inspyral

***Cliff Notes: Hit a big chunk of concrete on the freeway and bent a wheel, so I need good place to have my wheel repaired****

Hi all,
As most locals in the San Jose/Santa Clara/Sunnyvale area are probably aware of, CalTrans has been repaving sections of Highway 101 at night. Thursday night, after going through several detours for about 20 minutes, I was happy to finally be able to get onto 101 after leaving the golf course. Shortly after, I noticed the SUV in front of me swerve wildly, and then I saw the reason. There was a large chunk of what I assume was concrete(it was white/light grey and about a foot and a half to two feet long) laying across half the lane. I tried to avoid it, but my front driver side wheel hit it pretty square and shook the entire car. It must have been pretty hard to avoid because after I hit it, I saw literally 20-30 cars lined up on the right side of 101 North changing their tires or waiting for tow trucks/roadside assistance.

Anyway, enough with story time, I need information on a reputable wheel repair shop in the Bay Area that does good work for a reasonable price. If anyone knows of any, preferably close to San Jose, I would appreciate any leads. The wheel is a bronze Mugen MF8, so replacing it isn't really an option unless someone happens to have an odd spare sitting around. So far, Wheel Techniques in Santa Clara wants $200-260 to reform and refinish the wheel(they're worried about matching the color and may need to special order paint materials). They also said it would probably take a week and possibly more if they have to special order materials. I've also been to Wheels America in Hayward, and they say they most likely won't be able to match the color, but they'd charge a flat rate of about $140 if they were to do it. I didn't bother asking about the turnaround time since they weren't going to be able to match the color. From the looks of the damage, I'm guessing the original finish is either anodized or powder coated since it shows some stress marks, but none of the color is chipping or flaking, so I can see how it'd be hard to match it if they have to paint it. Are there any other reputable shops in the area that can repair forged wheels and match the original color? Thanks for your time, any help is greatly appreciated.

Here's a bonus pic of the damage:

It doesn't look that bad from this angle, but the bend sticks out a good 1/2 to 5/8" and there's a matching bend on the inside lip. The wheel probably would have cracked or broke if it wasn't forged. :\

91 crx savage

Memory fab

inspyral

Thanks for the reply, but it seems like they only do refurbishing mainly on 3 piece wheels.

actionanh

Those are the main two in the bay, think about going with a new color for the wheels or finding one to buy.

GL.

db1st

Wheel Techniques did my Bronze 5Zigen FNO1R-Cs 2 years ago & it came out pretty decent, but at night...you could definitely tell the difference.

seems like painting the rims a different color would be a good idea, due to the fact that bronze finish is difficult to match. gives u the opportunity to get creative.

inspyral

Thanks for the replies. I might just have Wheel Techniques fix the bends and see how badly that process messes up the finish before I decide on having them try to color match it. If it's only slightly discolored, I may opt to just run it as is and consider it a battle scar. I'm not sure I want to change the perfectly good finish on the 3 other wheels just to match the damaged one, so that's probably going to be a last resort.

oneiro

remember to file a claim with Caltrans if it's their fault.

inspyral

I've been looking for information on how to do this, but have mostly come up empty. Any idea on where I should look to find info about the claim process?

Hella_Fresh

you would need to get a custom color and materials for that color as its a special color mugen doesnt want out there. Just like the volk mag blue, but that color is not out there. I could give you a good price on powdercoating with that special color, alot better then any wheel repair place will give you also.

96teg831

http://www.dot.ca.gov/damageclaims.htm

inspyral

You wouldn't happen to repair bends too would you? Shoot me an PM with your powdercoating pricing for 1-4 wheels if you can.

Thanks. I guess I should get the ball rolling on that.

Original.

Wow I didn't think 101 was that bad. I drove on it today to Vex Motorsports and back. Some roads are un even though. Good luck on repairing your wheel.

inspyral

Oh, the finished parts are actually very nice and smooth, they just need to make sure they clear off all their debris and whatnot. When they started a couple months back, sometimes there would be a lot of loose gravel or asphalt on the roadway whenever I would drive it at night. I think it's great that they're repaving it, but I just wish they'd pay a little more attention to the job and not leave large obstructions on the roadway, especially at night when they're harder to see and avoid. The other day, in the middle of the afternoon when I was driving to drop off my wheel at the repair shop, I heard a loud slapping sound, then a repeating slapping sound from ahead of me in the next lane. I looked over, and an old Camry had hit a piece of tire tread from a flat, and it got stuck in the wheel and was flapping around in the wheelwell.

I actually got my wheel back from Wheel Techniques today. They only took two days to fix the bends, and I opted not to have them paint it since whatever anodizing process Mugen uses held up very well to the heating and re-forming process. The stress marks from the impact are still there, and there are some small scratches and tool marks, but I decided I'd rather live with those than have a patch of paint that didn't match the rest of the wheel. Overall, I'm very satisfied with their work, and they knocked $30 off my original quote because I opted not to have the wheel refinished, so I'm feeling pretty good about the pricing as well.

The only downside is that when I got the wheel home and went to put it back on, I figured I'd rotate my tires while I was at it, and while I was pulling my rear driver side wheel off(on the same side as the bent/repaired wheel), I noticed a spot that looked like the same kind of stress marks that were around the impact point on the repaired wheel. Upon closer inspection, I found a slight bend/flat spot in the outside lip. Turning the wheel around, I noticed a more pronounced bend/flat spot on the inside lip, although nowhere near as bad as the front wheel had been bent. I hadn't noticed this before since the bend in the outside lip is pretty slight, the stress marks were pretty hard to see through the brake dust, and most of the damage to the rear wheel was on the inside lip. If I didn't decide to rotate my tires, I probably wouldn't have noticed it for a long time. Now my dilemma is whether to have it repaired, or just roll on it with the slight bend. I'm not worried about the outside lip that much, but the inside lip looks like it might cause some problems with holding air down the line. For now, I left the wheel off, and am debating whether or not to drop it off at Wheel Techniques tomorrow.

Here's what the repaired wheel, originally pictured above, looks like now:



And this is the rear wheel that I noticed is also bent today:

Original.

Man that sucks! But yeah the roads are sooo nice and smooth, I mean it was a lot better than before. Now all they have to do is fix 680, god I hate that high way. But I was wondering how low your car is.

inspyral

It's pretty low, I guess, but not really dumped all the way. There's maybe a 1/4-3/8" gap between my tires and fenders.