Panther wheel repair, lulz

[!SG]

i dont work for jessel anymore. besides, where does mentioning where i worked have anything to do with this thread, or any other thread in the past you have responded to my post? i sense a pattern developing here for rebuttle...

amg wheels i believe most european wheels are made by bbs, most japanese are made by either bbs or enkei.

ive delt with nubrite, greens, alloy wheels, panthers, i send to each one specifically depending on finish.

if they are oem 19" nissan wheels, then they probably have that darkend metal top coat. if there is road rash, then depending on how bad, either bondo or add metal to the wheel. depending on severity of the road rash, it can bend the wheel.

panthers usually grades the level of the wheel, 1-9. what did they say was the damage on the 19s? there has to be an explanation as to the quote for $400 per wheel, cant just brush it off as diss without proof.

[falcon]

Here's a Nu-Brite story for you.

Nu-Brite gouged my 3 pc. Panasports when mounting my R888s right after I had personally refinished them (hand sanded/polished) and tried telling me that it wasn't them. Load of BS. After a ton of yelling they finally fixed it for me (albeit not %100) and I left. On top of this, two of my 4 wheels were not balanced and I did a track day at Mission the following day to find out my car was vibrating to shit down the front straight. Had to take them off mid session, borrow a car to go into Mission and pay (again) to have them balanced a second time all while missing the end of that session and the following one. After going back to Nu-Brite with the receipt a few days later they told me they won't pay because I should have brought them back to them to balance. REALLY? You have got to be f'ing kidding me. Drive from Mission while at a track day, back to Port Kells for you to balance the wheels you should have balanced in the first place? Again, more fighting and I got $20 back.

Suffice it to say, they lost any and all business I would have ever given them. I have wheels fixed on a fairly regular basis from my work which is basically in Port Kells and choose to use Greens Wheel Repair because of the terrible experience I had at Nu-Brite.

BTW; Greens Automotive = 10 thumbs up. Have dealt with them for years and never let me down.

No comments on Panther as I've never used them.

[320icar]

I've used greens twice, both for bends in wheels ( I rebuild and paint wheels as a hobby) the first time I felt a bit over charged, but the outcome was just fantastic. The second time I got a very fair price and again, fantastic results.

Greens seemed the most professional, and if there was a problem I'd trust them to be able to rectify it.

[Super Dipper]

Greens fixed up one of my work wheels without issue. Looked mint. They charged me 225 shipped back to the island.

[J____]

Originally Posted by Wykydtron

The dealership I work at uses Panther all the time. We could not be happier with their service, their work, and pricing. There's always 2 sides to every story, and sometimes, the other side is left out unintentionally by lack/miscommunication.

i've also had better than great service from panthers. I've had 2 sets of rims powder coated from them and came out nothing than perfect. Cost me $175 to powder coat 4 rims. They even said if i tapped up the lip that I didnt want coated myself, they'd knock off $50. Rims were done quickly and picked up 2 days later a happy customer.

[brute_4s]

I had panther repair a wheel for me that had a severed spoke. I didn't think it would even be possible but they actually managed to do it and I couldn't even tell that the wheel had been damaged before. Although I will say that the way the management worked was a little sub par. Whenever I called they weren't able to figure out what was happening with my wheel due to the fact they had to send it out to get redone. But in the end it was worth the wait. And it only cost me 270 bucks.

[skylinergtr]

the shop i work at only deals with panthers and is very pleased with their service.

I, personally, has had one wheel sent 1 wheel to Nu Brite. At first I was pleased but the clear coat has started to peel now, over a year later while the rest of the original wheels are still fine.

I've heard lots of good feedback from green's, but also heard that they tend to switch price quotes from time to time.

Another place to consider is Wheel Fix It in Surrey. I have had 2 of my wheels straightened there. Nice guys, good work, and a fair price. I saw a few wheels that were refinished at their shop and they looked great.

[Doubledown1]

One of my uncles was attacked by a Panther when he was younger.

[theSpeedSyndicate]

We only use Nu-Brite and Greens.
Panthers is a running joke in the industry.

[hk20000]

On that note anyone knows of a good place to custom order a set of outer barrels? My 3 piece wheels from Japan could use a new outer barrel... Green's said they can't find anything with the right bolt patterns (the patterns on the spokes where the bolts go through)

[Gh0stRider]

i was gonna use western wheel craft, but might consider nu brite

[SumAznGuy]

Interesting. Since posting this thread and a few followup replies, OP seems to have forgotten about this thread especially since SG called him out.

Adon, where are you? Are you trolling us?
Could it be, Adon is Hyde?

[CorneringArtist]

My dealership uses Panther in service, and Western for sales vehicles. Panther seems to do a decent job, our Scion shuttle with Konigs that were curbed to shit and had one of the spokes on one wheel chunked out came back fairly decent, but the finish looked a bit off compared to the "cleanest" wheel. Might have something to do with us being repeat customers, but that aside their work is adequate, if expensive. We frequently have newer Corollas come in with pitted wheels and Panther does a decent job restoring them.

Western on the other hand, is a bit hit and miss, I've seen good work, and then a Rav-4 with factory mirror finish on the edge of the 5 spokes coming back with the mirror gone and the wheel feeling like it was oversprayed. Not gonna complain though, sales department cares about the bottom line and getting the cars reasonably restored for cheap, and I just install the tires if the car needs 'em.

[iam_dan]

I had made a post asking about Panther's services awhile back for my wheels which had oxidized. I heard a lot of good things about them, even though I decided to just sell my wheels instead.

