Wheel Repair: Nissan GTR

R

RenuAuto

New member
:wavey



Challenging repair on a disgustingly good looking GTR. Such a cool car to work on. Loved it. Pics on the link below:









<a href="http://renuauto.com/Renu_Automotive!/Nissan_GTR_Wheel_Repair_St._George_Auto_Detailing_Mobile_Wash_Detailer.html">

St. George Detailing Las Vegas Detailing Mesquite NV Detailing
 
wow nice man! that gtr is sick and the repairing of the wheel was done very well. So is that your own business or a franchise? I was thinking of doing that over here . . . was all your gear in the van or you folks have a shop?
 
Very nice work on the wheel, but I don't quite understand the hyperbole. Is that damage truly "the deepest gashes we've seen?" Looks pretty much like average curb scraping to me.



You would really be outraged to see the curb rash I see on daily driver Porsches, BMWs, etc. in my area. Terrible to see the chunks of alloy ripped off nice wheels.
 
I completely know what you mean. I was disappointed when I loaded the pictures because it didn't show the depth of one particular gash on the rear wheel. Don't know what he ran into, but it was pretty gnarly.





Appreciate the compliments guys. It's just my own little operation. Registered the name myself, made the logo myself, built the entire website myself, just trying to build as professional looking of an operation as possible. All my equipment is in the van and goes with me wherever.
 
RenuAuto said:
I completely know what you mean. I was disappointed when I loaded the pictures because it didn't show the depth of one particular gash on the rear wheel. Don't know what he ran into, but it was pretty gnarly.





Appreciate the compliments guys. It's just my own little operation. Registered the name myself, made the logo myself, built the entire website myself, just trying to build as professional looking of an operation as possible. All my equipment is in the van and goes with me wherever.
Click to expand...



Wow that's great man. Congrats on that venture. How long have you been in business and how has it been working out for you? Sorry for all the questions . . . . in the back of my head i am still thinking of starting a second business to kind of balance things out as detail work for me right now is really slow and i see a lot of curb rash on wheels of BMW's and what not here. Almost did a franchise thing but man was that expensive.



PM me if possible, wouldn't mind learning a little more about your operation that is if you don't mind.
 
No problem.



I would have to say, the wheel repair is a huge undertaking. It's by far the most difficult aspect of the operation. It's the most expensive (by a long shot), and it's very strange. For example, in my home market, no one knows it's even available so I have very little to no business, but in a much larger city somewhat near by I get most of my wheel-repair business from friends there through word of mouth. Be sure that it's something your market is aware of and educated. My challenge is going to be educating the entire market to it's availability and value. I've been doing things for about a year now and I'm not nearly as busy as I'd like to be. I hope that will come with time and hard work. If possible, I think something like wheel repair would be something you'd want to add to your business when it's healthy and thriving as an additional SERVICE to your customers (note I didn't say "profit center"). While it can be profitable, I just wouldn't rely on it as a life vest for your business because of it's difficulty and initial investment.



Best of luck!



Feel free to shoot over more questions.
 
wow well that's very understandable. From what i have seen it can be a costly thing and i have heard several people here ask me about rim repairs and i actually need my rim repaired LoL. We do not have a rim repair place at all here . . . . . though as you mentioned education is key. I have been struggling to educate my current market about detail work and how i differ from the guy down the street who charges $80 for a full detail while i might be charging $250 (just a example) people just don't understand the proper way of doing things and the amount of time, product, research etc . . . . that goes into detailing a vehicle along with having the proper products to get the job done and that will leave them with results that will last.



Anyways . . . . i just would like to keep busy. Sometimes i sit and think about how life is now when i have days in which i have 0 cars and wonder if this is how i pictured things . . . . . i would like to have a successful business or businesses so that in the future i can have things. Even if i owned more then one business i don't want to sit around and vacation i love working and plan to work as much as i can.



What was your initial investment and how did you go about financing all of that and learning how to do things properly as well as what to charge?
 
I'm going to be honest and speak from the standpoint of a customer and someone who has had 100's of wheels reconditioned. On a car such as this, this repair is second rate IMHO. The wheels look like they where just sanded and refinished and no repair/recontouring of the edge was re-created. If you can't return a wheel to 100% "pre-curbed" condition, it's almost an insult to attempt. These wheel don't look right. They actually look out of round as the edge isn't anywhere near the way it's supposed to be. When I send a wheel out to be reconditioned, it comes back pretty close to perfect. This repair is probably good for a Used Car dealer, but not a customer with a semi-high end car like this.
 
