"even cheaper not to have this useless acessory in the first place"
Yeah cos there?s nothing nicer to set off a 25 grand motor than three crappy plastic Halfords trims held on with plastic pull-ties and one scabby, naked steel wheel.
Stylish.
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I think Bourns Powder Coating in Brum charge about £20 a wheel for blasting and coating. Powder coating is the way to go.
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Yeah cos there?s nothing nicer to set off a 25 grand motor than three crappy plastic Halfords trims held on with plastic pull-ties and one scabby, naked steel wheel. Stylish.
Too right! Just ask bernie ecclestone if he prefers cheap steel wheels c/w natty plastic trims, or a pile of bricks under his flash motor.
WTM
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What is the point of alloy wheels.
I have a 6 year old Rover 600 with factory fit alloys as standard. About a year ago the 2 back ones started losing pressure, nearside 4 psi per week, offside 7 psi per week.
I don't mind checking the pressures weekly, I do mind having to pump the things up weekly. It was put down to the age of the wheels and that they had started corroding which had compromised the seal. I have just replaced the 2 rear tyres and had them bead sealed, if that works ok. If it doesn't work, I will replace the alloys with a set of new steels and trims that I recently picked up on Ebay.
Alloys look better than steels but I don't want the hassle of having to pay for them to be cleaned up or having to inflate them regularly.
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when i had new tyres on my 4 year old mondeo alloys they kept losing pressure.
2 trips later and they put the tyres on with this horrid black stuff(like tar)dont know if thats what you mean by bead sealed but it stopped them losing pressure?
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Whilst I agree that for the most part alloys are about styling, I would point out that alloys do not buckle like steel wheels.
I have followed quite a few cars with slightly buckled steel wheels, which would have caused a shimmer in the steeering which no amount of re-balancing would cure.
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Whilst I agree that for the most part alloys are about styling, I would point out that alloys do not buckle like steel wheels.
If a steel wheel is buckled, it's cheap to replace.
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"even cheaper not to have this useless acessory in the first place" Yeah cos there?s nothing nicer to set off a 25 grand motor than three crappy plastic Halfords trims held on with plastic pull-ties and one scabby, naked steel wheel. Stylish.
Yes, I do like the alloys on my V70, but what you say above doesn't have to be so, BBD.
In Sweden, where I work a lot, winter tyres must be fitted during winter, so most car owners have a set of wheels mounted with summer tyres, and another set mounted with winter tyres. Most cars thus have alloys fitted during the summer, coz that's what they came from the factory with, and steel wheels over winter.
Indeed, most of the latter do look pretty grim, but a colleague has plastic trims on his V70 winter wheels that are an extremely effective alloy lookalike. They are very stylish, with the big advantage that if they get knocked, he replaces them for low cost.
My wife's Peugeot also has plastic trims on steel wheels, and many people have commented about her nice alloys... "Look again", I then have to say; these trims came from Halfords a couple of years ago, and were chosen simply because they were the easiest design to keep clean, but happen to be a dead ringer for a design of Peugeot OEM alloys!
As to the oft quoted benefit of lower unsprung weight with alloy wheels, this often isn't so on road car wheels designed to cope with potholes and humps, and 99% of the populace driving a Euro Hatch won't tell the difference anyway.
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.*********
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Oops, I seem to have upset the decency filter. Sorry for that.
I was just suggesting that certain desgins of alloy wheel are difficult to clean.
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As to the oft quoted benefit of lower unsprung weight with alloy wheels, this often isn't so on road car wheels designed to cope with potholes and humps, and 99% of the populace driving a Euro Hatch won't tell the difference anyway.
Forgive me if I'm being supernova dense here, but my alloys were heavier than the steelies they replaced - they were still the same overall diameter, but slightly wider.
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Forgive me if I'm being supernova dense here, but my alloys were heavier than the steelies they replaced - they were still the same overall diameter, but slightly wider.
That's exactly my point. For racing cars running on a smooth track, lightweight alloys such as magnesium are often used. Such materials in a wheel used on the daily shopping run wouldn't last five minutes. They also corrode at the slightest provocation. More robust, heavier, alloys are therefore typically used to make road wheels, with the result that there is no weight saving over a similarly sized pressed steel wheel.
Joe Public often thinks that there is though, because of the "racing connection", and that manufacturers fit them to make their car ride and handle better than with steel wheels.
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Forgive me if I'm being supernova dense here, but my alloys were heavier than the steelies they replaced - they were still the same overall diameter, but slightly wider.
Depends on the quality (price) of the wheels I guess. From an earlier post:-
MX5 steel wheels (I have a feeling these are an 'option'?) 18lbs
"standard" alloys 12.3lbs
Factory Optional BBS alloys 8.5lbs
All the above 14".
Virtually all aftermarked alloys are over 18lbs
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I'll share a great tip with you for spraying alloys or any kind of wheel without getting paint all over the tyre:
1. Prep wheel as normal.
2. Take a small bowl and squirt some washing up liguid into it.
3. With a paintbrush, carefully "paint" the tyre sidewall, and anything else you don't want sprayed, with washing up liquid. Make sure you get it to run right up to the wheel rim. You'll find the more viscous, expensive washing up liquid runs less...
4. The washing up liquid won't dribble onto the wheel you want to paint because of the rim lip. Unless you get carried away and put too much on...
5. Spray your wheel and let it dry.
6. Hose off the paint covered washing up liquid from the tyre - falls away like skin, leaving a paint free, clean tyre.
I've used this method quite a few times. Quicker, easier and more successful than masking things with tape. Magic, eh?
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My C5 has alloys that are cleverly designed to look like genuine plastic wheeltrims. As always, Citroen leads the way in innovation.....
I was always led to believe that alloys reduced unsprung weight and thus aided the suspension - although I'm not entirely clear what the benefits might be.Less wear on drivetrain maybe, or more responsive suspension action????? Perhaps they help disperse heat from braking better than steels???? I don't really know - just guessing. Anybody know for sure what the actual benefits are - other than cosmetic appearance?
Graeme
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Here's the little I understand about the situation
While the alloy wheel might make a difference to the thermal behaviour of the brake, I can't believe that it is a strong effect. The reason being, that in thermal conduction calculations, the problem can be transformed into the equivalent of a resistive circuit - each part *and* interface in the path has an associated thermal resistance. The often manky interface between the disc and the inside of the alloy wheel (the bit that often sticks solid if the wheels haven't been off before) cannot be an effective conductor. If the wheels were fitted for thermal purposes, there would also be some thermal conducting paste specified.
On most 'ordinary' cars, the alloys aren't lighter - purely cosmetic.
For those instances where the alloy wheel is lighter, then the reduction in unsprung mass does help maintain handling on poor surfaces.
Tyres can produce a given level of grip as a function of vertical load. To give progressive, predictable handling, the *change* in vertical tyre load over a bump must be made as small as possible.
Contrary to what you might think from bar room type discussions, this means that it is desirable to have soft springing to keep control over bumps*. The need to provide sufficient roll and pitch stiffness for the car body also drives suspension stiffness upwards.
If you take the opposite extreme, a car with completely stiff suspension will usually only be sitting with three wheels touching the ground! Not good for handling!
If you make the suspension too soft, the unsprung mass will overshoot after going over a bump. While the unsprung mass is off the ground, or substantially unloaded, it contributes little to handling forces. The tendancy to overshoot increases with unsprung mass - hence why it desirable to reduce unsprung mass.
*There are, of course, other reasons why racing type suspensions end up being very stiff. In F1, for example, it is to keep the aerodynamics of the car working by maintaing a near constant ground clearance.
number_cruncher
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