I'm sick! I rubbed a curb tonight and scratched a wheel.
It's a BMW 356 Bi-color wheel. I'm worried it can't be fixed because the face of the wheel has a slightly brushed/mirrored finish and doesn't appear to be painted. What do you think?
1st time always hurts the most. I'm sure much / most of that can be polished + ground out, but unless you buy a new rim you'll never have the manufacturers finish
I disagree. I have sustained curb rash many times since October 2010. Each time, I have brought the vehicle to the dealer and it has been fixed and the rims look as good as new. And here is the rub, when I accepted delivery, I paid about $600.00 for an extra warranty, which includes the repair of curb rash. The warranty has already paid for itself. To the OP, do not be upset any longer. Bring your vehicle to the dealer without further delay. The dealer will sub out the repair and you will be very happy with the results. :thumb up:
Addendum: Painted rims can be fixed. Chrome or polished rims are a different story. I think you may be out of luck because of the type of rim. Call your dealer's service department and ask them if your type of tim can be fixed. Sorry if I gave you false hopes.
Thanks everyone. I guess it was bound to happen at some point. I will go to the dealer on Monday to see what they think. It would suck to have to buy a brand new one, just for it to possibly happen again.
I wouldn't have the dealer do it, all they will do is sub contract it out and charge you more on top of it. Find a good place though word of mouth. If you have a decent relationship with your SA, they will tell you where they send their cars, you much better off just going directly to them.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The full camera package with 360 degree view gives a detailed view of the curb when parking the car. Really, really helps you to never touch the curb with the wheels. Highly recommended and costs little more than the price of a wheel.
Polish/Machined wheels can be fixed. As far as it being 100%....not gonna happen but the following method of repair is acceptable for lease return inspections. If you want the wheel to be "perfect"...pull it off and send it out to a wheel repair company and have them resurface the face on a lathe.
We've had our share of curb rash...... (due to wife's driver-thru/parking garage antics).... shhhh don't tell her I said that
I've made simple home repairs with the dremel/touch up paint route on her little c230 with silver painted wheels.
I'm surprised no-one has come up with a tough clear wheel lip bra..... like 3m clear bra for the front of your car. If the material was thick enough it might work? This product would sell very I bet if it worked.
It gets too hot down there. Also, the brake dust and chemicals used to clean wheels is pretty corrosive and could potentially damage anything used to protect them. Lastly a clear bra needs flat, even surfaces to adhere too, the wheel has too many uneven surfaces to apply anything to it. The solution continues to be top view mounted cameras and self parking feature, or carefulness.
The clear bra would just go on the outer lip. There are high temp mat'l out there. The outer rim should not see disk brake temps. I'll do a little research.
Appreciate your ideas though.
There are no amount of cameras to protect wheels from the wife. She's more point/shoot type driver
I think curb rash or anything type of wheel scrapping is way too hard/tough for the clear bra to handle. I think it will just rip right through it or rip it away since there is not much surface to it to attach to.
it is inevitable that we scratch the wheels. I will try to be as careful as possible and fix it myself the best way I can.
125 a wheel here in NYC. worth the money, the wheels look brand new. im sure if they can do it here they can do it there. my guy is qwicksilver in bklyn. highly recommended
if you have like $800 wheel, yes. But if a brand new wheel only cost about $300, I am not sure if fixing is worth the money.
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