[G-spec]

oooh, Speed Syndicate with teh inside info...

honestly I had heard from a few guys that work at shops this same exact thing, that Panther's is seen in this light, a joke and whatnot, but I didn't wanna mention that, it would just seem like I'm on here bashing for no reason... I think there's a good reason I created this thread, and now we've gotten some very useful info from a few members on these wheel repair shops, we should all be definitely gettin the jist of the situation now


and SumAznGuy, how bout chill out, nobody callin nobody out, wtf you fishin for beef? aren't you a mod here supposed to be keepin it clean?
and lol, and calling me Hyde ? look at my post count, and my fail thank ratio that's not very Hyde like, not to mention the fact I'm one of the OG's of the local Nissan/Infiniti club and quite a few RS members know me personally as well..... I'm usually in the NBA sports thread but I'm here now....SG done posted some very useful info in here

SG me making the comment about Brian Jessel Autohaus, don't take it the wrong way, what I meant by that is BJA a high end shop where damn near perfection is expected from them, so you guys over there whatever service you perform on a customers car or their car parts has to be top notch so you're likely to send out wheels and other parts out to more well established shops that freely charge a premium on their services... basically shops that do work almost exclusively for dealerships at dealership pricing, so I was just trying to get a sense of the other side of the coin that you're talking about there. I was as well honestly wondering if Panthers was doing work for dealerships on a larger scale so they had readjusted all their prices according to what they charge the dealers


Because yea in conclusion, I understand all the intricacies of what needs to be done here and there, special finish, extent of damage etc.... if I didn't I would not have created this thread if everything added up, but it just doesn't, first, they don't need to refinish all 4, second, it's very light curbrash that can be taken out with light sanding probably a small amount of bondo, and third, like SG said, a competent wheel repair shop should be able to do one side of the car and get the finish to look pretty close to what it was before.

At first I was annoyed they tried ripping my bro off, then I read all the stuff in here that pretty much confirmed that, so my personal conclusion is that I'm just gonna have to second what Speed Syndicate already has posted....
and like I said didn't create this to bash Panthers or nothing like that, I know the drill as do many of you I'm sure, it is what it is and not everyone is always legit.....

and plus now we got an "updated" thread on local wheel repair thanks to you guys, I actually did quite a bit of digging and reading throughout all the wheel repair thread made within the last few years before I even made this one, I think what you guys posted in this thread adds a lot more info than any previous thread on the same subject

[SumAznGuy]

You still failed to update us on exactly what Panther quoted "your brother" as being part of the $400 job.
As a bunch of members have posted, could it be that the strangely high quote have something to do with the special paint that Nissan might have used on his wheels?

Has he gotten a quote from Greens or any other wheel repair shop.

And here you are quickly agreeing with Speed Sdyncate's opinion on shops they have used. Well, Falcon also pointed out some bad service with Nu-brite which goes against SS's opinion of them.

I don't think you are doing anyone any real favor by posting this thread without all the details. Get the quote from Green's and then compare the two. Break down the quote to exactly what is being done so we are comparing apples to apples.

[dinamix]

Originally Posted by Doubledown1

One of my uncles was attacked by a Panther when he was younger.

What color whas it? "Greens"?..lulz

[marksport]

I had Panthers straighten, curb repair and refinish a set of Kinesis Supercups about 8 years ago for about $1000 or so. They straightened a motorcycle wheel as well. I thought they were decent. A friend of mine recently contacted Nu-brite to repair his M3 wheels. Not sure if they have done it yet tho. I talked to Green's as the other two shops referred them for wheel widening. I have my own mounting and balancing machine so that saves a little bit.

[G-spec]

he went in, they took a look at his car and they said it's gonna be $400 a wheel, oh and btw, we have to do all 4 wheels... no breakdown, no explanation, just that right there... they didn't rate the wheel on a scale of 1 to 9, or anything...
and i agreed with SS on Panther not having a good reputation amongst the people who are actually in that line of work, and other shops, thats because like I've heard the same sentiments from others as well


like i said his wheel the curb rash on it, is almost identical to the pic i posted on the first page, its just on more of the wheel, it's not deep at all.... even IF the wheel has some sort of "special" darkened final/top coat on it that isn't paint, but maybe something of a chemical process like chroming is for example, well if that IS the case then I highly would doubt that Panthers would have the same machine that Nissan has at their factory to replicate this process exactly.






anything else you're curious about ?

[Doubledown1]

Originally Posted by dinamix

What color whas it? "Greens"?..lulz

Yes, there was a rash of them attacking ppl at that time too.

[unspankable]

Hey, I just wanted to say that this thread has given me a lot of information that would have been hard to come by without calling each wheel shop, so in that regard it's a successful thread.
So a wheel straightening costs ~100?
As an aside if anyone with wheel expertise can help me out with this thread
Crimp on weight = Bent wheel? - Honda-Tech

I'd really really appreciate it.
thanks

[harrison716]

+1 on Panthers, I have had them fix my 5-Zigens twice from curbage. Both times they were friendly, fast, and financially reasonable. I am sure there's some miscommunication happening somewhere between Panthers and OP. Either way, my experience has been positive.

[Nightwalker]

If they were busy at the time, they might have just thrown you a bigger price to be worth their effort. If you walked, no biggy. If you didn't, $$$.

[marc0lishuz]

Not sure what their policy is, but Auto West Infiniti refinished my curbed OEM G37s wheel for $140 taxes in, including a courtesy car. Mind you, I bought the car from them and my wheels are OEM. Worth a try...

[momo77]

I have a set of custom painted wheels from avant garde and paint got chipped from a pothole and i'm pretty pissed off. I want to get it refinished do you guys think greens would be able to take car of it and get it colour matching.