Is this Hobby Design quality or recast?

[mphostetler2008]

I just bought a set of wheels for a Z4 GT3 project I'm working on from Hobby Design. I've never used anything from them so I'm not familiar with their quality. There is a ton of flash on the wheels and I am uncovering air bubbles as I am trying to clean them up. Parts of the wheels are not even round (Luckly the backside of the wheels) My 2nd concern is with the valve stems. They are cast directly to a chuck of resin so I can only imagine how fun those are going to be to remove. Is this normal? I feel like I should have just went with the original wheels in the kit and made my own valve stems, at least those one are round....

[mphostetler2008]

[Chuck Most]

I've never bought Hobby Design wheels, but I've bought a few sets of their turbochargers and other detail items, and I've never had any problems. 

[mphostetler2008]

I bought these wheels from eBay, so depending on the input from others I may be led to believe these are a cheaply recasted set of wheels. The more I work with them the worse they look.

[cmfowler]

I have lots of HD resin and it is mostly good. You do get air bubbles and flash here and there but it usually in an area that will not be seen and easily taken care of . One thing that has been constant with all my HD wheels is that they come with metal valve stems in a small baggy

[Jhedir6]

Hobby Design quality is usually very good. Yes you get flash sometimes, like Chris said, but its usually minimal and in spots where its not seen or it very easy to clean up. I have a dozen or so sets of HD wheels and never have had one not be round. The only issue I've ever had is that the casting on the wheel spokes is very thin and can be fragile so dont push on the spokes to get the wheel in or out of the tire while test fitting. Do you have a pic of all the packaging and any instructions? I just got some HD seats in the mail this week and they're perfect, so it's possible you got recasts. Also what's the vendor's name you bought off of from Ebay?

[Exotics_Builder]

There were some HD wheels a few years back that had some bad casting.  I did get replacements from the vendor when I complained.  Recent stuff is VERY good

 

[IceMan Collections]

If you bought these on eBay, they might be copies, depending on who you bought them from. There is a guy out there copying theirs (and a few other's stuff) and still add Hobby Design to the listing title. Although I've encountered a bit of flash on their actual pieces, I've never seen air bubble or rough sides like these.

[Roncla]

On 6/3/2018 at 10:02 AM, mphostetler2008 said:

I just bought a set of wheels for a Z4 GT3 project I'm working on from Hobby Design. I've never used anything from them so I'm not familiar with their quality. There is a ton of flash on the wheels and I am uncovering air bubbles as I am trying to clean them up. Parts of the wheels are not even round (Luckly the backside of the wheels) My 2nd concern is with the valve stems. They are cast directly to a chuck of resin so I can only imagine how fun those are going to be to remove. Is this normal? I feel like I should have just went with the original wheels in the kit and made my own valve stems, at least those one are round....

 

Hobby Design made two different sets of rims for the Z4 GT3. The first release were the # HD03-0162 which appear to be the ones you have....

http://www.car-model-kit.com/hd03-0162-bbs-wheels-for-fujimi-bmw-z4-gt3-hobby-design

The second set is the later issue wheel and brake set # HD03-0216 in which the rims are staggered and the wheel nuts have the mold attachment point to the side....

 http://www.car-model-kit.com/bmw-z4-gt3-brake-system-wheels-hobby-design

I only have the  # HD03-0216 Brake and wheel set here and they are crisply molded with no flash and are perfectly round. The back of my rims could do with a wipe with a sanding stick but other wise they are good to go. I've  purchased a heap of Hobby Design product  from wheels to trans kits and everything I've bought from them in recent years has been  impeccable.

When Hobby Design first came on the scene there product could be a bit dodgy at times with shrinkage and warpage present but they have upped their game and I never hesitate to grab anything of interest now.

 

 

[Quick GMC]

Flash is common on their wheels, but not to the point it's a big problem. I usually scrape it away with an Exacto blade and kind of shape it down. As far as the chunks or other pieces where they were broken from the casting, that's normal as well. They used to be all over the place, but they have been putting out some premium stuff in the recent years. I don't care for their tires though.