Lepsons Wheel Refurbishment - A Review
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:26 pm
Courtesy of the abysmal weather we had this winter, I have been running a winter wheel/tyre set-up so I was in the fortunate position to think about giving my ALPINA wheels some serious TLC. After 7 years and 170k miles, they were beginning to show some signs of age - including various scratches from overexuberant cleaning in the early days, some light kerbing from the previous winter when I realised that summer tyres didn't work too well on the white stuff and the inevitable bubbling of the paint coat due to corrosion getting under the laquer from stone chips.
There's been plenty of discussion on the forum over the years about various wheel refurbishers but, interestingly, no-one had looked at Lepsons (www.lepsons.com) for the work. I came across them during my research and comments from other forums (Pistonheads to name but one) suggested that they were top notch. Then my tyre fitters (Charlett Tyres - 01865 842727 - www.charletttyres.co.uk) who supplied my winter rubber called me with a recommendation for Lepsons, so I called Mike at their Swindon branch (01793 887222) and had a long but extremely valuable chat with him.
To cut a long story short, I decided to invest some of my hard earned with them and duly drove down to Swindon a few weeks later to deliver my wheels and tyres into their caring hands.
Now I could just say what a brilliant job they did, but that would only be part of the story. On first arrival - having enjoyed the pleasures of the magic roundabout and getting lost round the back of the old railway workshops - I turned into the trading estate by Sainsburys and found what looked and felt like a tiny little unit with a variety of cars up on axle stands and towers of rubber all around. Looks can be deceiving, however, as it was a hive of activity and the unit was rather Tardis-like.
At the front was the stripping, dipping and prep area where they remove the tyres - having marked exactly where the tyre was fitted relative to the valve so that it would be refitted exactly as before - treat the wheel to an acid bath before blasting it to bare alloy.
At this point, any kerbing damage or cracks in the alloy are identified and repaired as well as checking the rim for flat spots caused by potholes and the suchlike so that the wheel is absolutely true when it enters the paintshop.
The wheel now moves through to the next room where it is treated to a primer coat, then a powder coat and finally a laquer coat - together with appropriate curing in the oven. In the case of my wheels, the paint used was called "Sparkle" but for those of you who fancy something different, Mike and his team have a wonderful array of wheels in the office showing the various colours and finishes available to the less traditional or more risque owners out there. Whilst the colours may not be your cup of tea, the quality of the finish is second to none - as you may well be gathering from the sprinkling of photos in this report.
Now, in my case, the centre caps for my Classic wheels caused no end of head scratching and amusement. If you haven't ventured around the back of one of these things, the locking mechanism and swivel cap spring arrangement might look straightforward but you need six pairs of hands and the light touch of a tender gazelle to get all the components into the correct places - without damaging the cap in the process.
So how long does this process take, you may well be asking? Well, if you ask really nicely and they have space on the forecourt, you can leave your car there and pick it up with shiny new wheels within about 48 hours. In my case, I was in no rush - which was probably a good thing because they had the wheels finished in two days but the centre caps were like a monkey on their backs. Everytime I phoned for an update, I got the distinct impression that no-one felt brave enough to dismantle them! Eventually Mike announced that he was "going in" because Scott was too chicken (actually Mike said that Scott was extremely busy making the tea or something like that) and so the centre caps were ready for their shiny new coat. They even managed to put them back together again as well - but unfortunately it looks like I need to invest in some new centre cap badges as the quality of the finish shows up how rough the badges have become.
And now we come to price. Given that a new set of wheels from Buchloe would set me back something in the region of £2,500, anything south of this price would be attractive. As a point of reference, a SMART repair at my local dealership would set me back about £60 before vat and the kerbing damage I had was too much even for that type of repair. So how much?
£232 + vat for all four wheels and centre caps
Yes, I typed that correctly. For about 10% of the price of a new set of wheels I have ... a new set of wheels. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. The quality of repair work is such that you wouldn't even know the wheels had been damaged and the paint/laquer finish is faultless. Before fitting them back onto my car I spent several hours applying Rimwax to every bit of exposed alloy which will, hopefully, make cleaning them in the future a breeze. And I almost forgot to mention, the balancing was absolutely spot-on. When I had them fitted a few hours ago, we ran them up on the balancing machine and they couldn't be faulted.
So here they are, back on the car and I am delighted
Lepsons have very kindly prepared a price schedule for members of the Register as follows:
Up to 18" = £48 +vat
19" = £55 +vat
20" = £6- +vat
Centre Caps = £10 +vat each
I've already posted some contact details for them but here they are in summary:
Lepsons Ltd
www.lepsons.com
Swindon, Wiltshire - 01793 887222
Gillingham, Kent - 01634 580582
So, in conclusion, I cannot recommend Lepsons highly enough. Fantastic quality of finish, excellent customer service and prices that will have you ripping their arm off.
