Yea, that s@cks, but many resto services are brokered through middleman. Just someone (middleman) finding a good inexpensive source, applying the right product to source, and also has sales skills. Tough to sniff them out and find the direct source. Sometimes they can be cracked.

But in defense, some of these shops/people doing the actual work do not like to deal with retail customers, have no sales skills, have no customer skills, and would be very unproductive without a middleman.

Having a sales "staff" to coddle the customer can/will lead to an increase in the service/product as well, and "dealing" with the "public" can be very....uhhmmm "trying" at times...DAMHIK

Rumor has it D&N Bending made the repops for MOPAR Performance. I contacted D&N who confirmed the story but was very short to provide any additional information. Specifically I requested information on the tooling used and if they had a contact that I could be in touch with concerning either tool rental with royalty or tool purchase. The general manager was less than helpful, perhaps thinking I was simply kicking tires or knowing MOPAR Performance would never agree to any such deals, though it is hard to believe they would refuse money with no risk. Either way it's a very discouraging situation that I'd like to see corrected. Perhaps one day I'll make another attempt.

This has been a great thread, thanks to all who have offered help.

So, does anyone have a detail picture of the profile of the repros versus the originals? Also, I thought I read somewhere that a quick way to tell the difference between the originals and repro is the spot-welded area on the reverse side by the valve stem hole - any idea what that might be?

So in the end, at this time there is not an answer for a good repop or a good place to have them restored. Is this correct?

I received my set of original 15x7 trim rings back from Rick Miller and I will say they look extremely nice. Worth every penny and way better than dropping a small fortune on NOS trim rings. In speaking with Scott Harms about the restoration on these, my understanding is that when you separate the trim ring for restoration, the restorer needs to ensure they go back on exactly as they were when they were pre-resto or the trim ring may be off balance and appear to wobble as they go down the road. I have no way to verify this at the present moment as my rallye rims and rubber are in a storage locker in Manitoba, and my freshly restored trim rings are in Alberta. I will say that the Rick Miller restored trim rings are extremely nice and are nicer than the 14" NOS brushed trim rings I bought 2 years ago right out of the box. I should also mention I sent 3 polished trim rings and one brushed and received back 4 polished trim rings as I requested. These are going on my FC7 T/A. If I put these on eBay I'm quite certain I could sell them for double I paid for them and had them restored for. I bought all 4 used original 15x7x3 trim rings off eBay in fair condition for under $200 and spent another $400-$500 having them restored. I would have to look at what I paid Rick to get the exact amount. From what Rick told me he says Corvette/Chevy guys have been getting their trim rings restored this way for years, and mopar guys are a more skeptical bunch.

But didn't the TA come with brushed trim rings from the factory like the AARs???

Thanks for the follow up, did yours have any serious road rash on them when you sent them to Bill?

Serious road rash... no. But lots of little dents. The better shape pre-resto, the better the final result. I purchased six 15x7 trim rings and sent Rick the best four. I should also add that I found Rick very professional and easy to work with. Turn around time is quite long, if I remember correctly it was 4-5 months. I do not know Rick personally and only found out about him while doing an eBay search for mopar trim rings. From what he told me there is very little profit in this for him and is only doing his part to help the collector car hobby.

Do you know if he can get the brushed finish done as well?

Thanks for the update. I've been thinking about trying to do it myself. It looks like a lot of time but would be a good project for the winter.

Sheldon

Seventythree, how long did Rick have your rings?
I am coming up to the 6-month mark with him and haven't heard a thing.

I would have to take a look but it was a while. 4-5 months but it could have been 7 months. I moved to a different province while they were away. The showed up at my new house after I moved in. I have my dash away getting restored and that has been over 1.5 years, lol.

Like I said before, and it turned out very well. I got a set of polished rings, and mounted them one at a time on an old wheel without a tire on it, and jacked the car up, and put it in gear and brushed them with 400 grit sand paper. You can control how much of a brush you want like this. It looks very good. Really even if you mess up, it won't look any worse than the brushed ones that WV sells.

What polished rings did you buy? And how fast did you allow it to spin? Wheel balancer speed? It would be safer if it's not too fast.