Anyone repair curb rash on the rotor wheels themselves?

[infinkc]

I found a set but are badly curbed on the lips, curious if anyone has tried to repair theirs before. I believe they are a machined lip, so it makes it hard to repair.

If you have done it, what is the easiest way!

[RickFLS4]

I have peelers, not rotors. My experience with wheel repair is they suck - repaired wheels can be made to look good when first repaired, but over time issues like excess dirt accumulation / difficult cleaning and peeling paint occur. I have done it enough to become convinced a permanent wheel repair for $100-$150 is not possible. The mobile guys are the worst but the places you take it and they say they strip the old finish and bake the new finish on aren't that much better over the long term.

The other issue I've had is that they repair the edge of the rim where it is curbed but then fuck up the inside of the wheel that was previously fine by removing or painting over the smooth finish on it. In some cases they make the wheel worse overall than the original curbed appearance.

[Johnnycash]

i have no experience with repairing curbed wheels, but i find it painful to know that so many people curb their wheels at all considering it is very easy to not do.

[RickFLS4]

I did it once in a bank drive thru. Others came from letting my wife drive my car...

[Johnnycash]

I did it once in a bank drive thru. Others came from letting my wife drive my car...

bank drive thrus can get pretty hairy! my wife actually parks farther away from curbs than i do, i think she is just paranoid of me yelling at her. LOL

[blackfunk]

i have no experience with repairing curbed wheels, but i find it painful to know that so many people curb their wheels at all considering it is very easy to not do.

Easy to say when you don't have to parallel park as close to the curb as possible because the car that sticks out the furthest get tagged and then you're it. I think when you do your driving test you're supposed to be 6 or 8 inches from the curb but that doesn't happen in reality.

[mr shickadance]

I found a set but are badly curbed on the lips, curious if anyone has tried to repair theirs before. I believe they are a machined lip, so it makes it hard to repair.

If you have done it, what is the easiest way!

my friend used to charge $50 per wheel for repair for rashes through college, he would do the following.

1) rough sand
2) bondo filler
3) good sand (rough to fine)
4) paint


it's hard to repair the wheels and not end up painting them in the end because the bondo obviously is not going to match up well. The results were really good, and provided you do a good job painting you should not have any future issues.

[Dr GP]

I've also had a run in with the Bank drive thru. I have personally repaired about 7 wheels due to curb rash(not all mine) . It is very easy to do. But one of the problems doing Audi wheels is trying to match the color. I have tried Wurth and Einzsett Silber and neither is a perfect match. Someone posted that there is a VW silver color that matches, but I do not have the name or paint code . Repairing a machined lip it a totally different animal. You cannot fill in the defects and just paint over them. I had some damage to a wheel with a polished alum lip. Had it professionally repaired. Cost about $100. This will show you how to DIY: http://www.audiworld.com/tech/ext43.shtml Here's a tip for you. Instead of masking the wheels, get index cards and place then around the circumference between the tire and rim. Lot easier and quicker. Cover the rest of the tire with a sheet.

[A4 Centaur]

I've had luck with JB Weld and then paint.

I have one Ti Rotor with a little damage I am gonna fix after I find a replacement rim.

[spawn350]

I did it at a bank drive-thru as well on Rotors. I had it fixed and it cost $100 to do it right. Afterwards I had my coworkers come out and I offered $10 if anyone could tell me which one got fixed. I kept my $10.

Moral of the story - pay for a place to do it right. If you don't have to leave it for 48 hours they aren't doing it right.

[Sukks2bu]

I repaired a set of my own rims. One was badly mashed up, and the others has some small curb rash.
I got the rim Kit from duplicolor, paint and clear coat. It worked out pretty good.
As rick said, They do collect dirt and brake dust easier than before, but....


Anyway, for the curb rash, I sanded down the curb rash till smooth, then filled with bondo, Sand till baby smooth.
Then, I mask off what i didn't want to get primmer on and began Painting.
After the primmer dried, wet sanded and masked off again what I didn't want to paint.
Pained only the damaged area.
Once it dried, I removed all the masking, and wet sanded the entire rim.
Did a small blend coat of paint, and clear coated the entire rim.

Wet sand, buff, polish, whatever you got to prevent brake dust.

Images show the ones that the whole rim needed to be painted, but you get the idea.

Before...



After..

[Dr GP]

What paint did you use?

