Michelin Pilot Sports now available!

We’ve added some great tyre brands to our ranks over the last couple of years to get our piece of the tyre action. And it just made sense to move the tyre sales in house to have better control over our work flow and ensure we meet expectations . Just recently we’ve taken on a new supplier which means we have added Michelin to the growing list. Michelin is a very well known brand that has been around believe it or not since the late 1800’s, starting out in bicycle tyres.

Some other brands to name a few that we have access to include:
Continental, Maxxis, Goodyear, Yokohama, Pirelli, Nankang, Toyo, and Hankook.

More Tyre Blog here

Pilot Sports are a known favourite that our customers have asked for, and being an observer of many local car forums and groups we just know these are the tyre of choice for many VW and Audi drivers in particular. So, our customers have spoken and we’ve engaged a wholesaler to get Michelin on board.

Something you might not know it the way Michelin label their tyres, when looking for a ‘Runflat’ option most of the manufacturers label them as ‘ROF’ or ‘RFT’ etc. Michelins are ‘ZP’ for Zero Pressure.

MK5 Volkswagen Golf ‘in-house’ play thing!! What is the plan?

Over the years we’ve purchased the odd broken car that’s arrived in the shop and treated as a wee project to do when we have down time. Often the cost of repairs can be more than the value of the car, so unless you have some real attachment to the car sometimes its easier just to get out of it and move to the next one. So this was the case with MZM532, stretched timing chain, resulting in 8 bent valves and zero compression.

So, WEEU bought the car to save it from the wrecking yard and popped it down the back end of the shop and waited for a quiet day to start some repairs. This picture is before we bought it, having just discovered the extent of the engine damage. As you can see its not in the best shape so its never going to be a show car, damaged bumpers, door gaps not great etc etc.

Anyway, a look over the the car uncovered other items, such as the drivers door window switch pack in pieces, some WOF items like front subframe bushes, and lower arm reaction bushes, roof lining starting to sag (Standard). What was going for it was, decent rubber and brakes, nice wheels (Likely changing anyway). Leather interior in reasonable condition.

So!!!!!! $500 buys the car. What is the plan?

In the first instance I figure we can save it from the scrap yard and keep costs down by having it as a ‘filler’ job. From there I don’t know. Fix and sell? Fix and sign write it, another loan car maybe? We don’t have anything really promoting ‘Wellington European Tyres’. So a tyre promo car??

Some jobs to take care of.. Window switch and door card repair, easy. Something we hadnt spotted with the car on the hoist and the tailgate up was the top of the tail gate was damaged., you will see we are now sporting a Black tailgate (for now).

Below, well the cylinder head came off and went to headmaster for repairs/rebuild, including 8 new valves and the re assembly included new chain kit, gaskets and the usual odds and ends. Interior is pretty good.

So we get the car going, ticked off the WOF work and some trim work and went driving. Other things to sort were some general tune and maintenance work, coils, plugs, and a DSG service. And while this was happening the apprentices added a sneaky bonnet stripe. For giggles it’s stayed on and might be inspiring something for the future branding on the car if that’s the way we go……

Now What?

So its together, its legal, its going well, and it has a black tail gate! And in amongst all of this we’ve engaged with a new tuner ‘EuroTune’ so we figured why not plug some power into it and have some fun.

Lets TUNE it!!

So on paper a stage 1 power tune takes this little 1.4 to 200HP. We’ve also done some other minor mods like a decat/downpipe and added the pops and bangs for a laugh. For now aside from the downpipe the exhaust is standard so the pops and bangs are minimal. I know plenty are going to hate on the pops and bangs, but hey, we are having some fun!!!

Now what/ watch this space.

We do have some wheels that we might try on it, and possibly give it a little lowering job, and then some signage…. But the immediate future is to get some km’s into it and make sure everything is working as it should, and enjoy the 200 HP’s!!!

AUGUST updates, where does the time go? So we’ve been super busy so the Golf has’nt had much happen until late this month. We did have some ‘new’ condition Tiguan 18 inch wheels that we were keen to see how they looked on the car, means a shift up from 17’s. We had some OK Bridgestones x 2 and bolted them on. Pretty happy with the look, so bought 2 new Continentals. Keen to know what you think.. Remembering we are patching this together on a budget and these are what we had.. We also gave the engine some LiquiMoly Ceratec additive. Something we started promoting with our servicing.

New Wheels

So the new rubber went on, supplier gave me a sharp deal on some Continental UltraContact UC7’s, and below for something controversial we’ve put a piano black boot spoiler. Its bigger than I imagined from the catalogue, but I like it!!

Wellington European Tyres – YOKOHAMA now available.

Some time ago we added tyres to our growing list of services on offer. We have a large range available, Continental, Maxxis, Goodyear, Pirelli, Nankang and Hankook to name a few. Recently we managed to get YOKOHAMA on board. We had a request for some road legal track style tyres for the car pictured. Great outcome as we have now added Yokohama to our available tyre brands.

Tyres!!

Something we’ve talked about for sometime now is to be doing our own tyres onsite. Machines, stock, consumables, and training all happened last week…. The reasons we’ve held back has been space, equipment and set up. However recent changes have created more room in the workshop, as well as 2 new junior techs started with us have both come from tyre shops, and have tyre fitting and balancing experience. Being members of 2 of NZ’s largest co-ops also gives us great buying power for a large range of wheels and tyres.

So…… we have done it with our first retail sales done in oct 2021. Ahead of schedule as we wanted to be up and running for November. We do have many brands to choose from with more in the pipeline, however the market we are in we think of Pirelli is a great fit.

Our aim is to provide better turn around timeframes with our tyres, as relying on outwork in general can lead to disappointment. Local supply will mean same day delivery in most cases and in time we will build our onsite stock.

Tyres, yes we do these too….

Tyres and alignments.. We are doing more and more tyres through preferred suppliers and are getting great rates and service.  Saves time when we can arrange while your cars in for its WOF or service…

Toy-Shop-wellington-tyres-wheel-alignment