Wheel work goes wrong in predictable ways — a tyre that will not survive being refitted, a sensor that snaps, a wheel that turns out to be cracked. These say who carries what when it does.
Last updated 1 September 2026 · applies to work booked from that date onwards
The price is agreed before we start and nothing gets added without you saying yes. If our finish fails, we do it again. If a wheel cannot be saved, we refuse it and charge you nothing for finding out.
These terms apply between Fathom Wheel Refinishing Ltd, company number 12004488, of Unit 12 Kestrel Court, Airport Industrial Estate, Portsmouth PO3 5RB, and whoever asks us to work on a wheel. Booking a job means accepting them.
Nothing here removes rights you have as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
We quote against a photograph and a wheel size. A figure given without seeing the wheel is a range rather than a price, and we will say which you are being given.
Quotes hold for fourteen days and include collection, delivery, materials and VAT within the areas listed on this site. If a wheel turns out on inspection to need welding, straightening or significantly more corrosion removal than the photograph showed, we stop and re-quote before carrying on. Nothing is added to an invoice that was not agreed.
A booking is confirmed when you have a collection date and a price in writing. Turnaround times quoted — typically forty-eight hours for a standard refurbishment — are working estimates, not guarantees, and they run from collection rather than from when you booked.
Things that extend it: straightening, welding, a colour that needs a sample panel, and diamond cutting, which adds a day because lacquer must cure fully before it goes near the lathe. Where any of these apply you will be told at the point we find them.
You can move or cancel free of charge before collection. After collection, work already carried out is chargeable at cost.
A wheel cannot be refinished with a tyre on it, so every refurbishment involves removing and refitting the tyre. That is ordinarily uneventful, but there are things we cannot control and you should know about before booking.
Run-flat tyres are refitted where we can do so safely. Some constructions genuinely require equipment we do not have, and in that case we will say so rather than risk the tyre.
Some wheels cannot be made safe and we will not coat them to make them look fine.
You pay nothing for a wheel we refuse, including where we only discover it after collection. If you ask us to proceed anyway, we will decline.
We match to a manufacturer paint code or a sample where one is provided. Powder coating is a different medium from factory paint, and some metallics, pearlescents and multi-stage finishes cannot be matched exactly. Where that applies we will tell you before work starts and, where useful, produce a sample panel.
If only some wheels on a vehicle are being refinished, a difference between new and older wheels is to be expected and is not a defect. We will recommend doing the set where we think the difference will be noticeable.
Where loan wheels are supplied they remain our property. They are road legal and correctly sized for your vehicle, and they are fitted and torqued by us at collection.
While they are on your car you are responsible for them: normal use is expected and fine, but kerb damage, a puncture caused by road debris, or loss is chargeable at replacement cost. Please do not have them removed or refitted by anyone else while your own wheels are with us.
Our refinishing work is guaranteed for twelve months against lifting, flaking, blistering and loss of adhesion in normal use.
It does not cover fresh kerb damage, stone chips, damage from acid or solvent-based wheel cleaners, corrosion arising from the wheel being kerbed after we returned it, or work somebody else has carried out afterwards.
Where you supply your own wheels having had them previously refinished elsewhere, we will inspect and tell you what we think, but we cannot warrant the condition of a substrate we did not prepare.
Private work is due on completion, by card or bank transfer, before or at the point the wheels are refitted. We do not take payment before the work is done.
Trade and fleet accounts are invoiced monthly on thirty-day terms once agreed in writing. Late payment may carry interest and costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Wheels remain subject to a lien until the invoice for work on them is paid in full.
We hold public liability insurance and we are liable for loss or damage we actually cause. Our liability for any one job is limited to the cost of putting the work right or the value of that job, whichever is the greater.
We are not liable for indirect losses such as lost earnings or hire vehicles, except where the law does not allow that exclusion. Nothing here limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.
Where we work at your address, please move valuables and anything fragile away from the working area before we arrive.
If something is wrong, ring us. Most of what reaches us as a complaint is sorted inside a week because we would rather fix it than argue about it, and a finish problem is usually visible enough to settle quickly.
If we cannot resolve it between us, you can take it further through the usual consumer routes. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.