There's been plenty of discussion on the forum over the years about various wheel refurbishers but, interestingly, no-one had looked at Lepsons (www.lepsons.com) for the work. I came across them during my research and comments from other forums (Pistonheads to name but one) suggested that they were top notch. Then my tyre fitters (Charlett Tyres - 01865 842727 - www.charletttyres.co.uk) who supplied my winter rubber called me with a recommendation for Lepsons, so I called Mike at their Swindon branch (01793 887222) and had a long but extremely valuable chat with him.
To cut a long story short, I decided to invest some of my hard earned with them and duly drove down to Swindon a few weeks later to deliver my wheels and tyres into their caring hands.
Now I could just say what a brilliant job they did, but that would only be part of the story. On first arrival - having enjoyed the pleasures of the magic roundabout and getting lost round the back of the old railway workshops - I turned into the trading estate by Sainsburys and found what looked and felt like a tiny little unit with a variety of cars up on axle stands and towers of rubber all around. Looks can be deceiving, however, as it was a hive of activity and the unit was rather Tardis-like.
At the front was the stripping, dipping and prep area where they remove the tyres - having marked exactly where the tyre was fitted relative to the valve so that it would be refitted exactly as before - treat the wheel to an acid bath before blasting it to bare alloy.
At this point, any kerbing damage or cracks in the alloy are identified and repaired as well as checking the rim for flat spots caused by potholes and the suchlike so that the wheel is absolutely true when it enters the paintshop.
The wheel now moves through to the next room where it is treated to a primer coat, then a powder coat and finally a laquer coat - together with appropriate curing in the oven. In the case of my wheels, the paint used was called "Sparkle" but for those of you who fancy something different, Mike and his team have a wonderful array of wheels in the office showing the various colours and finishes available to the less traditional or more risque owners out there. Whilst the colours may not be your cup of tea, the quality of the finish is second to none - as you may well be gathering from the sprinkling of photos in this report.
Now, in my case, the centre caps for my Classic wheels caused no end of head scratching and amusement. If you haven't ventured around the back of one of these things, the locking mechanism and swivel cap spring arrangement might look straightforward but you need six pairs of hands and the light touch of a tender gazelle to get all the components into the correct places - without damaging the cap in the process.
So how long does this process take, you may well be asking? Well, if you ask really nicely and they have space on the forecourt, you can leave your car there and pick it up with shiny new wheels within about 48 hours. In my case, I was in no rush - which was probably a good thing because they had the wheels finished in two days but the centre caps were like a monkey on their backs. Everytime I phoned for an update, I got the distinct impression that no-one felt brave enough to dismantle them! Eventually Mike announced that he was "going in" because Scott was too chicken (actually Mike said that Scott was extremely busy making the tea or something like that) and so the centre caps were ready for their shiny new coat. They even managed to put them back together again as well - but unfortunately it looks like I need to invest in some new centre cap badges as the quality of the finish shows up how rough the badges have become.
And now we come to price. Given that a new set of wheels from Buchloe would set me back something in the region of £2,500, anything south of this price would be attractive. As a point of reference, a SMART repair at my local dealership would set me back about £60 before vat and the kerbing damage I had was too much even for that type of repair. So how much?
£232 + vat for all four wheels and centre caps
Yes, I typed that correctly. For about 10% of the price of a new set of wheels I have ... a new set of wheels. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. The quality of repair work is such that you wouldn't even know the wheels had been damaged and the paint/laquer finish is faultless. Before fitting them back onto my car I spent several hours applying Rimwax to every bit of exposed alloy which will, hopefully, make cleaning them in the future a breeze. And I almost forgot to mention, the balancing was absolutely spot-on. When I had them fitted a few hours ago, we ran them up on the balancing machine and they couldn't be faulted.
So here they are, back on the car and I am delighted
Lepsons have very kindly prepared a price schedule for members of the Register as follows:
Up to 18" = £48 +vat
19" = £55 +vat
20" = £6- +vat
Centre Caps = £10 +vat each
I've already posted some contact details for them but here they are in summary:
Lepsons Ltd
www.lepsons.com
Swindon, Wiltshire - 01793 887222
Gillingham, Kent - 01634 580582
So, in conclusion, I cannot recommend Lepsons highly enough. Fantastic quality of finish, excellent customer service and prices that will have you ripping their arm off.
