Fast forward to March this year and the wheels were looking even worse for wear. The black centres were a cheap rattlecan job which was now flaking off, and one wheel was replaced so the paintwork didn't match.
So a month ago I dropped all four wheels off to a professional for sand-blasting and straightening. They also welded a new aluminium bead around the lips and ground them down smooth. One week and 140 quid later, I got them back and set about filling the worst of the remaining chips in the faces before painting them.
And today, I managed to get them painted. Went from this:
to this
like this:
12mm threaded bar with screw-on hooks each end, and each wheel supported by an M-8 bolt with similar screw-on heads. It was hard work lifting each wheel up and holding it while trying to screw it into the hook, but it worked out well. Thicker bar would have been good but I couldn't find any screw-hooks that fit.
They're finished in Polaris Silver (060), and now I'm in two minds about spraying the centres black again like the original Alpina wheels were, on the E21 and E24.
