“Hi. We’re here again, with another video in our AlloyGator docu-series.
Last time we looked at how we assess if AlloyGators will fit your particular wheel, and mentioned that there are some additional considerations to take into account if your wheels are diamond turned or diamond cut. So we’ll now be discussing can AlloyGators be fitted to diamond turned alloy wheels”
Can I Fit AlloyGators To My Diamond Alloy Wheels?
First of all we’ll clarify what we mean by diamond turned.
This is when all of the wheel is first painted in a colour like silver, or grey or black, and then they are put onto a lathe which takes off layers of paint and metal to leave a very shiny surface, like the metal has been polished.
The wheel is then lacquered to add a protective layer to the painted and diamond turned finish of the wheel.
You can check if they area diamond turned, as if you look very closely, you’ll see very fine lines running in concentric circles from the centre outwards.
Now if your wheels are diamond turned, because the lacquer is directly on the metal turned surfaces, they are more susceptible to damage with or without AlloyGators fitted.
I’ll just read the official stance from AlloyGator, the manufacturer, and then l’ll explain our thoughts.
‘Our product is not recommended for machine polished or diamond cut alloy wheels.
Although fitting the product will provide superior protection against kerb damage, if there are existing imperfections in the lacquered wheel surface, it may increase the risk of moisture retention and accelerate wheel lacquer degradation.
Providing there is no minute damage to the wheel surface, fitting the AlloyGator wheel rim protectors will not cause damage on its own, however AlloyGator Limited and Ace CarCare Limited accepts no liability if the product when fitted causes such damage.
Despite this, we have many customers with machine polished wheels, who choose to use AlloyGators.
Many customers prefer to re-lacquer the wheels should the need arise, than go to the far more costly and inconvenient trouble of removing the wheels and having them re-cut and repaired due to damage caused by kerb/pothole impact without AlloyGator protection’
Now that’s the official statement from AlloyGator, and to interpret that for you from our experience
Fitting the Gators can sometimes cause damage to the surface of the wheel where the AlloyGator touches the lacquer, which is less durable because it is applied directly onto bare metal ie the diamond turned part of the wheel.
This is not always the case, but can happen.
What you have to decide is whether it’s better to have the protection offered by AlloyGators rather than having to have a very costly and time consuming repair, if you did scrape the wheel rim on a kerb.
Just to give you an idea of costs, a diamond turned repair will cost 3 to 4 times the cost of replacing an AlloyGator, and this type of wheel repair would take 5 days for us to do, whereas to replace a Gator could be done in less than a couple of hours.
So there’s a few things for you to consider.
In the next video we discuss replacing single AlloyGators.