel.

OH by the way guys its not Lexus that refurb the wheels mine didnt come in any sort of Lexus logo box. Lexus simply buy a scrap set then send them out for refurb,then send them to you. Your old wheels must be returned to lexus so they can refurb them and sell them on again. I would mention the name of the company who actually do the work but i am not allowed to advertise on this site. Lexus left the company logo on the box the wheels came in.

[fil4362]

even on a camera phone with bad lighting they look good.

[Benji]

Good deal!

one day i'm going to have to do something about mine..

[janet]

Errr, just done my yearly sand and paint (tightwad) refurb, cost £zero (enough paint from last year left over) and 3 hours labour. Result....IMO very acceptable for another year, and more money to spend on proper maintainence....... as I'm not exactly loaded!

[mikey's IS]

Could also try these guys if anyone is in the birmingham area http://www.citypowdercoating.co.uk/

[is200 Newbie]

Has anyone thought or considered wrapping their wheels? From the youtube vid below it doesn't look too hard and would only cost around £5 per wheel and the vinyl is available in all sorts of colours and designs/patterns from eBay .... something different?

[darkoracle]

Has anyone thought or considered wrapping their wheels?

Personally I think the result looks awful. The finish is at best amateurish and I doubt if the vinyl would be that resilient. If I wanted black wheels I’d get them done by someone proficient and probably stick with powder coating. I know there would be a substantial difference in cost, but I’d rather pay out than have a poor finish.

You would also need to make sure that the wheels were in good surface order before applying the vinyl.

I suppose the clip IS meant as a selling aid – it had the opposite effect on me.

[AJR171]

I bought my IS 300 Sportcross from Edinburgh Lexus when it was 3 years old. Wheels looked great because they had been properly refurbished. After a couple of years, taking good care of them, they started to deteriorate again. I went back to Edinburgh Lexus and was told " They all do that!" I complained quite loudly about the poor quality and they eventually agreed to get me another reconditioned set for £200.

They got me a new set but I had to arrange to have them changed OR pay Lexus dealer prices. I got them changed by a friendly local garage and gave Lexus my old ones. New ones looked great for a couple of years but have gone the way of the previous ones. The car still looks great apart from the poor alloy wheels. The finish is suffering from dark patches caused by water/dirt getting under the varnish/paint and flaking off.

I wished I had bitten the bullet and bought good aftermarket alloys at the start.

Another problem about the alloys on my IS 300, is that the front and rear are different sizes.

You can put the fronts on the rear but you CANNOT put the wider rears, on the front.

(Lexus Edinburgh forgot to tell me this small fact and I only found out when I tried to rotate the wheels as normal.)

If you also use the popular, directional tyres this also means you cannot swop the wheels from one side to the other.

As a result I now try and get NON directional, treaded tyres to solve this problem.

[north]

The wheel wrapping does require wheels that are flawless.... Thinking of the lexus OEM wheels after a few years this isn't the best option unless you are willing to DIY the wheels first and then instead of getting them painted, you cover them with the vinyl....

The only pus to this is that you don't have to wait for them to dry... have seen wrapped wheels before on cars and must be honest if you would know it you'd think they where either new or refurbished.

Would I do this to my wheels? I might depending on the state of the wheels plus the time I have to sort them out. Plus the cost per wheel is very attractive but one thing is for sure, I would pick a different colour vinyl!

ps in the video he messed up, one of the openings you can see he cut to much vinyl off messing up the finish

Thinking about it I would rather use