David Fermani said:
I'm going to be honest and speak from the standpoint of a customer and someone who has had 100's of wheels reconditioned. On a car such as this, this repair is second rate IMHO. The wheels look like they where just sanded and refinished and no repair/recontouring of the edge was re-created. If you can't return a wheel to 100% "pre-curbed" condition, it's almost an insult to attempt. These wheel don't look right. They actually look out of round as the edge isn't anywhere near the way it's supposed to be. When I send a wheel out to be reconditioned, it comes back pretty close to perfect. This repair is probably good for a Used Car dealer, but not a customer with a semi-high end car like this.
Click to expand...



I can almost understand where you're coming from, but it looks like there was a pretty massive chunk taken out of the out lip of the wheel and maybe he even bent the rim a bit. A simple mobile "repair" service doesn't(and in my opinion, shouldn't) cover straightening the rim or full on re-manufacturing the rim. I also don't know many places that have the facilities to re-manufacture wheels(CNC machines, profiles of all the wheels etc..). So in defense of the OP, It looks like he preformed the service that he offered, which was a simple "repair."



Just for reference, this is what a pretty high volume mobile place calls a repair/recondition;



Wheels are placed inside our patent pending Mobile Reconditioning Facility where they are repaired, primed, painted and clear-coated utilizing patent #6,347,444 paint adhesion technology. The paint is color matched for all foreign and domestic cars. We use the same high quality paint products used by the manufacturer. Total time required to repair the average wheel is about one hour. All of our services are 100% guaranteed (ask your local AWRS Franchisee for warranty info).
Click to expand...



From; Alloy Wheel Repair Specialist (Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists Refinishing Services)



Sounds pretty much what the OP did. If the customer wanted to get his rim re-manufacured, I'm sure he wold have looked around for someone who could do it, and from the looks of it, the customer looks happy with the service.





Nice work and sexyyy car!
 
dmw2692004 said:
I can almost understand where you're coming from, but it looks like there was a pretty massive chunk taken out of the out lip of the wheel and maybe he even bent the rim a bit.
Click to expand...

I take it you’re not familiar with wheel repair because this is basically a pretty mild repair for a wheel repair technician. I’ve seen applications where actual sections of wheel lip are reattached/recreated. That’s what I’d consider massive IMHO. (e.g. refer to sitesI linked below)

dmw2692004 said:
A simple mobile "repair" service doesn't(and in my opinion, shouldn't) cover straightening the rim or full on re-manufacturing the rim.
Click to expand...

No, there are many mobile Wheel Repair Companies that can perform heavy repairs on wheels on-site. And they can also mount, balance and weld too. Powercoating and heavy straightening usually can’t be done on-site.

dmw2692004 said:
I also don't know many places that have the facilities to re-manufacture wheels(CNC machines, profiles of all the wheels etc..).
Click to expand...

Here’s a few; and I’m sure there’s several more. It’s actually pretty commonplace.

Wheels America

Fixrim.com

Turbax - Locations



dmw2692004 said:
So in defense of the OP, It looks like he preformed the service that he offered, which was a simple "repair."

Right. That’s the type of repair he specializes in: “Simple Repairs.” He did a simple repair on a wheel (and car) that needed much more. Maybe that’s why he states on his site that: “Repairing the wheels on this GTR proved to be one of the most challenging assignments we’ve tackled in wheel repair yet”. Which means he’s obviously inexperienced at doing wheel repair. He also didn’t refinish the wheel with the same finish it had: Powercoating. The parallel to this repair in the detail world would be like glazing over heavy defects on a high dollar car when the car was going to a car show and advertising your business.





Just for reference, this is what a pretty high volume mobile place calls a repair/recondition;

Quote:

Wheels are placed inside our patent pending Mobile Reconditioning Facility where they are repaired, primed, painted and clear-coated utilizing patent #6,347,444 paint adhesion technology. The paint is color matched for all foreign and domestic cars. We use the same high quality paint products used by the manufacturer. Total time required to repair the average wheel is about one hour. All of our services are 100% guaranteed (ask your local AWRS Franchisee for warranty info).

From; Alloy Wheel Repair Specialist (Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists Refinishing Services)



Sounds pretty much what the OP did. If the customer wanted to get his rim re-manufacured, I'm sure he wold have looked around for someone who could do it, and from the looks of it, the customer looks happy with the service.
Click to expand...



Not true one bit. AWRS would have done this repair correctly, which is totally different from what was done. Whether or not the owner is happy is irrelevant. This repair was done poorly and anyone that praises how great if came out either doesn’t know the 1st thing about proper wheel repair or didn’t view the pictures the OP linked. If I was a customer that owned a car like this, and had this service completed knowing/understanding what could have been done, I’ve be unsatisfied. Wheel Reconditioning is the art of returning a damaged wheel to the condition it was in prior to it being damaged. Sorry, I’m not going to goo and gaa over something that isn’t right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top