# Chinese Replica Wheels.. Dont shoot me..



## jamier27 (Nov 27, 2012)

Hello All.

I have set up a small company importing... yes.. Chinese manufactured wheels direct from factory.

Now I know there are a lot of haters for aftermarket wheels and yes like with alot of items in the aftermarket realm you get what you pay for etc but some OEMs have as much issues, I have had a number of relatively nice cars over the years and a number of them being Mercedes and BMW.
My C63 had 3 Genuine 19" wheels crack on me! My old BMW 335d had one crack on me.. and as you know OEM wheels are very expensive!
I replaced the OEM wheels with "reps" off ebay and they were solid and great VFM but this debates for another day.. 


Skip forward a few years and I end up with another BMW and this time just wanted to upgrade the wheels and everyone on the F30 page were recommending another company who I have since found out have a monopoly on a lot of forums/FB groups and sell A LOT of wheels. So I was going to order from them but then after a chat with my pal (who also had a C63 with problematic wheels and replaced them with "reps" - problem solved) we decided to investigate and look at suppliers over seas. Inevitably that led us to CHYYYNA 

Without wanting to waffle on too much. I started the company just as the pandemic set in and it has been difficult to get off the ground to say the least. We have sourced a reliable supplier and great quality wheels! So for the majority of this year and likely next, it will be more of the setting up and learning curves on researching which wheels / designs are being sought after etc 

However the last couple of months since our 1st set sold in November we have sold over 30 sets and received 100% positive customer satisfaction feed back, which is is my main priority above making any money (We have full time jobs that we live off at the moment)

So inevitably wheels take a lot of stick and abuse during their lifetime so forgetting the value and place of origin for a moment (and even the hate please)
We would like some advice on what most cost effective products and procedures you have found which are best to advise to keep the new wheels at there best and prolong life? Obviously nothing will be 100%.

Maybe theirs someone on here who sells this type of product and could be something we could work along side to provide samples with our wheels or kits that I could throw in for customers to use on the wheels themselves without any difficulty?

How regularly would wheels need "sealed"?

I can imagine some of these iron X type fallout products may be too aggressive for new bare wheels ... 

Thanks for your time and look forward to all the help and criticism..


----------



## kingswood (Jun 23, 2016)

Gtechniq C5 is probably one of the best ones.

throwing in a bottle of this with the wheels would show you know your stuff about wheel protection.

good luck with the business


----------



## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

Welcome along. Tough times to run a business, but I hope things pick up for you. Where abouts are you based? If you're in NI, I'll have a nosey....

Re the wheel 'treatments' what you're suggesting is genius in my opinion. Getting wheels treated at point of purchase is a great idea. 

Now, as to the type of product, ceramic coating is, again in my opinion, the way to go. 

Using harsh chemicals on wheels causes damage and can lead to clear coat failure, whiteworm etc. Ceramic coating prevents brake dust adhering to the surface, and means it can we washed off with nothing more them a wash mitt and shampoo. 

Now, like any other area of detailing, there are a multitude of products to choose from. Personally, I've had fantastic results from Nasiol ZR53 and KKD Revolve. I've also seen Carbon Collective ceramic wheel coating, and it's also a brilliant product. One bottle (30ml) will probably cover 3 sets. 

A ceramic coating will last for around 12 to 18 months on an alloy. 

Anyhoo, have a look, read lots and ask lots. 

Cheers

Cooks

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## Ennoch (Jan 31, 2006)

Good luck to you, I hope it all works out. My experience of dealing with China and Taiwan is to have a fixer on the ground who speaks the fluent local language as well as English, with an understanding of the subtleties of both. This can make life a lot easier rather than taking six months to discover a misunderstanding - this is also why quite often the factory will have three or four people in on a meeting that only one needed to attend. They have a confab after and work out by committee what they think it was you said and what they agreed to! 

I can't help with the treatment side of things as I've only really used GTechniq a long time ago, Carpro DLux more recently and Poorboys in the dim and distant past.

However, I do totally agree with you on aftermarket wheels. People seem to think they're all Halfords quality where you can get four wheels and tyres for less than a set of mid range tyres at a local garage. And in saying aftermarket wheels are crap in relation to these they'd be right. But modern OEM wheels break and bend too, and some of the aftermarket ones are pretty damn tough. Despite hammering my Inovite Redlines they are still straight yet I've a few mates who all bent the genuine PFF7's back in the day with less abuse (I know a few guys using the Redlines as tarmac rally wheels which says a lot). I've bent Compomotive MO's on the road too when I had my old Vectra. China is always flagged as the poor manufacturer of the world but the reality is that they've got the technology to more than match the best manufacturers anywhere in the world, but they can also provide stuff at a lower price than other manufacturing locations may deem acceptable given the quality cuts this leads to. As long as you're in control of the material quality and the design QC then there's no reason for there to be any issue. Most of the high end carbon bike parts are now all made in China and it's for good reason; they have the knowhow!

