Hi folks.
Some of you may know that I've scratched one of my rims real bad and a search on this forum dug up this old thread that I thought was the most relevant to my case.
http://www.bmw-sg.com/forums/suspension-brake-tyres-rims-section/1060-repair-hamann-rims.html?highlight=repair
The details of this place is:
Blk 1 Kallang Ave Industrial Centre
#01-168 S(339406)
Tel : 62953351
So I went there this morning to try my luck. This workshop is seriously the most ghetto looking place I've ever been to and I had my doubts. But I went ahead anyway figuring I had nothing to lose. Worst case scenario is they'll destroy the rim and I'll just have to order a new piece.
Anyway, here's a step by picture description of what they did.
Arriving at the workshop. Notice the obvious scratch on the front wheel
The apprentice working on some big ass truck wheel
A close up pic before the repair. Ouch!
Old master wondering why I gave him this thing to take off the wheel (does not bode very well).
Damn it, some more scratches inside the wheel nut holes caused by his unrubberised wrench head. Heart sinking fast.
Apprentice went next door to borrow machine to separate the wheel bead from the lip.
Old master hammering away the large chunks of uneveness
After the hammering. Smoothed out quite a bit already.
Old master cusomising the grinding pad for the delicate job.
As he grinds, I get worried as he seems to be taking away lots of metal. I stop him to ask and he just told me gruffly "li dan jit eh" (you wait a while). Somehow, old men with veins poppng out from their hands always seem to have authority, so I sheepishly shut up.
Some more grinding to even out the edge of the rim. I "mo ngan tai" (cannot bear to watch).
He then whips out a file and starts filing. I begin to see old master knows his sh!t. He is blending the repaired part to the good parts of the lip, shaping it by hand. Wow!
Last step of wet sanding to fine tune the blending. Looking a million times better now!
Inflating the tyre for mounting.
Old master and apprentice mounting the wheel. Apparently the apprentice practices the old army way of dealing with dirty underwear.
The result. I am impressed! You can't tell at the first, or even second glance that the wheel has been damaged.
The apprentice didn't seem to use much strength when securing the wheel. I asked him about it and he said "buay luck eh lah!" (won't drop one lah). Unconvinced, I drove it straight to Ah Wee and he tightened the nuts for me. Seems like he did turn them quite a bit! Phew... After that I drove to a tyre shop and asked for the wheel to be rebalanced and they told me it's not necessary.
Compare this picture with the first one, and you can see that any damage to the wheel is not noticeable anymore. Very satisfied with the result.
I would recommend this place despite how it looks. The old master definitely has some skills (he'd better after repairing wheels of all kinds for the last 50 years). Only complaint I have is that he didn't have a rubberised wrench head to prevent scratches on the inside of the wheel nut holes.
The damage was $50. Well worth it.
Some of you may know that I've scratched one of my rims real bad and a search on this forum dug up this old thread that I thought was the most relevant to my case.
http://www.bmw-sg.com/forums/suspension-brake-tyres-rims-section/1060-repair-hamann-rims.html?highlight=repair
The details of this place is:
Blk 1 Kallang Ave Industrial Centre
#01-168 S(339406)
Tel : 62953351
So I went there this morning to try my luck. This workshop is seriously the most ghetto looking place I've ever been to and I had my doubts. But I went ahead anyway figuring I had nothing to lose. Worst case scenario is they'll destroy the rim and I'll just have to order a new piece.
Anyway, here's a step by picture description of what they did.
Arriving at the workshop. Notice the obvious scratch on the front wheel
The apprentice working on some big ass truck wheel
A close up pic before the repair. Ouch!
Old master wondering why I gave him this thing to take off the wheel (does not bode very well).
Damn it, some more scratches inside the wheel nut holes caused by his unrubberised wrench head. Heart sinking fast.
Apprentice went next door to borrow machine to separate the wheel bead from the lip.
Old master hammering away the large chunks of uneveness
After the hammering. Smoothed out quite a bit already.
Old master cusomising the grinding pad for the delicate job.
As he grinds, I get worried as he seems to be taking away lots of metal. I stop him to ask and he just told me gruffly "li dan jit eh" (you wait a while). Somehow, old men with veins poppng out from their hands always seem to have authority, so I sheepishly shut up.
Some more grinding to even out the edge of the rim. I "mo ngan tai" (cannot bear to watch).
He then whips out a file and starts filing. I begin to see old master knows his sh!t. He is blending the repaired part to the good parts of the lip, shaping it by hand. Wow!
Last step of wet sanding to fine tune the blending. Looking a million times better now!
Inflating the tyre for mounting.
Old master and apprentice mounting the wheel. Apparently the apprentice practices the old army way of dealing with dirty underwear.
The result. I am impressed! You can't tell at the first, or even second glance that the wheel has been damaged.
The apprentice didn't seem to use much strength when securing the wheel. I asked him about it and he said "buay luck eh lah!" (won't drop one lah). Unconvinced, I drove it straight to Ah Wee and he tightened the nuts for me. Seems like he did turn them quite a bit! Phew... After that I drove to a tyre shop and asked for the wheel to be rebalanced and they told me it's not necessary.
Compare this picture with the first one, and you can see that any damage to the wheel is not noticeable anymore. Very satisfied with the result.
I would recommend this place despite how it looks. The old master definitely has some skills (he'd better after repairing wheels of all kinds for the last 50 years). Only complaint I have is that he didn't have a rubberised wrench head to prevent scratches on the inside of the wheel nut holes.
The damage was $50. Well worth it.
