I curbed my damn rim!

[TheCarlough]

Yeah - my hesitation right now is that it’s a lease. I’m debating on going the refinance route but I haven’t decided yet. If I did purchase I’d have them powder coated.

how did the wetsanding turn out? My curbing is only on the machined area so there’s no real way to get it to look “stock”.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Yeah - my hesitation right now is that it’s a lease. I’m debating on going the refinance route but I haven’t decided yet. If I did purchase I’d have them powder coated.

how did the wetsanding turn out? My curbing is only on the machined area so there’s no real way to get it to look “stock”.

The machined (subtle) lines are, of course, not recoverable. But from five, six feet away the repaired damage did not attract attention, i.e. you had to know it was there in order to see it.

Does anybody else need to learn where the wheels are on this car?

Yes, I know, two in front, two in back. That's not what I mean. I've been vexed by my brushing up against curbs. Ironically, I am trying to take the end spot in a row of parking stalls, so that I will only have one other car to worry about, instead of being a Stinger sandwich waiting for maroons...

stingerforum.org

 

[TheCarlough]

Cool, thanks Merlin. Reading through this thread you appear to be the repair guru! Do you have a guide or advice? I know the basics, but any direction is most helpful!

 

[MerlintheMad]

Cool, thanks Merlin. Reading through this thread you appear to be the repair guru! Do you have a guide or advice? I know the basics, but any direction is most helpful!

I always wanted to be a guru. Hah.

Nothing esoteric. I swore my way through the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth "incident"; the seventh wasn't my fault and I got black powder coat after that, and went with black wheels all the way. And since then, I've used up my first flat and gloss black touchup kits (but haven't opened the two new ones yet, so, that's a plus, since it's been at least three months since I got them).

But sanding the alloy OE wheels: I used a grit so rough it didn't even have a number on it. That knocked back the raised metal. Then I used a "medium" grit; 400, if I recall correctly: this isn't a science: the finishing up is the essential part. That was, as I said, 2000 grit wet paper. I used lots of water; and tried to keep all sanding strictly limited to the damaged area only (with some success: sanding angry does tend to compromise the fine muscle motors, heh!). The wet sanding buffs the bare metal up to the gloss of the machined clear coated finish. I was pleased with the results; from, as I say, five to six feet away. If walking up to the wheel doesn't attract your attention to any damage, then you've done a good enough repair job.

As for putting clear coat back on: I watched the winter weather to see what effect it might be having on the bare alloy; and I did not notice any darkening or discoloring of the bare alloy before I gave up and powder coated them. So, depending on how exposed to nasty atmospherics the alloy is, you might not need to put on clear coat over the repair. But of course, you can opt to and that wouldn't ever be a bad thing (assuming that the clear coat is for wheels; I'm not sure about the differences; but I'm guessing that clear coat for wheels is more sturdy and heavy than for car body panels).