Alloy Wheels

[Az1]

Hi All

I thought I would get my alloys refurbished,  standard 1996 alloys, but I'm concerned about the centre caps not matching following the refurb, so I rang the Lexus garage and asked if they are still available, he said yes they are, and I could hear the shock in his voice when he asked another member of staff is that really the price?!! Anyway he came back to me and told me £60 each, ok I thought let's ask how much a new set of alloys are, £266 plus vat each, that makes it circa £1500 for 4 wheels and centre caps. More than I paid for my car. (At least if you have the money you can buy them new)

Anyway to manage my OCD does anyone know how or what approach I should use to get the centre caps cleaned, maybe sprayed to match the alloys once the alloys come back from refurb? 

 

Thanks, Azeem

 

[normski2]

Had mine refurbed a few months back. I'll admit I don't know if the caps are the same on your 400 as my 250 but this is what I did.

I was in a similar type of quandry regarding the centre caps. I did not want the refurbing to colour over the chromed (albeit plastic) Logo. They said if I got the Logo off they would do the caps to match the wheels.

So, what i did was take each wheel off one at a time and prise out the centre cap with a large flat blade screwdriver. Work around the circumference gently prising and the cap will pop out quite readily. Then put the wheel back on and proceed to the next. Soon you will have 4 centre caps to clean and inspect. I found with mine that the sprues of the plastic (think there were 4 or 5) casting for the Logo are inserted through the cap and swaged (a bit like the fattening of a rivet) over from the rear. Gently prise away the fattened plastic with a chisel or other sharp tool and the logo becomes loosened. I then used a thin butter type knife blade to slide under the Logo and release it completely.

When I took the car to the refurbers I presented the caps in a bag and they did the refinishing of wheels and caps.

Then I took the caps home and re-inserted the Logo back into position. It could only go one way due to the sprue positions. Then I used a hot melt glue gun to put a good blob of glue over the end of each (now a little shorter) sprue projection. The following day I just pushed the centre caps gently back into place.

You could, by all means, use a more permanent type of glue such as Araldite or similar if you wished.

Hope that helps

Worked a treat for me.

[Az1]

Thanks both for the replies. I'm having the alloys dipped and then powder coated, and I'm guessing but not sure that the centre caps are plastic. I will speak to the refurb guys and see what they say. 

[shanra]

I had my Ls 400 wheels done and they were really pitted so don't expect a perfect job apparently the alloy isn't that good a quality. The caps couldn't be matched perfectly but I can live with it.

[lockeyboy]

Powder coating won't give you a perfect finish.

the caps would then Need to be matched to the powder coat

also check the warranty periods, some are only 12 months, which feels very light

[Malc]

I don't understand ....  why can't the refurbished wheel colour be an exact match for the prior cleaned plastic centres ?

I'm assuming that the plastic is a solid colour throughout !

Malc

[stericker]

Some years back I sourced centre caps for my Mkiv from the States. Quite inexpensive and arrived quickly.

[Malc]

just looked on eBay and there's lots of brand new what seem to be OEM centre caps for 95-97 Ls400 @US $ 60 a set of 4 ............  + post i guess

Malc

[ambermarine]

When I had the wheels refurbed on my Mark 1 the idiots that did the job sent the wheels back with the centre caps unpainted ,they said they baked the wheels in an oven after spraying and obviously could'nt put the plastic centre caps in the oven.

I had a hell of a job matching the paint when I refurbed the caps in the same manner as Normski ,as it turned out weather they had baked the wheels or not they lasted less than two years before badly corroding.

On my Mark 4 The wheels had just been done when I bought it but the centre cap's lacquer had started to peel so I purchased a full set off eBay refurbed them myself and have just fitted them after 4 years one wheel is starting to bubble but the rest are fine.

The previous owner told me he paid £350 at the time and sent them back as he was'nt happy with the first attempt , the company as since gone bust .

So it is a lottery as to how things develop over time with the Lexus wheels.

[ambermarine]

Malc

I was in the states a few years back when I was looking for the spare set of caps on my Mark 4. I purchased 1 from a site on eBay he claimed in his description it was oem but when it arrived it was a chinese rip off the logo was smaller than the genuine item 

I contacted the seller and he fessed up straight away and refunded my money and told me to keep the fake.

Just a word of warning ,I was in the states, it could be a lot messier if one has them shipped

[Malc]

I hadn't realised that the centre caps are painted.  I had ( wrongly I guess ) assumed that the plastic was a solid colour right through ......  which makes more sense 

Malc

[ambermarine]

Malc

They are quite easy to refurb but you must get your colour code from the wheel refurbiser, if you have that all you need is one aerosol of primer one of paint and one of clearcoat.

The trick is to apply the first coat of clearcoat within 4hours of the last coat of paint then two more coats of clearcoat on the same time schedule otherwise the clearcoat will flake within a year.

[Az1]

Thanks folks plenty of food for thought, and i will ask the refurbishers if they can give me details of the paint code before getting them done for the centre caps, I'm hoping I can get the Lexus badges off the caps and sent off for some chrome finishing as well just to make them standout against  Silver wheels