Soldato
After an incident with a brick on the motorway, I decided to get my alloys refurbished. They're 20" Jaguar "Callisto" wheels, with a diamond cut finish. I called a local company, and the guy on the phone sounded knowledgeable and said he was happy to replicate the diamond cut finish, although it would obviously cost more than a standard finish, which was fine by me.
He dropped off the wheels about a week ago, and they weren't the finish I'd hoped. To my uneducated eye, it looked like he'd simply painted and lacquered them: they weren't a smooth finish and the colour wasn't even. With the factory finish, the wheels were perfectly smooth to touch, whereas now you can feel the paint, especially on the inside of the wheel. I pointed this out to him, and he immediately agreed to re-do them once I'm back in the area at the end of this month.
Now, I know absolutely nothing about such things, but I believe there's a different process involved to create a diamond cut finish involving polishing and then lacquer. He's offered to take me to his workshop to make sure I'm happy with everything, and I'm planning on taking him up on that offer.
So, does anyone know the process for producing diamond cut alloys. Is there actually any paint involved at all, or is it just polishing and lacquer? The guy's been very reasonable so far, but I just want to make sure that they're done right.
Here's a picture of how they looked a while ago - this is the correct finish. I've tried to take some photos of how they look now, but my phone camera isn't good enough quality to capture it.
He dropped off the wheels about a week ago, and they weren't the finish I'd hoped. To my uneducated eye, it looked like he'd simply painted and lacquered them: they weren't a smooth finish and the colour wasn't even. With the factory finish, the wheels were perfectly smooth to touch, whereas now you can feel the paint, especially on the inside of the wheel. I pointed this out to him, and he immediately agreed to re-do them once I'm back in the area at the end of this month.
Now, I know absolutely nothing about such things, but I believe there's a different process involved to create a diamond cut finish involving polishing and then lacquer. He's offered to take me to his workshop to make sure I'm happy with everything, and I'm planning on taking him up on that offer.
So, does anyone know the process for producing diamond cut alloys. Is there actually any paint involved at all, or is it just polishing and lacquer? The guy's been very reasonable so far, but I just want to make sure that they're done right.
Here's a picture of how they looked a while ago - this is the correct finish. I've tried to take some photos of how they look now, but my phone camera isn't good enough quality to capture it.
The reason I thought they were diamond cut is that the wheel you see in the picture is one I took to Lepsons around a year ago, and they told me it was diamond cut and, I seem to remember, charged me for a diamond cut finish.