MPeart

My RB5 wheels have seen better days and I was considering buying original new ones (until I saw the price), buying replica's or having the old ones refurbished.

Does anyone know if replica's are available, how much and who from. And, is there any difference between the quality of the work from a mobile refurbisher who does them with the tyres on and one where you send just the wheels off to be done.

Also, can refurbishers colour match exactly, I've been told they can't.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Mark.

drumsterphil

iTrader: (1)

The age old question of RB5 wheel colour matching. I had the same predicament a while ago and ended up changing the wheel colour completely when I couldn't get a match (the exact paint code is a Prodrive secrect apparently). Although you could have a paint match made up which would negate the problem.

There was a thread posted previously where someone had found a Vauxhall paint code that matched the RB5 wheel colour (try Search to locate it).

Not much help but good luck anyway.

Phil

RB5320

This is the thread Phil is talking about:

http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/thread.asp?ThreadID=174590&ForumName=Wheels,


My car is at the bodyshop tomorrow for some cosmetics and they are going to spray the wheel in for me. I dont know how they are going to match it, but if they do I will try to get the paint code and let you know cos this seems to come up quite a lot.

Steve

R.B.5

I was thinking (being dangerous) why dont we all get them (our wheels) sprayed pink. I rekon it would look kooel, what do you all think.?

ShAnNo_RB5

Pink Wheels?... Moving swiftly on...

My wheels are looking a wee bit shagged and I was thinking of just getting a barrow load of 86F (RB5 Blue Steel) to do my wheels. After all, they're not a mile off the body work colour anyhow are they really?...

Anyway, just my tuppence worth.

MikeWood

The paint code is no secret, it just means absolutely nothing to anyone as the process is totally different to how they are painted in the factory. There's no reason why it can't be recreated/matched though using a different process.

Mike

ozzy

Mike,

If someone ordered a wheel from a Dealer, would it get ordered as a one off from Speedline or is there a huge warehouse full of these things?

If Speedline make them to order, can't they tell us the paint mix rather than some weird in-house code?

The RB5's now 4 years old and nobody seems to have found a suitable colour match, so it ain't that easy

Stefan

MikeWood

Stefan

These wheels are in stock at Subaru, so yes there is a huge warehouse but it's full of all sorts of parts not just RB5 wheels!

The painting process used to finish the wheels at the factory is different to that used by normal paint shops and so the paint code is from a totally different scheme. The paint code is 35204134 on an Akzo scheme. I would be delighted if someone can make some sense of it............

Mike

RB5320

Thanks anyway Mike.

Steve

R.B.5

A little Humour can go a long way ShAnNo_RB5, just trying to be funny

I thought the RB5 wheels were powder coated then laquered, not Sprayed. Cant remember who told me but someone at Subaru i think. Any good bodyshop would be able to make a mix for the same colour. I dont think that Speedline will give out the paint code of the wheels as its giving away secrets.

Just get them sprayed with a near a match as you can get! That will be good enough and you probably wont be able to tell as most people would have lighter wheels anyway even if they are standard. I know my wheels are lghter now than when i first bought the car. Might have something to do with T-cut though!

Gav

ozzy

Thanks for the info Mike. Scoobynetters like a challenge

Sorry, but I'm puzzled as to why Speedline would have problems telling us a paint code; it's not quite Secret Squirrel stuff now is it.

If anyone wanted to copy the wheel, they's just buy one and use one of those paint analysers to get the colour match.

It would be nice to get a colour match for touching up scuff marks on individual wheels.

I'm just going to get all 4 re-furbed, so don't really care if the match is perfect since all 4 will be identical anyway. As long as they ain't gold or black I'll be happy

Stefan

[Edited by ozzy - 19/03/2003 12:04:36]

MPeart

Thanks for the replies.

Has anyone had experience of the different types of refurbishers per my original mail? Perhaps I'll just have to take the plunge with a mobile one and see what the quality is like. I'll let you all know.

Mark.

RB5320

not tried any of the mobile ones. I was going to use these people - http://www.wicked-wheels.co.uk/index.shtml

they were recommended by my local Subaru dealer who use them a lot and say they are very good.

Steve

ozzy

I had a bloke from Chips Away look at mine. He said he would just refurb the face of the wheel. I'd rather get the whole wheel done properly when I get all 4 done.

Not sure if WW will be any different.

Stefan