Austin wheels - white worm

[MrJollygood]

Hi all,

The 18" Austins on my mk7 Gti are starting to look less than perfect. Apart from a few marks and scrapes there is signs of white worm on two of the wheels.

I've heard that the diamond cut alloys like these can only be re-furbed so many times - I think mine have already been done once by the previous owner. Will re-furbing them again remove the white worm?

Or...do I just buy a nice shiny set of BBS...

Cheers!

[MrJollygood]

Follow-up question:

Getting the wheels re-furbed seems to be about £80 a wheel - so £320

CMWheels do a set of Austin's for what seems like a very good price - £480 - does anyone have experience of these? Seems too cheap to be true...I'm assuming they're of much lesser quality to the OEM wheels and made in China...

https://cmwheels.com/product/18-golf-gti-austin-style-wheels-gloss-black-machined-vw-audi-mercedes-5x112/

Cheers

[willni]

Safe yourself the stress and buy my slightly shiny mostly satin BBS  - https://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=287385.0

If you'll be on your last refurb via diamond cutting, you can only really recut them twice before most places won't touch them due to fear of loss of structural strength. Personally I'd refurb them via powdercoat/paint or just leave them for the next owner.

With regards to copies from CM Wheels, personally I wouldn't run them and the diamond cut face will last all of 6 months.

Plenty of nice options from BBS/ OZ Wheels / Rotiform or a nice set of pretorias is always a good option if you want better durability and want to say goodbye to diamond cut life.

[SRGTD]

You can usually safely refurbish diamond cut alloys twice without compromising their structural integrity, so it should be OK to get your Austin’s done again if they’ve only been refurbished once. However, because the machined face of the wheel doesn’t provide a particularly good key for the clear lacquer coating to adhere to, there’s a good chance they will suffer white worm again at some point in the future - probably in around a. couple of years time, or possibly sooner.

If I was considering buying an alternative set of wheels, I’d be looking for something with a more durable finish than diamond cut. A set of replica Austin’s will almost certainly succumb to white worm - probably in 18-24 months or less. I’d look for something with a painted / powder coated finish. If you’re considering BBS, they are a very good quality wheel, but even with BBS alloys, I’d avoid anything described as machined, polished or diamond cut as essentially they’d be diamond cut, so won’t have good durability, especially if they’re on a car all year round  that’s used as a daily driver.

As for the quality of alloys from CMWheels; forum members over on VWROC that’ve bought Pretoria replicate have been generally happy with them, and I’ve not read of any instances of those wheels cracking or buckling (the OEM Pretoria’s are prone to do this if they’re subjected to impacts from large potholes and other similar road imperfections).

[Guzzle]

Just some things to consider with the CM reps;-

They are a different offset to the OEM Austins. Not a massive issue, but they will give the appearance of filling the arches slightly more and will sit about 4mm closer to the kerb.

Your OEM VW centre caps probably won't fit as the centre hole I believe is slightly smaller.

As they're a non-standard wheel, you should really make your insurance company aware you're no longer running OEM wheels.

[Exonian]

Lots of good advice here as ever. 

My tuppence worth: 

Refurb the Austins in mid/dark grey.

OR get a set of 18” Reifnitz from CMWheels similar to Ceefeesh’s set


Guzzle is quite correct, you’ll need an £8 set of eBay metal decals for the supplied wheel centres. The OEM bolts swap over as do the bolt covers. And your insurers will need to know. Mine were perfectly ok with fitting aftermarket wheels, it’s not exactly unusual so was no issue for them.

[SRGTD]

As @Exonian has said, fitting different alloys isn’t an issue for most insurers - most are happy to accept them without issue. 

I have aftermarket alloys on my car; no issues with them from my current insurer. I’m switching to a new insurer in a few days time and they have no issues with my aftermarket alloys either.

[Vw80]

What’s a set of clean second hand Belvederes worth on Bridgestone tyres? Is it safer go for new copy’s?  What’s ur opions of Belvederes on mk7 TR? Thanks.

[Exonian]

What’s a set of clean second hand Belvederes worth on Bridgestone tyres? Is it safer go for new copy’s?  What’s ur opions of Belvederes on mk7 TR? Thanks.

Genuine Belvederes are just about the best wheel you can get for a mk7.
They do have polished faces though which will eventually corrode. Oh and the black sections are prone to a lot of light surface scratching.

[mcmaddy]

What’s a set of clean second hand Belvederes worth on Bridgestone tyres? Is it safer go for new copy’s?  What’s ur opions of Belvederes on mk7 TR? Thanks.

Genuine Belvederes are just about the best wheel you can get for a mk7.
They do have polished faces though which will eventually corrode. Oh and the black sections are prone to a lot of light surface scratching.

a good clean and ceramic coating should stop any surface scratching. I've got two sets of Belvederes, one with the factory Bridgestones on and another with Crossclimate+. Fairly easy to keep clean and at just over 7kg a doodle to change too