[Mops@Nemesis]

^Nice job.

That machined part is not easy. @GSS5 has dealt with it recently.

[infinkc]

I repaired a set of my own rims. One was badly mashed up, and the others has some small curb rash.
I got the rim Kit from duplicolor, paint and clear coat. It worked out pretty good.
As rick said, They do collect dirt and brake dust easier than before, but....


Anyway, for the curb rash, I sanded down the curb rash till smooth, then filled with bondo, Sand till baby smooth.
Then, I mask off what i didn't want to get primmer on and began Painting.
After the primmer dried, wet sanded and masked off again what I didn't want to paint.
Pained only the damaged area.
Once it dried, I removed all the masking, and wet sanded the entire rim.
Did a small blend coat of paint, and clear coated the entire rim.

Wet sand, buff, polish, whatever you got to prevent brake dust.

Images show the ones that the whole rim needed to be painted, but you get the idea.

Before...



After..

looks good, problem with the rotor wheels, you cannot paint the lip, so its hard to use any type of filler. and if you sand the lip, you dont get the machined lines.

[eurotic]

i have no experience with repairing curbed wheels, but i find it painful to know that so many people curb their wheels at all considering it is very easy to not do.

I feel pretty stupid when it's happened to me. I actually curbed my passenger side rear wheel last week in a parking lot where a curb was obscured by snow and I was making a sharp turn.

Back in December I scuffed a rental car wheel while very narrowly avoiding getting sideswiped by a taxi in Las Vegas...I think it was the lesser of the two evils.

[Sukks2bu]

looks good, problem with the rotor wheels, you cannot paint the lip, so its hard to use any type of filler. and if you sand the lip, you dont get the machined lines.

Ah, good to know. I don't own a set of rotor wheels. My apologies for posting bad info.

[GSS5]

^Nice job.

That machined part is not easy. @GSS5 has dealt with it recently.

the rotor wheels have a machine-finished edge with a clearcoat, which means it can't be repaired like your traditional painted alloy wheel simply by filling and painting.

if you want a 100% factory look repair, you must either shell out big $$$ for a new wheel, or find a specialist who has experience repairing this type of wheel (and will also charge $$$).

or you can go the route i did, which is far from ideal, but somewhat cost effective given the alternatives. my dealer was able to hook me up with a repair guy, whose method of repair is to shave down the machined part to the deepest part of the curb, and then re-clear. obviously depending on the depth of the curb, you will likely notice a very slight dip where the wheel was shaved, but it's not as bad as you may think. and it cost me about $140.

[Johnnycash]

I feel pretty stupid when it's happened to me. I actually curbed my passenger side rear wheel last week in a parking lot where a curb was obscured by snow and I was making a sharp turn.

Back in December I scuffed a rental car wheel while very narrowly avoiding getting sideswiped by a taxi in Las Vegas...I think it was the lesser of the two evils.

edit i do remember the last time i scuffed a wheel and it was a very similar situation when it was snowing out and i kissed a curb that was hiding in the snow.

[DLAB]

I am in the process of repairing my 5-spoke OEM rotors. Three of them are curbed around the machined edge, but the rotors themselves are perfect. One of them was so bad that it got me thinking about buying a set of Renn or VMRs, but once I saw the price, I changed my mind and figured it wouldn't hurt to try to salvage em.

First, I went over the curbed area with a Magic Eraser, followed by a good scrub with a firm brush and some Wax and Tar Remover Spray. Right of the bat this was a huge improvement.

Next, I removed the small barbs that were protruding from the outside of the rim with a flat file. Again, this was an improvement, albeit a small one.

Lastly, I found that sanding down the curbed area, starting with 300 > 600 > 800 > 1000 > 1500 > 2000 > 3000 > 5000 > Magic Eraser > Polish...
produces a similar finish that's comparable to the original. With some blending, you can't detect it, and I suppose you can always cover the whole outer machined surface, if needed.

I may experiment with bondo and paint next if the weather stays nice enough. I'll post some before/after pics when I get the chance too.

[milesed]

I was quoted $250 for each wheel by the local Audi dealer. Anyone use dealers for this?

[infinkc]

I was quoted $250 for each wheel by the local Audi dealer. Anyone use dealers for this?

The dealer most likely contracts it out, they usually have companies that come in and fix their wheels. So try and find a wheel repair shop, or the one they use to cut out the middle man.