Discover a wide range of top-quality rims from Rial, GMP, ATS, and Alutec at Donckers. Enhance your car with stylish and durable wheels. Request a quote easily now!
Are you ready to upgrade your car with the perfect set of rims? Then fill out our simple quote form now and quickly receive a non-binding price estimate. Our team of experts is ready to help you choose the ideal wheels that match your style and budget. What are you waiting for? Request your quote today!
Did you scrape your rims against a curb? Or does your rim show a dent after you could not avoid a large pothole in the road?
Your rims (and tyres) deserve a lot of respect: they are subjected to cold and heat, friction, heavy impact, acid and salt… And yet we expect them to keep looking like new. It is only natural that years of use take a heavy toll on your decorative rims. However, some damage patterns deserve a little more explanation:
Turned in a little too much when parking, causing the rim to scrape against the curb? Curb damage is by far the most common form of paint damage. The scratches follow the trajectory of the rim in relation to the curb: on the edge of the rim, scratches run from the edge to the centre: if the spokes were also hit, these scratches run in an arc across the spokes.
Aluminium – like most metals – is susceptible to corrosion. The coating applied to your decorative rims protects the underlying aluminium against corrosion. The perfect protection against corrosion is powder coating: in this process, the powdered paint is baked onto the aluminium at a high temperature.
Corrosion mainly affects the parts of decorative rims that have not been powder-coated: the polished parts and rims that have been sprayed “classically, wet”.
When producing a (partially) polished rim, the powder coating is ‘milled’ off the rim and spokes again by a polisher: what remains is the bare shiny metal, on which a layer of varnish is applied. However, this layer of varnish is very vulnerable: if it is damaged (by a curb, stone chippings, etc.), the underlying metal is exposed and aggressive rim cleaners and road salt are given free rein: the metal corrodes and corrosion creeps under the varnish layer, as if white worms were crawling under the varnish:
The same also happens with classically ‘wet’ sprayed rims: although less visible at first, the corrosion creeps under the paint layer just as well, pushing it off completely after a while…
Is your rim showing a dent after you couldn’t avoid a tough pothole in the road surface? A dent in the rim is unfortunately not unrelated to the condition of our Belgian roads….
If the impact was not too severe, you may only notice vibrations in the steering wheel or the entire car. With a severe impact, however, the rim may fold to such an extent that the tyre no longer seals airtight against the rim. When there is an immediate and complete loss of air pressure, usually this results in irreparable damage to the tyre.
At high speed, a rim can also crack instead of fold. The tyre itself cannot absorb the sudden impact in its sidewall, so the full force of the impact is transferred to the rim, resulting in a fracture.
We see such fractures mainly in heavy vehicles equipped with low-profile and/or run flat tyres, such as Tesla (heavy battery pack combined with low-profile tyres) and BMW (low-profile run-flat tyres that quasi do not spring in the sidewall).
As much as we try to prevent damage during fitting, even our mechanics are not always blameless either. Damage to the rim is usually caused by incorrect tensioning of the wheel, or incorrect adjustment of the mounting device. When mounting or demounting the tyre, the mounting arm may scratch the rim edge or spokes of the rim:
Damage resulting from mounting always runs with the rotation of the mounting device. This is in contrast to curb damage, described above.
Donckers works together with several specialised companies, who can also restore your rims back to new condition. Dents can be removed, cracks can be welded, the rims can be repainted or powder coated in a wide range of colours, and that beautiful shiny rim can be repolished and varnished!
The more extensive the repair of your rim, the higher the price tag. It is therefore important to weigh the cost of having it repaired against the cost of a new rim: often the price of one original rim is more expensive than a complete set of 4 after-market rims!
A quote for the repair of your rim(s) is best obtained in one of our branches: it is difficult to correctly assess the damage to your rims over the phone. Feel free to drop in for professional and non-binding advice.
Aluminium decorative rims have been around for a long time: the first aluminium wheels were introduced as early as 1930 by German vehicle manufacturers Daimler Benz and Auto-Union, on their racing cars. Of course, the production technology used then is no longer comparable to today’s processes.
Whereas up to a decade ago, aluminium rims served merely to embellish the car, today they are indispensable for achieving maximum weight savings in car production. In their battle to convince consumers to buy a new car, vehicle manufacturers try to offer the best fuel consumption and emission figures, as well as an attractive car. An aluminium wheel contributes to this thanks to its attractive design and lighter weight: less weight means lower consumption and emissions.
Today, aluminium rims are produced in different ways. The main 3 processes are:
“Casting” is the English word for “molding”: This production method, in which molten 6061 aluminium is poured into a pre-formed mould or vacuum-drawn, is by far the most common of the 3 (85% share in Europe). The mould already has the desired shape of the rim.
Once the aluminium has cooled down, the mould is opened and the rim can be finished: sharp edges are sanded away, bolt holes and a centre hole are milled into the flange, the rim is further polished and can then be sprayed in its final colour.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Flow forming is an upgrade of a ‘casted’ rim, where the manufacturer counteracts some of the disadvantages of cast rims. Flow forming involves starting from a very narrow rim cast from molten aluminium, which is reheated to 400°. The next step is similar to rolling out a lump of dough into a pizza crust: the ‘bed’ of the rim is rolled out against a pre-formed mould until the desired width is obtained.
This makes the bed considerably thinner than that of an ordinary cast rim, implying a significant weight saving. Heating and rolling the rim bed also densifies the structure of the aluminium, making it less porous and therefore stronger.
However, this technology does not change anything at the heart of the rim (the flange and spokes). Some manufacturers dare to use the term ‘Flow Forged’ or ‘Forged hybrid’ for this production process, but there is nothing ‘forged’ about these rims.
Advantages over standard cast rims:
Disadvantages:
Forged rims are strong as well as light, but these advantages come with a considerable price. Starting from a solid heated block of 6061 aluminium measuring 50kg in diameter, it is pressed over an assortment of moulds in several steps using an 8 to 10,000 ton press, allowing the rim to gradually take its forged shape (finished forge).
The forging form is then rolled out further according to the flow forming process described above, to arrive at its rough form (spin forge).
The rough rim is then placed in a CNC machine: this is a computer-controlled milling machine that mills the final rim from a rough shape to within hundredths of millimetres: an average 18-inch forged rim still weighs about 8kg… After this, the wheel can be painted and/or polished.
Unlike the two previous production methods, the aluminium retains its solid state throughout this process: the aluminium is not melted and cooled down again, but forged, making the density and structure of the material superior to other production methods. But this comes with a significant drawback: of the initial block of aluminium started with, 15-20% weight of finished product remains.
Advantages over standard cast rims:
Disadvantages:
