DIY Fixing Curbed Wheels Rim Repair How To
Please See Link Above - Rim Repair ^^^^
My worst fear has come true and today is the day my brand new civic (less than 5000k) is a little less than perfect. I've curbed my rims. I was backing out of a parking spot and misjudged the small curb and heard a scrape and my heart just sank. *ouch* luckily the curb damage wasn't too bad. Just took a bit of a chip out of the edge. Now I know there are many places where I can bring my rim where I can get it professionally repaired but I figured that these things are inevitable and if I run to a repair shop every time I get a small ding or scratch I’ll be broke before I know it. So I’ve decided to repair the damage myself. This is my first DIY write-up so bare with me here.
So let’s get started. These are the materials you’ll need:
Masking tape
Newspaper
Sandpaper (150, 240 and 400 grit)
Bondo (w/hardener of course)
Primer (sand-able)
Dupli-Color wheel paint (silver for me)
Dupli-Color clear coat
Paint thinner (I didn’t have any so I used some camp fuel)
Rubbing compound
Car Polish
Step 1
Remove the wheel from the car. Better safe than sorry you don’t want to be painting the rim while it’s on the car or you’ll risk over spraying crap all over your car.
Step 2
Using coarse grit sandpaper sand down the chipped area. This doesn’t need to be sanded perfectly smooth in fact I find that the Bondo sticks better then the surface is a bit rough. The point of this is simply to level the edges which can be raised when you “smush” your aluminum rim on a curb.
Step 3
Using some camp fuel or degreaser clean up the rim. Remove any wax, tire dressing and dirt from the area. Then using masking tape and newspaper mask off the rest of the rim. Take your time doing this part as it is very important. You don’t want over spray on anything.
Step 4
Using Bondo fill in your chip making sure there aren’t any bubbles in the paste or you’ll find yourself filling in the chip multiple times. Some people have recommended an epoxy based paste instead but I had this Bondo laying around from my last auto body project so I used it instead.
Step 5
Using sand paper work your way down from 150 to 400 grit sandpaper until you get a smooth finish. Try to get the smoothest finish during this step however if you find there are still some micro scratches don’t worry as the primer will likely fill them in.
Step 6
Prime and prep the area for paint. You will probably need to spray primer and sand it down multiple times to achieve a desired result.
Step 7
Using short smooth strokes paint the area. If you’re good at painting you can pull the mask back a bit and try to blend the paint into the surrounding area. Cause I suck at painting I did my best and proceeded to the next step of blending the paint by hand. Allow paint to dry 10-15 minutes between coats.
Step 8
If you look close to the previous picture you’ll notice the edge of where the paint was masked off. Looks like crap huh? Not to worry because using some rubbing compound and polish you can blend the paint by rubbing the edges with a bit of rubbing compound on a damp cloth to get a closer match. (ensure that the paint is dry before you attempt this)
Step 9
Apply a clear coat after the paint has completely dried. I’ll be waiting for a couple days until I’m sure that its dry because if you clear it too soon it will lift the paint off like pouring paint thinner all over it.
Step 10
Finished product.
This is a great resource as well. Helped me out a lot. Props to NASA Racer.
BMWTips wheel-scuff repair