I damaged my front driver’s side rim when entering a parking garage. The loud crunch sound made me cringe. The damage was bad. Not just scratching the paint, but the curb took some chunks off of the rim. It was isolated to the upper lip; the spokes came out okay.
All the products I used to fix and paint the wheel can be easily found at a local auto supply store or even a big box store. The following is a list of items I used:
- 3M 600 Grit Sandpaper
- 3M 400 Grit Sandpaper
- 3M 320 Grit Sandpaper
- Bondo 907
- Plastic Spreaders
- Dupli-Color Prep Spray
- Dupli-Color Primer
- Dupli-Color Silver Paint
This should have been a straight forward repair, but I encountered two big issues… you’ll see it on the video:
There was a great question posted on YouTube… will this hold up when changing the tire?
I don’t know for sure, but I answered NO. This is only a cosmetic fix. I didn’t build up the rim by adding metal to metal.
From what I’ve seen when the technician removes the tire from the rim, a large hydraulic press bears down on the tire avoiding the front lip of the rim. However, this is just so the technician can get a crowbar under the tire. The technician then uses the lip of the rim as a fulcrum to pull the tire up from the rim. I don’t think the Bondo can take that force. If needed, the repair can be done again.