Anyway, like I said at the start, good luck! Hopefully shipping from the east will get easier and cheaper again soon which could only be a good thing for your business.


----------



## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

What is the main cause of the Cracks with the wheels? I know one of my old supervisors had a BMW 3 Series Convertible E93, it had huge wheels and very skinny tyres plus runflats which I imagine don't have much give in them especially for the poor standard for the UK roads, The wheels had to be replaced with some aftermarket due to cracks. I also see switching out the runflats due to poor ride was common (guessing got the puncture repair kits as a back up, which is now nearly something that is considered standard over spare or even space saver wheels). 

Now for the tricky part, there are many options on what could be used to care for and protect wheels. At the most Costly end your looking at Ceramic Coatings, Gtechniq C5, KKD Revolve X, Gyeon Rim, Carbon Collective Platinum the list goes on and on, not the cheapest and they come in small amounts but also consider that the customer may not be experienced in using such products and you want them to get good results to ensure their happy. 

Next up would be sealants/spray sealants and waxes, easier to use, less chance of user error.

Fallout remover has its place, its probably not needed on a car that does two trips to the shops every week or one that gets washed regularly or a driver that is gentle on the brakes. A car that does the opposite such as higher miles, aggressive breaking or infrequent washing will suffer worse from staining etc. The ceramics will hold up to these chemicals better than the sealants or waxes. Im sure other brands will have the same but sure Gyeon have their own specific Iron and Tar removers for infrequent use on coated rims to decontaminate the wheels as ceramics can become clogged up and appear to have failed when they don't bead as well as they did once.

I would look into wheel care options and have a search around the site, research as much as you can, maybe even try some out when you have a vague idea of what products you will choose to have first hand experience of them and find out if it is profitable.

Then I would next look at how are you going to convey this information to them, remember you could have customers from zero car care experience upwards so make sure to have all they need to know from washing to protection etc. Consider how will you do this, Leaflets within packaging, on the website or where you sell, video and written guides as well as an email or contact details so they can make sure should they have any further questions or queries.

Hope this is somewhat of a help or start of what to look at and good luck with the business


----------



## saul (Nov 27, 2013)

Is he allowed to state the name of his company?


----------



## BillyT (Jun 22, 2008)

saul said:


> Is he allowed to state the name of his company?


I think if he does then he could be stopped from posting.


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Some of the OEM wheels are prone to cracking. Big wheels, low profile tyres are a problem and it's worse with runflats. 

Cheap wheels aren't anywhere near as rigid or strong. They buckle and often easily.


----------



## Mcpx (Mar 15, 2016)

As the guys have made clear, ceramic is the way to go, so selling wheels with a kit or better still, pretreated could be a fantastic usp. A good percentage of the work involved in applying a ceramic is preparation, which you obviously wouldn’t need to do on new wheels. Then you have curing, which for C5 gtechniq recommend 24 hours indoors, which does present a problem for most users but again, not difficult for you.


----------



## BrummyPete (Jun 10, 2010)

As Christian has mentioned above, needs to be user friendly, i agree ceramic is probably the best but for the majority of people out there they want something quick and easy to use, a lot of my friends have upgraded wheels and they take their cars to cars to the local car washes I can't see them in their living room applying the likes of d lux to their wheels like I would


----------



## muzzer (Feb 13, 2011)

saul said:


> Is he allowed to state the name of his company?


Not without prior agreement from the Admin team


----------



## jamier27 (Nov 27, 2012)

Thanks for all the positive replies. Nice and constructive and greatly appreciated.

I am not on here to promote my business in anyway so have no need to mention my companies name. Last thing I want to do is upset anyone especially the admin and mods, as they clearly do a very good job policing this great site.

As much as I would like to see if any of these companies would like to be involved in my idea I'm not sure any would oblige in fear of damaging there brand unfortunately?! but I have emailed sales at Carbon Collective to see what they say.
Maybe a case of us applying the products ourselves.

How long would I expect to take sealing a set of wheels? in my head it should be relatively simple? but in reality maybe not.

A light clean off, then apply the sealer and then allow to dry? is it as simple as that?
And would you advise on doing the whole barrel of the wheel? Seems a little wasteful if most customers are just going to use generic washing materials and a sponge  and certainly not interested in a wheel off clean ....


