A wheely smart Kiwi invention

Deborah and Chris Chester's product is designed to protect car wheels from kerb damage. Photo / Paul Estcourt.

It was a "twister" of fate that led a Taranaki couple to a new career that's winning awards and has made a fan of a leading luxury car dealership.

In July 2007, Deborah and Chris Chester's home was destroyed by a tornado so the couple, with their daughters, moved to Auckland to start a new business.

Chris's plan was to develop a coloured PVC strip that could be applied to a wheel to prevent alloys and tyres from being damaged on kerbs and barriers and the couple worked 17 hours a day to afford to patent their final product - RimPro-Tec.

Tough PVC plastic is snapped into mounting tracks and customers can personalise it with colour inserts. Quick installation to rims is achieved using a specially formed, one-size-fits-all, 3M acrylic foam tape-backed PVC mounting track that can be applied to 13in to 22in wheels.

The product recently won the SEMA Global Media Award in Las Vegas, and is being sold in New Zealand, Australia, Britain, the United States, Canada and Malaysia.

The Australasian distributor, JK Trading's director Ken Quigley, said the West Auckland-made product has been a huge success.

Auckland's Independent Prestige, the dealership that sells such marques as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Bentley, is a fan. The dealership added RimPro-Tec to its demonstration cars, because it often cost more than $1000 to replace a "kerbed"' alloy.

Quigley is also in negotiations with a car rental firm to fit the product to its vehicles.

"The main aim is to get the message out about the product," he said. "It comes in many colours now to attract younger buyers."

Sold online (rimpro-tec.co.nz) or through car dealers, the product costs $119 - but can save car owners hundreds of dollars to repair or replaced damaged wheels.