Problem mounting wheel?
 

Hey guys, a few weeks ago I had one of my oem wheels replaced with a new one. I ended up having the shop swap the tire off the old wheel and on to the new one. I just noticed that on the inner part of the rim where it meets the tire, there are a couple of scrapes/scratches. Is this just a normal product of the mounting process? Mind you, these marks are almost impossible to see unless you catch the wheel at just the right angle, but they still bother me nonetheless.

Thanks

It's a sign of an amateur tire shop. It's standard practice to use a metal pry bar between the tire and the wheel to help lift the tire off the rim as it turns on the mounting machine. Good shops are very careful about this when mounting fancy wheels. You can always request that the wheel be refinished, either spot refinished or entirely refinished.

So just to clarify, is it on the face of the wheel or around the edge?

Sorry, I wasn't too clear in my first post. I curbed my original rim and bought a new one and had them swap the new rim onto the old tire - this was about a month ago. Just recently I was cleaning my wheels and saw that there were scratches/scrapes intermittently for about 10 inches on the backside of the lip, meaning the side that's facing the tire. It's imposible to see straight on, but if you are looking down at the wheel and it's in the right position, then you can see it. I know it sounds minor, but it bothers me because it was brand new wheel.

sounds like it got scratched...

If it's on the backside I would let it go. No one is ever going to see it and unfortunately minor scratching in that area is tough to prevent.

Here is a pic guys, what do you think I should do? Is this normal when mounting?

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8762/photojx.jpg

No offense to the mounting tech, but was he born in a barn? Man, that's poor! ANY tire mounting "person" worth anything would have used protective "boots" on the bar when installing the tire on that rim. If I were you, I would go ballistic on that moron. When done properly, and with care, there wouldn't be any (ANY) evidence of the mounting process.


(Too much? Was that my outside voice?)

Looks like the tire shop damaged your wheel since it's on the inside...since they did the damage, they have the resposibiity to correct the problem. You problem may come with getting them to admit their error or prove they made the error, especially since it's been some time since the tire was changed. Good Luck!

*I would want them to fix the problem, as you did not create the damage*