I had curbed all my rims over the last 3 years due 100% to my foolish actions. The front right one, however, was the worst. It looked like it had received frag damage from some explosives. A huge piece of metal was missing out of it and also pieces of metal were dangerously sharp and bent outward around the crater. Sorry for the quality of pictures (taken w/ camera phone) but you should be able to see the damage well enough. Here is a picture of the damage on the right front wheel.


PS-other three rims were all lightly curbed, some even all the way around the edge of the lip.


I have been considering wheel repair for quite some time, yet got into an accident and had a lot of other things come up that required my financial attention. Finally I was able to take care of this. I did research on several options before I decided to go with Son Tran. He comes highly recommended off of many different car forums, especially the BMW ones here in socal. I saw some threads with pictures of his work which all looked great, and also heard that he is very reasonable in terms of price. He would always answer my text messages promptly and was very cool whenever I called him. Today I met him at Autobacs, and I was shocked to roll into a Honda civic meet. I was in the midst of the enemy! (I kid, I kid) I met him around the back, then we drove to an adjacent empty parking lot. (He has to work at places that are empty, or where people are cool with the noise, because the machinery he uses is very loud, and sometimes people complain)
He even gave me a ride to my house to wait while he finished the job. We discussed pricing and he was very reasonable. I waited at my house for a couple of hours and then he called me and let me know that my car was done. My friend drove me to come pick it up, and I couldn't believe it! The lip damage on all four wheels was gone, even the Vietnam veteran right front was spotless! I paid him for his service (I gave him 20 extra as a tip) then came home. If you look in the first curbed picture, the damage was directly to the left of the centercap. My wheel was positioned differently in the after pics, so I took several pictures to try to show where the damage used to be.

Overall shot:



Area directly left of centercap:



Posting this pic just for fun:


Son Tran now comes highly recommended by me, and if you know the shops/services that I recommend, you will see that they are top notch in service,quality, and more importantly, honesty. Here is his contact information: 714 742 6855 Son Tran.

 

+1 for Son Tran

 

Those rims have anodized lip if I'm not mistaken. Since re-anodizing can't be done, how did he come about fixing it?

 

From what I have read and been told, anodizing is stripped, repair is performed , polished, then clearcoated. Doesn't require re-anodizing. If anyone needs their wheels w/ anodized lip repaired they can feel free to call him and find out his take on repairing anodized lips. I do know that he has repaired hundreds of Volks and other wheels w/ anodized lips over his long career.

 

wow they did a awesome job

 

How much did he charge you for such a masterpiece

 

PM'd. He quotes on an individual basis depending on damage,finish,etc...but you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

wow...he did an awesome job.

 

He re-clearcoated it? I always thought it wasn't possible to get it clearcoated once they strip the clear coat and anodizing.

 

^ He's Vietnamese man, anything is possible with $$ for them LOL jk jk...yeah nice repair man, now I know who to go to if my wheels get fvcked. Any number or contact info for him?

And rolling into autobacs to a civic meet Right in the middle of enemy, you say you kid but you know it too, you were in uncharted waters of the enemies mang Glad you made it out ok without punching one of them out, jk. But wow he did a great job!

 

Lol...yeah mang, when I drove up and saw what was going on, I thought "oh no". I mean, me rolling into the middle of their meet, its like if a slammed EG w/ Spoons rolled up to a g35 barbecque or something (UNINVITED) . Being an ex-Honda guy myself, I felt like it would be no time before they would come at me for betraying the Honda brotherhood! Luckily we were meeting in the back. His name is Son Tran, phone number is 714 742 6855. Thanks everyone for the compliments. Son is truly a good guy (really one of the nicest people I've ever met) and really deserves all the referrals that he gets.

 

Were you the one who smashed his wheels at the autobacs meet? or was that someone else?

 

No...haven't been to a meet in years. But hope to go to one soon!

 

Was the damage purely cosmetic or was the rim bent as well? I may need a wheel tweeked out a bit.

 

Only cosmetic...if the wheel is bent then you will have to send it in to a shop unfortunately.