CURB DAMAGE
If your wheels are scraped, scratched, have curb rash or are gouged, you don’t have to buy new ones.
While curbside parking or at the drive-thru, if you get too close to a curb these days there is not much tire to cushion your wheel from damage.
The only good news is you do not have to buy a new wheel to repair them.
In most cases our repair process will have you searching for where the damage was after completion, all while saving you hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars when compared to replacement.
Since 2007, NW Wheel & Tire has repaired thousands of wheels from almost every auto-maker to “like new” condition, giving us the experience to offer guidance while considering your options.
Just give us a call or swing by the shop to talk it over.
Process Overview
For those who seek a better understanding of the process.
After dropping your vehicle off at our shop, we first remove the wheels from the car that are going to be repaired. From here, wheels are washed inside and out giving us a clean wheel to start with. At this point the wheel is placed on our customized wheel repair USA made Hunter tire machine. We use the machine to push the top bead of the tire down away from the wheel. This allows us to repair damage to the edge of the wheel and to completely clear-coat the face of the wheel leaving no tape line. Now it’s time to repair the damage. We do not just sand the damage smooth and refinish leaving the edge of your wheel uneven; our process reshapes the complete outer edge of the wheel leaving it factory smooth.
After we are satisfied with the repair, it is time to prepare the wheel for paint. This is the time consuming part of the process, and why the severity of the damage (in most cases) doesn’t affect the cost of the repair. Our goal is a long-lasting finish that even upon close inspection appears to be factory. We use high-quality (and cost) PPG products designed to give a great color match and a durable finish.
Next, it’s time to prime the exposed metal. While the primer is drying, we will be mixing up your color matched paint. This is where years of close attention to detail really pays off. Most wheels are silver…yes. But if you care to look closer, and we do… there are big differences. From the overall shade, the size of the metallic, down to the texture of how it lays on your wheel, these are our personal points of judgment. Even with all the effort to create the perfect color, in an ideal situation we attempt to paint as little of the wheel as possible, leaving much of the factory color still ready for clear coating. Once the repair is covered and blended into the original finish it’s time to clear coat. Not to sound like a broken record, but we clear coat the entire face and past the edge where the tire meets the wheel.
After we finish painting we need the wheel dry, so you can pick-up your car the same day. This is where technology helps the process. IR (Infrared) curing lamps allow us to do that by heating the metal of the wheel under the paint. This forces the solvents (what makes paint liquid and wet) out of the paint from underneath, shortening the drying time dramatically. Once the wheel has cooled, we rebalance the wheel and tire leaving you with a great looking wheel that is ready to safely and smoothly drive home.
