Who actually
refinishes them
There is no counter and no sales desk. The person who prices your wheels is one of the two who will strip and coat them, and it is the same two every time.
Ask us anything
No obligation
We bought the lathe first
Most refurbishers send diamond-cut work out to a third party. It comes back a week later and nobody can tell you what was done to it. That annoyed us enough to build a business around not doing it.
Both of us came out of body shops where wheels were the job nobody wanted — squeezed between panel work, done fast, and quietly sent away when they needed cutting. The finish was fine until the first winter.
So the CNC lathe was the first serious thing we bought, before the second van and before the unit was really ready for it. It means diamond cutting happens here, on the day we say, and we can tell you exactly how much metal came off your wheel because we took it off.
We have deliberately stayed at two people and roughly four hundred sets a year. Taking more would mean hiring someone we cannot stand next to, and the reason this works is that both of us see every wheel before it goes back on a car.
Four things we will not do
Every one of these costs us money to hold to. They are also the reason the twelve-month warranty is worth something.
Coat over corrosion
Aluminium oxide keeps spreading under a finish. Painting over it buys eight months and guarantees the job comes back. If it is not stripped, we have not done it.
Make a cracked wheel look fine
A crack through a spoke or across the mounting face cannot be made safe. We refuse the wheel and charge nothing for it, however much you want it saved.
Cut a wheel that has had enough
Every diamond cut removes metal. There is a limit, we measure against it, and past it the answer is a painted finish rather than another skim.
Send your wheels somewhere else
No subcontracting. Everything happens in our unit, which is why we can tell you what state a wheel was in rather than repeating what somebody else said.
Who turns up
Marc Ellery
Founder & refinisher
Nine years in body shops before this. Runs the lathe and does most of the colour matching, which is the part that takes a decade to get right.
Dee Hollis
Refinisher
Runs the mobile van and the straightening jig. Knows which Southsea streets a long-wheelbase van has no business turning into.
Unit 12
Kestrel Court, PO3
Stripping bay, oven, lathe and jig under one roof. You are welcome to come and look at your wheels mid-job — ring first, because we are often out collecting.
What the work actually needs
Refinishing is an equipment trade. This is the kit that decides whether a wheel can be saved, and none of it fits in a van.
CNC wheel lathe
Diamond cutting in house rather than sent out. It also measures how much metal is left, which is how we know when to say no.
Curing oven
Powder has to be baked at around 200°C to harden. An air-dried finish looks the same on day one and is not remotely the same in February.
Chemical strip bay
Old finishes dissolved off rather than blasted, so the alloy underneath stays as cast and a gloss coat has something to shine on.
Straightening jig
Hydraulic, with a dial gauge. Buckles get measured and pressed out rather than guessed at, and the runout gets checked before the wheel goes on.
Tyre machine and balancer
Every refurbishment means tyres off and back on. Doing it ourselves is why a set goes out balanced and with new valves rather than as four loose wheels.
The mobile van
Kerb repair kit, colour bank and a generator, so a scuffed rim gets done on your driveway without anything leaving the address.
Where to find us
Kestrel Court is on the Airport Industrial Estate, off Burrfields Road. It is a working unit rather than a shop, so ring before you set off — the shutter is down whenever we are both out collecting.
