Idiot Mark

R

RedRocket327

New member
Well, anyone familiar with guns probably knows what an idiot mark is....well, I managed to put a huge curb rash on one of my rims.  Anyone know if it's possible to get it repaired or if replacement is the only option? 

I'll have to get a picture later, but it's only in the silver part, not the black of the rim, but it's about 3" long of vertical serrations,some are pretty deep. 

Really kicking myself for driving like an idiot and hoping it's not going to cost me ~$450 for a new rim :(
 
you can do A LOT with a dremel and some sand paper. In fact I almost guarantee you can fix it completely with thos two things.

I repaired a huge ugly spot I put in one of my Expedition 22in Harley Davidson wheels where I turned into a storm drain. All the curbs in my neighborhood are kinda flat, but my wife had parked the front next to a storm drain. I hopped in and turned the front wheel right into the concrete storm drain. I almost cried it was really bad.

I used my dremel (you may not even need depending on the damage) with the finest grit paper wheel just to smooth out the gouges. Then I hand sanded the spots with  220 / 400 / 600 / 1200 / 2000 then I used a mothers powerball to polish it up becasue my HD wheels are polished but clear coated. After this process they shine just like new and you can't tell unless you're looking for it. where the line from the clear coat is missing over the repaired area. Only difference in what you're doing is you prob wont need to polish it to shine, and it might be a tougher area to work on at the edge of the rim unless you dismount the tire that IDK.

you can buy varierty packs of 3M sandpaper at most auto parts stores. It may sound intimidating but it works perfectly. Just tape of the area around the damaged part so it's not sanded on, and take off the absolute bare minimum wheel material with ther dremel / sandpaper for the best workmanship / repair possible and you can definately make it better than it is depending on your ability.
 
simple fix if you're willing to put a few hours of elbow grease into it. I would. My Harley Davidson wheel damage was worse with deep concrete gouges.

Just sand that entire area with coarse to fine paper taking off as little material as possible to minimize the repair area.

Can't get any worse :)

Is the aluminum area clear coated ? I can't remember ? If so don't bother trying to clear it yourself. Polish it up best you can and go, or get it professionally repaired / cleared coated. Or go get all of your wheel powdercoated solid black (after smoothing that out) ??
 
Huge is an understatement.

You whacked the HELL out of that curb dude!

DANG.

Hope you get it cleaned up and back to new mate.
 
With how deep a few of them are I dont know if I can remove enough material, wasn't sure if there is a filler of some kind to use.  The long thing part is pretty light and could most likely be sanded out, but the ones that are on the spokes are a bit deeper. 

And the wheels do have clearcoat on them.
 
I was making a right turn and it just hit the curb perfectly to drag it right down the rim.  then ran the curb over with the entire back wheel.....i'm an idiot.  really wasn't looking where I should have been :(
 
There are many places out there that can repair your wheel. Detriot wheel and tire is one of them. I believe there are several on ebay as well.
 
I found a friend of a friend that does this, said he should be able to do a pretty good repair. we'll see, hopefully it's a 90% fix at least.
 
Awwww bummer...and a fellow XSporter too.
If you're into doing it yourself and think you've got some gouges too deep for just sanding alone I would probably go the route of TIG filler ie. a braising rod and a blow torch. You don't need a welder since it's a low temp kind of thing, won't be able to powder coat them after this though since the fill might melt. A local welding shop should be able to help you with material specifics. Also I've heard good things about lab-metals filler. Never used it though.
 
try to touch it up yourself you will be surprised at what you can do.

If you're not happy with it then consider your other options. Not to mention you can make it look 90% better in about 2 hours this evening and 98% better with another 1-2 hours on it.
 
I had something similar happen to my matte gunmetal TSW nurburgring this past weekend in nola. I guess that's what I get for letting a friend drive my car. For a day. Won't make that mistake again!
 
I've used AWRS (www.awrswheelrepair.com) in the past. I rashed one of my 2011 Brembo GT wheels. They're a mobile service, and fixed it right in the parking lot while I was at work. Couldn't even see that it had been repaired.

Now, granted, mine was no where near the level of the pic you posted earlier. Shoot them over that same photo, and see if they think it's repairable.

 
I have 1 wheel on my SHO that got nicked...twice....but you can't see it unless you are looking for it.  those pictures hurt. 

I have 2 cars, the SHO and Xsport with those wheels.  I cringe every time my wife drives either car.
 
Well, most places locally say that for ~150 they should be able to polish them out and make it look about 90-95%, but unable to match the factory finish as the rim would need to be put on a lathe for machine tool marks.

One place so far says that they can ship it to their plant and put it on the lathe and it would be ~185.

An expensive oops for sure, but beats ~450 for a refurb rim or ~750 for a new factory rim
 
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