Well, my wife got a flat last week (some of you maybe saw my post) and I went to Discount Tire today to get the new tire put on the rim.

I asked the guy to be really careful but after he was finished I noticed he chipped off the paint in two spots and its noticeable enough to bother me. I complained and they are sending the rim off to be refinished. They promise it will be as good as new. We will see. Its so frustrating when something like this happens due to carelessness.

So, anyone ever have a rim refinished? If so, were you satisfied with the results?

Thanks,

Rick

 

I've had a forged rim repaired and refinished by Sabs here in Houston. They were good as new. Took them about 2 days to fix, strip and repaint the wheel. Balancing and mounting is included in the price. The nearby dealerships use them all the time, in fact one of the known nationwide wheel repair places send items to Sabs when all else fails.

 

Thanks for the response. Hopefully, I will have the same positive experience you had with whoever they used.

 

Good luck! And yes, do try to stay away from Discount. I've been to at least 4 different locations, and they all seem to have a knack for damaging finishes on wheels. Customer service is usually good though.

 

Les Schwab will damage them as-well.
I had snow tires put on when the car was 2 days old. They saw it was a new car and were very careful not to damage the wheels. I thanked the guy and tried to give him a tip but he refused.

Second time, I took it to another Les Schwab to put the summer tires back on. They knicked one wheel, the service manager said that it wasn't them, looks to be a rock that hit it.

Third time this winter, put the snow tires back on. Took it to the first Les Schwab, and now that the car has 15k miles they figured they didn't need to be careful, there excuse is that the machine will scratch the outer wheel lip when removing the tires.

Why even bother?

I recommend taking your aluminum fill caps off before you go to any tire store, as I've come out with a missing one twice.

 

I had my all season "winter" tires put on my stock wheels at NTB and they scratched my wheel. They had a guy come in that day and fixed it on the spot. You'd have thought they'd airbrush just the scratch they clear it all but they painted the whole wheel. It matches fine. Had they been some nice upgraded wheels I'd have been hot, but I did not care that much. Later as I was putting them on my wrench slipped and I scratched the same wheel Oh well.

 

I have as well. The job was a good one, but the finish did not match the finish of the other wheels. These were after market wheels. Being the **** type, I eneded up selling the wheel and purchasing one new replacement

 

i had my stock 18" rim refinished due to it being curbed and when it was refinished it looked as good as new! so depending on who and how its done you should be fine!

 

Thanks for all the responses

 

Had 2 of the 17" rims refinished by the Infiniti dealership. Took them 1/2 a day and they looked good as new when I got the car back.

 

I'll let everyone know how this turns out for me when we get the rim back.

 

UPDATE: Well, after two attempts at refinishing the rim, and both times having issues (paint didn't match the first time, paint runs on the rim second time), Discount Tire ordered me a brand new rim from Infiniti.

I'm happy to have this saga behind me. They did do a good job of customer service but I really wish it could have been avoided in the first place.

 

Accident happen good they were taking care of you.

 

That's pretty good that they just got you a new rim.

When i had 2 rims repaired from a really nasty curb hit on my old ALtima SER the color was off slightly so i had to keep those 2 rims on one side of the car and you couldn't tell. Most times when you get rims repainted the color won't match even though they use the factor paint specs. When I was talking to people on other forums about getting 2 rims repaired they warned me that the color was most likely going to be slightly off.

Just something to keep in mind.

 

^ That can happen to aftermarket wheels as well. I had it come up on a set i used to own. The replacement was nearly 2 years newer. They were technically both "silver" but the old wheels had more of a warm gray tone to it, the new one had a cooler blue tone. Although the differences could only be seen when they're beside each other, or, if mounted on the car, under certain lighting. It was moot once brake dust got on it.