Alloy refurbishment
in Portsmouth
The unit is on the Airport Industrial Estate, so nothing on the island is more than fifteen minutes away. Kerb repair comes to you; full refinishing and diamond cutting happen here.
Price your wheels
60 secondsa Portsmouth job in progress · client photography
Salt air is the local problem
Portsmouth wheels corrode faster than inland ones, and it is not close. Sea air plus winter road salt gets under the lacquer and lifts it from the edge inwards.
On a diamond-cut wheel that shows up as white worm — a cloudy bloom spreading under the clear coat from the rim edge. It cannot be polished out. The face has to be re-cut and sealed, and the longer it is left the more metal comes off, which is what eventually makes a wheel unrepairable.
On a painted or powder-coated wheel it shows as bubbling and flaking, usually starting at a stone chip. Painting over it traps the corrosion underneath and it comes back inside a year. We strip to bare alloy instead, which is slower and is the only thing that actually works.
Parking matters more here than people expect. Southsea seafront, the Hard and anywhere getting spray off the Solent are the worst for it. If your car lives on one of those, a ceramic sealant after refinishing is worth the extra and we will say so rather than quietly adding it.
Where we collect from
Collection runs daily across the island and up to Cosham. What changes by area is mostly parking, and whether the car can stay put while we work on it.
Southsea
Terraced streets and permit bays. Tight for a van, so kerb repair here usually means an agreed bay and an off-peak slot.
PO4 / PO5Fratton
Street parking almost throughout. Worth telling us which side the damage is on so we can set up safely.
PO1North End
Mixed streets and driveways. Ten minutes from the unit, so often a same-week collection.
PO2Copnor & Baffins
More driveways than most of the island. Straightforward mobile work and easy collection.
PO3Cosham & Drayton
Off the island at the top of the city. Wide roads, no access problems we have hit.
PO6Old Portsmouth & Gunwharf
Cobbles, restrictions and underground parking with height limits. Usually a collection job.
PO1Port Solent
Marina parking and a lot of cars that sit still all week. Good for collect-and-return.
PO6Airport Estate
Where the unit is. If you would rather drop the wheels in yourself, this is the address.
PO3The local questions
Do I have to be without the car?
Not for a full refurbishment. We fit a set of loan wheels when we collect, so the car is driveable the whole time it is with us. They are road legal and correctly sized, not a set of steels off a skip.
For kerb repair the car stays where it is and nothing needs collecting at all.
My car is on a permit street in Southsea. Is that a problem?
It is the most common thing we work around. We need about two metres of clear space beside the wheel we are on, and the car needs to be in a bay your permit covers. Tell us when you book and we will pick a slot outside the school run.
Where the street genuinely will not allow it, collection is free and takes the problem away entirely.
Is the corrosion on my wheels because I park near the sea?
Almost certainly a contributor. Salt air plus winter road salt is unusually hard on alloys, and the effect is worse within a few hundred metres of the water.
It does not change the repair, but it does change what we recommend afterwards. A sealant is worth more here than it would be inland.
How long does a set of four take?
Forty-eight hours for a standard refurbishment, collected one morning and back the next afternoon. Diamond cutting adds a day because the lacquer has to cure fully before it goes near the lathe.
Can I bring the wheels to you instead?
Yes, and it is slightly cheaper because there is no collection. The unit is on the Airport Industrial Estate. Ring first — if both of us are out on mobile jobs you would find a shut shutter.
Beyond the city
Portsmouth is the busiest part of the patch, but the van runs out to Fareham, Havant and Hayling every week, and the price is the same wherever you are.
