I recently bought some rims from a who originally listed them eBay 2 weeks ago. They were ridiculously curbed. I heard about a guy around here
that fixes wheels via his mobile wheel repair service. As far as I've heard, he charges $85 and up for each wheel and can have one done in
under 2 hours. I on the other hand, decided to risk spending $30 and trying to fix them myself. The original pictures don't do the rims much justice
in terms of how f-ed up they were. I started off by doing one rim just to see if it would be worth it. I started off with the worst rim thinking that
it could possibly look any worse. Alright, enough chit chat. Here's some pics.

Originally:


It's the far one on the left:


AFTER THE REPAIRS

Up close in my trunk:


Profile Shot:


You: Why the f did you paint the tires?
Me : The tires are only 205/40/17s. The main cause of the curbage. They are all f-ed up beyond anyone repair. I didn't feel like wasting anymore tape to protect them.
You: Ahh!

The wheels aren't the EXACT tine as factory but they still look pretty damn good. Even the newly painted pictures don't do them justice. I will be taking my time when
doing the other 3 wheels. This one was kind of trial and error (I didn't even do the inside of the wheel).

I'm about to start doing the second rim now that I know my method works. Later tonight I'll put the actual step by step procedures with detailed pics and the exact
materials I used to prep the wheels and the exact paint I used. Enjoy.


Modified by knwldge54 at 2:40 PM 9/10/2006


Modified by knwldge54 at 7:43 PM 9/12/2006

 

Looks good

I was about to bitch at you for not taping the tires or for not using index cards...... but you have a good reason.

 

looks good

 

dude you got some ugly toes J/K nice job on the wheels

 

wow.. I didnt know you were black! hahah I thought I was one of the only few on here haha Good job on the wheels tho. Next time resize them please.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by knwldge54 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Eh?


Modified by knwldge54 at 2:40 PM 9/10/2006</TD></TR></TABLE>


Hmmmmm same face........J/K

 

^Didn't see that coming!

My memory card is f-ing up. So I'll have to post pics tommorow.

 

Alright, got the camera up and running again. Just took these two shots of the wheel and will be taking shots everystep of the way. I even resized them for gm3w12

 

If your wondering, this wheel wasn't sanded down. Those marks forming a lip around the wheel is curbage.


Modified by knwldge54 at 7:26 PM 9/12/2006

 

First, I took some better shots of the rim.

 

This rim in particular wan't f-ed up enough to use the Bondo Spot Putty on so I'm skipping that step on this rim. I'm sure I'll to do it on another one so I'll put a pic up at that time.

Next step was to clean the rim off using some good ole'


After that, started sanding with 240 grit sandpaper. Enough to get the wax off the wheel without worrying about deforming it.


With the sanding over, I move on to cleaning the rim off real good with some more paint thinner and let it air dry for about 10 minutes.


I got this filler primer from AutoZone (like everything else) for $4-$5.

The directions on the state that it should not be used for filling scratches deeper than 1/16 of an inch. These were pretty curbed but no where near that deep. Even still, I measured to be sure.

Here's the wheel after the coat of primer


and after the second coat


Got the damm wheel looking like it's plastic

 

Yeah, sorry bout that. I was about to start sanding and painting until I realized I had run out of paint. I'm heading to the store right now to get some more though.

 

Sanded the rim down some more with 800grit sandpaper.


And the first coat of paint


^2 more of these and I'll let it dry overnight and put on some clear coat before going to work

 

uh yeah, ran out of clear also. Will be posting the last pics up soon.

 

Looks good man.. What the was the owner of those rims doing??? That crazy that all the rimms looked that bad. But yea, looks good man... I have a slight curb rash on one of my wheels, (wasnt paying attention driving to work half sleep one morning) now I know that it wont take that much to repair them. Make sure you post some pics of them on the car when you get a chance

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gm3w12 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks good man.. What the was the owner of those rims doing??? That crazy that all the rimms looked that bad. But yea, looks good man... I have a slight curb rash on one of my wheels, (wasnt paying attention driving to work half sleep one morning) now I know that it wont take that much to repair them. Make sure you post some pics of them on the car when you get a chance </TD></TR></TABLE>

IDKWTF he though was gonna happen when putting a set of 205/40/17 tires on these wheels. The one thing I will say though is that my wheels are little brighter than the stock 05 wheels come. That's why I didn't just fix that damage and painted the whole wheel inatead. id wanna drive around with two tone wheels. I'm sure it can be done but matching that original color and tone from the factory would be alot more complicated than my $30 DIY job.