Diamond Cut Wheel Repair in the North West

Roughly into two rings. The inner ring is everything within about 30 minutes of Radcliffe, which takes in Greater Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Wigan. Those bookings are frequently same day or next day, because a technician can reach the address, cut a set and be back without losing half the day to travel.

The outer ring, out towards Preston, Blackburn, Blackpool, Chester, the Wirral and mid Cheshire, runs on planned days. We fix a date, group bookings that sit near each other and travel once, which is why we ask for a day or two of notice on those postcodes rather than a phone call the same morning.

• M, BL, OL and SK across Greater Manchester
• WN and WA through Wigan, Warrington and the Cheshire corridor
• PR, BB and FY across Lancashire and the Fylde coast
• L and CH covering Merseyside, the Wirral and Chester
• CW through mid Cheshire

Coastal and moorland weather does the slow damage. Cars kept near the Irish Sea or on the Dee and Mersey estuaries sit in salt laden air all year, and once the clear coat is chipped it gets under the edge and the cloudy bloom starts spreading. Up on the Pennine side, heavy winter gritting and loose stone off the moor road peck the lacquer away along each spoke.

Roads and parking do the fast damage. The M6, M60, M61 and M62 throw stones at the wheel face at speed, and pothole edges on rural Cheshire and Lancashire lanes catch a rim hard enough to need dressing back before the lathe touches it. In the city centres it is simply kerbs, and a machined face has no basecoat underneath to protect it.

• Salt air on the Fylde coast and the Wirral peninsula
• Grit and stone off Pennine and moorland roads
• Motorway chipping near the M6, M61 and M62
• Potholes on rural Cheshire and Lancashire lanes
• Kerbing in Manchester and Liverpool city centres
• Large machined rims on low profile tyres in Cheshire

A diamond cut alloy wheel is one where the face has been machined on a lathe to expose polished aluminium, then sealed with clear lacquer. The rest of the wheel, usually the pockets between the spokes and often the inner barrel, is painted in a colour such as anthracite, gunmetal or gloss black, which gives the two tone look of a bright face against a dark background.

The finish is common on modern and higher specification cars, and there are a lot of variations. Some wheels are cut across the full face, some only to the outer half of the spoke, and the pitch of the machining differs between manufacturers. That is why the repair needs a lathe and a technician who has cut that style of wheel before, rather than a spray gun and a good eye.

The trade off is durability. Nothing sits between the lacquer and the metal, so stone chips, weathering and winter road salt take a diamond cut wheel apart far faster than they would a standard painted alloy.

The North West is our core trading region, covered daily by mobile technicians from the Radcliffe body shop and backed by the workshop for wheels that need stripping and a powder coat base. Nearer towns are often same day, while the coast and mid Cheshire run on planned route days.

We work throughout the North West and the M, BL, OL, SK postcode areas, typically 15 to 60 minutes from the body shop at Radcliffe, M26 4AD. That includes Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside.