What would you do after waiting 4 months for these custom wheels?
 

I ordered these custom wheels for my 964 Turbo (will leave the company name out for now).

They were supposed to be powder coated and also ceramic coated for an extra 350.00

I paid almost 5000.00

When I brought them to a high end Porsche shop with a state of the art tires machine you can see what happened in the picture.

I sent a photo to the company and literally his reply was this " Really you want to do a touch up. I don't think it will be that noticeable. You certainly don't want to do a complete refinish. A local NAP or Pep Boys often have a huge selection of touch up paint. Wish I could do more.It's a bummer. You'll sort it out"

What would you say/do at this point?http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531863595.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531863595.jpg

First off, I'm sorry you are dealing with this. In my experience, many tire shops hold the tire on that center section and when careless, can damage and chip the center paint quite easily. I took two brand new maxilites to costco and they chipped the center up just like that. It got so bad, that I started mounting the tires first and then painted the wheel later, masking off the tire.

In my experience, the only place competent to mount a tire is a specialty Porsche shop. Perhaps it shouldn't have chipped so easily, but they really had to wack it there on the machine to make it chip off in a few places.

Secondly, the inner paint line is garbage and that's on the wheel company that did the wheels. That's just sloppy and poor craftsmanship. I did a better job masking my RSR job for $50 at home.

Lastly is the crappy customer service. At a 5k price point, I would expect a "no problem, send them back and we will take care of them"

BTW can you show the whole wheel? curious as to what they look like.

4 month, $5k and a stupid reply!
I‘d be angry as fu**!

Sorry for your disappointment, I feel with you.

They should redo these!

Wheels were powder coated?

Powder coat does not chip that easily.

I agree. And he said they are powder coated. I agree that it should not have happened. Its not like I took them to Pep Boys. This is a high end Porsche place with a high tech tire machine. The other 3 were fine.

This!

I believe they were reversed mounted. When I had a set of expensive wheels reverse mounted at my tire shop, the first thing they asked is if they were recently painted. Your problem seems to me to be caused by paint that isn’t fully cured and the pressure of a reversed mounting machine on the centre bore.

In the first pic, that inner paint line, is that how they came? or was that somehow damage caused by the tire mounting as well?

For future information

Blue tape is your best friend

I would raise hell with the tire shop, wouldn't they be on the hook for the chipping around the cap? It wasn't chipped when you dropped them off.... If they handle expensive wheels for a businees, they should have been more careful.

As far as the paint lines, for 5k+, I would expect better than that, and I would let them know. That looks like something I would do, and I would never charge for my painting skills.

Either the tire installer needs to step up and pay for the "touch up" or the wheel shop needs to step up and fix it. Either way it should not be your problem but you will get no satisfaction unless you force the issue or do it yourself.

On a side note I rarely see this sort of arrogance outside of Porsche shops. I've owned exotics, beaters, and everything in-between but the "Porsche tax" is never ending. If it was an exotic shop they would be too busy kissing your ass to piss you off. If it was a shop for American or Japanese performance cars they would typically charge a lot less. In Porsche land we're caught in the middle. They charge us the exotic price but rarely live up to the price with their service. Many of these P-shops want the prestige and $$$ but few want to stand behind their work. If was anything other than Porsches they would be out of business already.

Installer, not manufacturer.

This is the way they came with those tape lines believe it or not.
Power coating after sitting for 2 weeks should not have come off by the rubber piece on a reverse mounting machine.

Very disappointed all around. The rim place said 300.00 to refinish and I also pay shipping both ways.
I would tell them to kiss off but what if I need them down the road. Suppose I bend or crash a wheel. Then what?

After waiting 4 months on my custom wheels that cost almost the exact same amount......... I mounted them myself... It was a pain in the ass due to my tire selection having a extremely stiff sidewall.

What your dealing with sucks. But it's part of having cool stuff made to order.

Sorry for your misfortune but if it were me I would pay the shipping both ways and fork out another 300 but I would ask the installer to help with some of the bill. If you are not up to that then touch up around the center cap. By the way whoever masked your wheels did a really bad job and that person should be flogged!

As a customer who has paid $5k, I think you are entitled to name the wheel manufacturing company who you used, as well as warn other Porsche owners like us.

It's better if we can avoid an issue such as this if we can steer clear of said company. At the same time, said company will get their act together VERY quickly and have you taken care of faster than you can update this thread.

Use media to your advantage. They screwed up, not the installer.

^
x2

What brand wheels are they? Weird shapes around the centercap/hub area where the spokes join - I don’t think I’ve seen those before.


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Did that happen when the tires were being mounted or when they were being balanced? Looks more like damage from the balancer most tire machines never touch the center section. Either way it sucks and as already mentioned the lines do look terrible. Maybe you should mention the company name if that is the work they turn out just to warn others.
I would also mention the lines when talking to the manufacturer and tell him to fix the entire wheel
Good luck

I am still waiting on his next reply. I sent him a link to this thread.

It happened on the tire machine. Other 3 wheels were fine. Looks very thin to be powder coated.