----------



## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

Id recommend a thorough clean & panel wipe before application, in case any oils are present in the manufacturing or painting process. 

Re how long it takes, not long. I'd imagine 30 mins to do all 4. 

You're asking us weird folk, on a detailing site if it's ok to coat just the faces of the alloys.... lol. I'd imagine EVERYONE here will say to do the whole wheel, as it's offering considerable protection. Those of your customers who ask for the coatings to be applied, will more than likely have appropriate kit to clean them properly. 

Cheers

Cooks

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## kingswood (Jun 23, 2016)

Cookies said:


> Id recommend a thorough clean & panel wipe before application, in case any oils are present in the manufacturing or painting process.
> 
> Re how long it takes, not long. I'd imagine 30 mins to do all 4.
> 
> ...


this, we are weird. and ive 2 sets of alloys and C5 them each time I swap them over.

id say offering the C5 protection at cost, about £25 and do inside and out. its not a big job. but that will mean you having to store them somewhere as it cures. as opposed to flipping them after some quality control.

don't know the legal implications of saying you'll seal them with a specific sealer without their permission? but then again, money is money and there's no such thing as bad press. unless your jimmy Saville


----------



## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

kingswood said:


> this, we are weird. and ive 2 sets of alloys and C5 them each time I swap them over.
> 
> id say offering the C5 protection at cost, about £25 and do inside and out. its not a big job. but that will mean you having to store them somewhere as it cures. as opposed to flipping them after some quality control.
> 
> don't know the legal implications of saying you'll seal them with a specific sealer without their permission? but then again, money is money and there's no such thing as bad press. unless your jimmy Saville


Totally agree. I'm the same. We have three cars, and I have two sets of wheels for ea h car - one set for summer, and one set with winter tyres. They're decontaminated thoroughly at each swap, and that gives me an idea as to how well the ceramic is holding up, and can top up as necessary.

Ceramic protection offered at £25 for the set would be brilliant. You could offer it without telling folk which product you use.

Cheers

Cooks

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## Ctreanor13 (May 1, 2019)

Just a thought, as I have been looking for a set of alloys for quite time. How well does a ceramic coating hold on on a new alloy before a tyre is fitted? Will the weights stick when being balanced? Will the brake cleaner / solvent used to 'prep' the wheel weights break the coating down?


----------



## ridders66 (May 24, 2019)

Kerr said:


> Some of the OEM wheels are prone to cracking. Big wheels, low profile tyres are a problem and it's worse with runflats.
> 
> Cheap wheels aren't anywhere near as rigid or strong. They buckle and often easily.


BMW used to put some multi spoke 18" and 19" alloys on one of the 3 series. I can't remember which model designation number. They cracked for fun, too large a wheel, too low profile a tyre, UK roads. Recipe for disaster. I seem to remember they also covered it on Watchdog, and BMW agreed to replace and refund customers who had cracked wheels and had bought new ones.

https://www.whatcar.com/news/cracks-prompt-bmw-wheel-review/n6329


----------



## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

ridders66 said:


> BMW used to put some multi spoke 18" and 19" alloys on one of the 3 series. I can't remember which model designation number. They cracked for fun, too large a wheel, too low profile a tyre, UK roads. Recipe for disaster. I seem to remember they also covered it on Watchdog, and BMW agreed to replace and refund customers who had cracked wheels and had bought new ones.
> 
> https://www.whatcar.com/news/cracks-prompt-bmw-wheel-review/n6329


It was on the e90 model. Many of the alloy wheels in 18" and 19" cracked. As Kerr said, low profile tyres and runflats were going to cause issues. In the next generation of 3 series, the f30, BMw increased the aspect ratio by 5% points, I.e. where a 225/40/18 would have been used on the e90, this was increased to 225/45/18 on the f30. The same applied to 17" and 19" rims.

Cooks

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## BRUN (May 13, 2006)

if you do offer something, id make sure your customers are aware they will only need to use shampoo once coated, wouldnt want them hitting them with wheel acid straight away and giving you grief when the coating fails


----------



## jamier27 (Nov 27, 2012)

Thanks again all.

I have just received a 30mm bottle of the Carbon Collective wheel sealer to try on a set.
II did send them an email but had no response.. so just bought some to try on some test wheels.

Another thing I am thinking, is maybe throw in wheel cleaning brush or kit, as opposed to the ceramic coating. Tbh a majority of my customers will still wash there cars with a bucket and sponge no doubt so I'm guessing a generic wheel cleaning kit from amazon would suffice but certainly don't want to supply anything that will just scratch the wheels with too much aggressive cleaning.. 

Any good value cheap wheel cleaning accessories you would recommend?


----------

