DIY Rim Repair - So you curbed your new rims

[astroboy]

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

http://www3.telus.net/editorsletter/...c/HPIM0878.JPG (couple things missing from this picture.)

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.

http://www3.telus.net/editorsletter/...c/HPIM0873.JPG
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.

http://www3.telus.net/editorsletter/...c/HPIM0874.JPG

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.

http://www3.telus.net/editorsletter/...c/HPIM0875.JPG

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.

http://www3.telus.net/editorsletter/...c/HPIM0877.JPG

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)

http://www3.telus.net/editorsletter/...c/HPIM0883.JPG

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.

http://www3.telus.net/editorsletter/...c/HPIM0882.JPG

This is a great resource as well. Helped me out a lot. Props to NASA Racer.

http://bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/wheel...uff-repair.htm

[brooklynscat69]

Nice DIY. +1 for ya

[djdefcon]

definatly gunna give this one a nice *BBUMMMP* as I will be using this DIY if I ever scratch my stock wheels

[janaka]

Nice job.
Looks great!

[JeShUa]

Sticky? Just in case I ever screw mine up *tear*.. I think I'll have to have all of mine clear coated if I do this though.. because one of the first rims I had had a defect.. and this clear paperish coat was on it :\... they thought I did it,, but they still replaced it

[astroboy]

yeah you'll want to clear the wheels after because if you don't not only does dirt stick to it easier cause of the gritty feel of the paint. a clear coat with polish will make it look mint again with the gloss and everything.

[8thgenuser]

+rep! I vote sticky as well!

[Jrfish007]

Originally Posted by 8thgenuser

+rep! I vote sticky as well!

added to the index that is stickkied at the top. Very nice DIY!

[Jrfish007]

Here I added the [img] tags so it's easier to see the pic as you read.

Originally Posted by astroboy

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

(couple things missing from this picture.)

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.

[kmyfantasy]

Do you know if this similar type of method will work on a small scratch/chip on the bumper? Thank.

[astroboy]

i'm sure this method would work on a chip/scratch however you might not want to use bondo to fill the chip. depending on the size i would simply sand it down (keeping the work area as small as possible) then touch up as needed.

[Seemund]

my question is: how much will I spend(MATERIAL) to fix one rim? Thanks!

[goofygamer]

major props for this DIY..u don't know how much i gotta thank u..haha..i scraped my rims on those metal sewer things on the sidewalk..now i can fix it!..thx!

[taejinah]

I curbed my gramlights and i wanna do this diy.

the problem is that dupli color only comes in a few colors... my rims happen to fall right between the silver and darker (almost gunmetal) silver.

are there any other wheel paints i could buy? does it necessarily have to be a wheel paint since i'm gonna just be spraying it over the epoxy?

any thoughts would help ~.~

[irichard]

awesome diy

[irichard]

is the wheel paint, spray paint or paint?

[kicker_jace]

heyy guys.. i curb my dp6 today...

i have a polish lip... is there any repair or paint to match a polished lip?

thanks

[astroboy]

materials cost me under $40cad for everything, bondo, paint, sandpaper, etc.

[astroboy]

taejinah you don't have to buy duplicolor wheel paint. I just happened to do so and it matched pretty well. If you can't find your color just bring your rims to a paint mixing shop. Theres one in edmonton here called Carlson's. They can help you match the paint and put it into an spray balm. Just make sure you clear the wheels after if you don't buy an enamel paint.

[astroboy]

kicker_jace polished lips are really hard to refinish. If I were you I'd use a really really really fine grit sand paper and sand down the area really smooth so the light doesn't reflect off of the curbed area and then take a fine polish and buff it until it shines again. Then if you really want you could always clear over it. But if theres a big chunk of material missing you might have to go to a wheel repair place where they'd spot weld the material back in and refinish the rim. Or you might be better off replacing the rim. (might be cheaper than having a shop refinish.)