I came home today to find 2 nice big surprises! 2 huge watanabe boxes with my nice shiny new wheels in them!!

I ordered a set of 16x8 (0 offset) and a set of 16x8.5(-6 offset) Watanabe R wheels. The wheels were ordered as magnesium coloured with machined silver rims

Unfortunately when i pulled them out of the box (man are they LIGHT!) they are all magnesium (so no silver finish). Not sure what is going to happen yet, i have emailed the guy who ordered them for me to see what the best course of action is

anybody know somebody in sydney who would be able to machine the rims and polish them up? i have no idea what it would cost to do, but it may be an option to fix them rather than send them back to japan and wait a month for them to finish the wheels at the factory, but ultimately it will be up to the company i bought them off.

I didn't have my camera with me today, but i will get a photo tomorrow of them and post it!

I had been waiting to see the wheels before trying to decide between painting the car red or grey... let me tell you it still hasn't helped!

Kent

thanks wedgey,

that is not too far away at all! at this stage i am still waiting back from japan on what is the best course of action (either send them back or get them fixed at their expense), but to be honest i would prefer them to go back to watanabe to be done properly.

Having said that though there have been a few people pm'img me about buying them from me, if anyone is interested in them, you are certainly more than welcome to the wheels, there won't be any discounts though, you would have to pay what i paid for them (and i will basically order a new set).. the only advantage for you is that they are here now in sydney.... oh and they cost over $2000 so pm me only if your really interested.. as soon as i get the email to say send them back, they will be going back.. i don't want to have to wait too long for my proper wheels

The wheels are for a C110 240K with the offsets 0 and -6, i am no expert, but i don't think that would fit the Z cars.. sorry

Virgin Wheels

unit 11/20 Valediction rd Kings Park. ph 9679 9999

Thanks Rob, that's the mob I was trying to remember in my previous post.

It would be interesting to know how this job would be done. That quote seems awful high for what I imagine is some straightforward lathe work followed by some judicious buffing ? ..but I have no idea what may really be involved:nervous:

A real conundrum Kent! The cost of freight back to Japan, and then back again to Australia would have to make the supplier look long and hard at options.

• You keep 'em at a discount for incorrect supply.
  
• If you sell these, supplier gives you a better price on the repacement set. (Goodwill for your inconvenience)
  
• Supplier pays for any work to correct the wheels to original order.
  

Assuming the supplier is amicable to fixing this and maintaining a good sales relationship, what is their most cost effective option? Any budding sales managers out there??

Kent,

I would be very interested in how they end up fitting. These are the wheels I plan to buy once the car gets here. What size of tire are you planning? And did they supply the correct lug nuts as well?

Brian

Thanks guys,

Miki, my supplier, has contacted watanabe for me, and watanabe admit they did stuff up the order. their suggested remedy is to refund me the AU$56 (per wheel i am sure) special finish charge and send me a free watanabe sticker!!

As i am pretty stuck on the idea that the wheels need to have polishes rims, this is unacceptable to me, so Miki is trying to get them to agree to pay the remainder of the cost if i get them fixed up here.

My other option (and to be honest the one i think will work out for the best, for all concerned), is to sell the wheels to somebody here for the price i paid for them (minus the finishing fee of course).. so basically you get a brand stinkin new set of 16" watanabe's with the correct KPGC110 offset, they are already landed here in sydney, so you just have to pick them up (or Australia post should be able to move them).

I do need to know very urgently though if anyone wants them, as Miki and watanabe are waiting my reply.

The wheels would cost you $2340 minus the refund i recieve (probably $224). That is for the 4 rims, and 4 valve stems and watanabe valve caps.. oh and you can have the watanabe sticker too

Yes they are very expensive for a 16" wheel, but they are damn light, and chances of these offset's coming up 2nd hand is .... well... more chance of meeting santa clause really..

PM me if you are interested, but you will need to move very quickly on these, i need my rims for when i get my big brakes put on in august (and it takes atleast 1.5 months for watanabe to make them)

i just got confirmation that the finish fee was $56 for 4 wheels.. so the wheels would be $2284

you can see why i wanted them finished at the factory

good news!

I just heard back from my supplier that Watanabe will pay for the local finishing of the wheels here in Sydney, so i will be getting them done next week!

I can't thank Miki (my supplier) enough for helping me through this, it could have turned into an absolute nightmare (like i am having at the moment with a supplier in america, but that is another story!)

i will post his details in another thread, so they can possibly be stickied

Kent,

Are these wheels supposed to be just painted in a 'magnesium' colour (which they are not) or are they actually a magnesium alloy?

If they are really an alloy of high magnesium content, how are you planning on protecting the polished rim from corrosion?

I trust you realise that magnesium corrodes very, very quickly in the presence of salts, acids etc and does so RIGHT THROUGH the body of the material, not just on the surface.

Geniune magnesium wheels, and any other components with a very high magnesium content, are totally coated with paint for very good reason.

no, watanabe wheels are aluminumum, they are just painted (well. powdercoated i guess) in the colour that watanabe call "magnesium" (sort of a cross between gun metal grey and bronze, as i said, the picture isn't a good representation as it was a gloomy day, and the camera flash was used.

I did get a few ... "err.. we are not going to touch magnesium wheels" comments when i was getting quotes.. apparently they are a "little" volatile when working on.

i have to admit though, i am a little nervous about getting the tyres put on the wheels, i hope they don't get all scratched up.

Powdercoated? I thought they were painted?

RS Watanabe do make their wheels in magnesium as well, so there is more confusion to add to the mix

well, i am making an educated guess they are powdercoated, i would assume that if they were simply painted then it certainly wouldn't take much to scratch them (like putting on the wheel nut)

they are certainly aluminimum.. there is no way they are magnesium.

watanabes scratch real easy, so i doubt they're powdercoated. which is good for you because it'd be a real job to remove that powdercoating to polish

i've seen a few sets of f8's that were all black or gunmetal, but the paint scratches showed a machined/clear coated lip underneath

bugger, i would have hoped they would be a little more scratch resistant, oh well.. i guess i am going to have to be extra paranoid about them!