Looks like paint. I powdercoat parts at our shop. I'm an amateur at best but I can't get it to chip like that. I've dropped freshly coated struts and other heavy parts on the concrete floor and can't even see a scuff. Our tire machine holds the wheel on the back of the rim. Its a greg smith atlas brand. Again, I'n no expert but I don't understand how people screw up wheels. It's jaws have rubber grippers. I wouldn't be happy with either place.

Side note, I'm not sure the lug seat in those rims should be painted. Thoughts anyone?

Maybe slightly off-topic: what was the original finish on those wheels? Anodized?

Correct, paint in lugnutholes is a nono.

looks like too much powder was applied at too cold of a temp probably over a poorly prepped surface.

I was along these lines too. A center post reverse mount should have absolutely nothing solid that contacts that area of the wheel on the outside:

http://cdn.gregsmithequipment.com/im...e/IMG_1010.jpg

A decent tire place should be able to grab the inner lip of the wheel from the outside as another option, that's how I typically do it as my buddy doesn't have a center post adapter.

I find it much more plausible that the wheel got damaged on the balancer. Those are almost all center mount, and you have to use a cone shaped piece and wedge it tight to the hub of the machine, or it will slip.

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Pr.../ATWB41-06.jpg

I think there's a good case for deniability for both the tire shop and the wheel manufacturer. To OP, I'd push for both the tire shop and the wheel manufacturer to fix the wheel, and whoever blinks first go with it.

Sorry to hear about that. I spent that to get my speedlines redone. Not sure why you are being so nice to the shop by leaving their name out? They gave you a not my problem response after taking that much money from you. At least he could be like send them and lets work something out, or more concern for your situation would be nice also. That alone I would blast their a$$ all over social media for crap customer service! Secondly I would be all over the tire shop to get them to get this fixed at a location of my choosing. I think at this point you should tell at least the rest of the pelicans what wheel place did your wheels and gave you response like that so the rest of know what their company is about. Just my 2 cents.

I wanted to give the wheel company a chance after all this to make it right. I spoke with them today and they are going to refinish the wheel.

I am not about blasting anyone on the internet until enough time has gone by to see if they make things right.

The way it should be!

Thanks Tippy

Glad to see they're helping make things right. I know powdercoat holds up really well, so i'm puzzled as to why yours chipped like that.. The day my wheels were back, I went to mount them. Had an incident where the impact gun slipped and caused damage to the wheel. All that happened was a half inch knick into the surface, with powdercoat missing only there, but that was it.

I'm glad they stepped up.

Anybody can provide good customer service when things are going right; it's what they do when things go wrong that is the real measure of a company.

I have a very similar thing happen to me... on my factory wheels (for a new twin turbo), someone at the dealership used a screwdriver to scrape off the balance weights.
Needless to say, they were completely ruined.

They wanted to just apply some touchup paint. I explained that the touch up paint won't cover up the grooves.

I stood my ground, told them I had picture of the wheels before they were brought in and informed them that they either had to pay to get my entire wheels refinished, or that if this went to court, then I would be asking for the loss in value on the entire car due to the damage on the wheels.
Knowing they could end up paying more for the loss of value on the car once I made an insurance claim (meaning my insurance company would sue them)… they chose to have the wheels refinished at a reputable shop in town.

I thought you were talking about the inner paint line,. that's unacceptable at 5K.
if you paid 500 for it then I could live with it.

powder coating is very tough, that's why things are powder coated. I would be getting some money out of the tire shop, then have someone else does the wheels and not spend that much.
5k seems like an awful lot for just a costing on the wheels.

I am glad they are stepping up to plate and handling it. Well the only reason I responded with that is you quoted the wheel shop telling you "get touch up paint or you will figure it out" I didn't realize you were waiting on further correspondence from them. If I had know that I would not have suggested blasting them on social media. I was under the impress they had written you off and unwilling to help you. Thankful you are getting squared away.

I have access to a tire mounting machine, and I don't like to mount my own stuff when nice wheels are involved. The tire company that I used before I moved recently was an NTB, and they warned me that they couldn't promise no damage on unique wheels.........but they also never damaged my wheels. It's a tough spot, but I agree with brand new wheels, mounted at a high end shop, SOMEONE should be responsible and make it right.

"On a side note I rarely see this sort of arrogance outside of Porsche shops. I've owned exotics, beaters, and everything in-between but the "Porsche tax" is never ending. If it was an exotic shop they would be too busy kissing your ass to piss you off. If it was a shop for American or Japanese performance cars they would typically charge a lot less. In Porsche land we're caught in the middle. They charge us the exotic price but rarely live up to the price with their service. Many of these P-shops want the prestige and $$$ but few want to stand behind their work. If was anything other than Porsches they would be out of business already. "

Amen.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've gone to America's Tire for my last four tire buys and the wheels have always come back totally unmolested. And they've never charged specialty Porsche prices.

The sound you hear is me knocking on wood.

Ditto or refund you so a real Pro company can do it properly.