Styling Blade Alloys - vox populi

[Ralf S.]

I'm just after some general opinion from the indefinitely knowledgeable people of the FF....

I've managed to save some Blade alloys from a pimply Yoof who was going to put them on his Corsa...

They're not in terrible condition but they've been in the wars at least a bit and all of them are scratched, have some usual kerbing and marks etc. and a couple of them have a minor flat spot on their inner edge. They will definitely need a "repair".

I also don't have centre caps and these seem to be "unicorn poo" kind of scarce.

Anyways.. I priced up the refurb' and added in some extra budget for centre caps (if I can even find any) and The Younger Mrs S. asked whether some aftermarket wheels would be a better option. She's annoying like that..

Anyhow she does have a point. An extra £80 or so would get me a pristine set of some cool/suit the car, brand new 17" alloys.

If I was an insurance firm it would be a no brainer to buy new wheels rather than start to repair the old ones and then maybe find further problems... but the Blades are a) Original Equipment and b) only really suit Stilo and nothing else... and c) a bit scarce these days.. so I'm reluctant to not use them....

What does people reckon?



Ralf S.

 

[dtimmins1985]

I am not a huge fan of the blades nor the claws... i prefer the ones i bought (yes the ones that had that serious defect).

Since repairing the car, i had three remaining multuspoke 17"s left and had them checked.

One was seriously buckled and other two fine, im running two on the back and two blades on the front as a temporary measure.

Now i wont find another two of these multispokes brand new, theyre rarer than blades so i plan to go with some Team Dynamics from Wheelbase... they look a bit like BBS CH rims that you find on the Golf GTI Edition 30.... and hopefully in gunmetal or anthrycite (however its spelt).

I will say one thing though... the blades might sway my mind if they where mint or a set of schuey gp 18"s would also be sweet.

 

[Ralf S.]

Aye.. that's the dilemma.

New 17" wheels from Wheelbase start at £360.. .. the same as a full-monty refurb' on my Blades... then I would need to find centre caps...


Ralf S.

 

[Artermis]

Contradictory statement coming right up.....

I love originality.

Yep, I said it. From the guy running aftermarket 18s. Or at least I like the things I do to look like it came that way from the factory, so the untrained eye would look at something I've done and think that's exactly how it came from Fiat.

Thats why I have the O.Z. 18s that I do; they're very slightly different to the Super Turismos fitted to the Schumacher but you'd had to look twice to notice now I've pointed it out to you.

Of course from an insurance stand point, any modifications you have to declare and believe me when I tell you it's not worth trying to hide anything from them. So a set of factory Fiat alloys is easy from an insurance POV, although less of a problem when you get to my age.

So I'd be looking to keep the car as original as possible.

My car came with blades on it. I've still got them too; going to give them a small DIY refurb as they've taken some abuse over the years but not too bad. I like them more than claws, more because claws expose a lot more of the brake discs, which look rather piddly small under there and I think looks a bit daft.

I tell you what I have seen that I liked too, I saw some Grande Punto Abarth wheels on a Stilo not so long back which looked cool.