new tires, but wheels where ruined..
 

i ordered two new 245/45/18's and they arrived in less than a week. theres a hobby shop on the base that i work so i took my wheels off and took them to this guy at the hobbyshop to switch out the tires.. well he managed to destroy the finish on both rear wheels, and acted like they where fine when i had asked him why he kept going after scratching the first wheel. there are rings around the outside of the wheels where there was metal on metal contact. and when he was pushing the tire off with the machine, i watched him not even check before he pushed the button for the hydraulics and the machine pushed down right on the edge of my wheel. so basically my wheels finish is ruined, so i was wondering if there are suggestions as to what to do with the ones that i have now, considering that i dont want to spenk 1k on new wheels at this very moment. they look bad and i am looking for a temporary fix to hold me over until i can afford some wheels. ill try to include pics to show the damage. :thumbsdown:

Plasti-Dip them.

This... Or tell him to pay???

yea they wanted me to pay them for using the garage!! I was trying to keep my cool but i ended up leaving without paying. shoulda blew the place up :mad:

oh and i meant were, not where. whoops.

What's a hobby shop and why didn't you take your wheels to a tire shop?

Sucks that the guy did that though. I took my car to NTB to have them take out a nail, and the guy behind the counter says I should take it to someone that specializes in low-profile tires. He says he can do it, but he will scratch the rim with the equipment he has. That's honesty right there.

This happened to me a while back on my old Z. I went ape Sh!t on the place, I had told the sale guy and the installer to please be careful with my wheel. The guy said I had nothing to worry about. I even told him to go outside and look before so he could see that there was no wheel damage. he did and when I got my car back i looked and my rear tires were all Fd up. Had to fight to get them to pay, eventually they did and received a call from the GM.

yea man well at least he let you know first. this guy didnt even give a crap when he did mine. straight idiot. but the place i went to is like a diy garage where you pay by the hour and they have a guy in there to work the tire machine and balancer. theres no legit places for 100 miles of where i live or i would have had someone else do it. even when i just took them to a local shop to get balanced, the first thing the guy said to me when i came back to pick it up was "its good and balanced, no rumbling or vibration, i drove it at 80mph" .. rediculous. ppl at these shops cant even help themselves when they see us pull up in their shops.

well it sucks, but at least you got it straigtened out. im currently trying to get the shop to pay for mine. they claim that they have a document to sign before they do any work, saying they arent responsible for any damage but i never seen that and they never had me sign one so i think it will work out eventually and ill get them to pay for it.

im looking into the gunmetal color plasti dip for now though

Find a good alloy wheel repair guy. He will have your wheels looking good as new. I'm a service advisor at BMW and we have a guy that comes and fixes all the wheels on cars we trade in and customer cars upon request. He's awesome and can color match just about any finish. He's doing my sport wheels next week actually. It's way cheaper than buying new wheels and honestly no one would ever know it was done unless the guy you find sucks haha prob run you 150-200 for both wheels. Maybe you can get the a$$hole that screwed yours up to pay the bill

This is the same company we use. Here is there website for their Ohio locations. And they are mobile so just call the one closest and they come to you. :tup:

Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists - Ohio

I bought my Nismo used. All 4 rims had some damage on them. The right side was curbed hard. The dealership had a guy that came and fixed all 4 rims in a day. Can't even tell that they was damaged now. Paint matched and everything. :tup: so you need to fine someone that can do that for you. I would call some high end dealerships that offer the service. Just to get information.

I call BS on 100miles. I was just at a hobby shop and did my buddies G35x lowering springs. Plus I did all the suspension on my other car plus another buddies lude. Let me guess WPAFB? There is gotta be a shop that can mount tires, the public needs tires, LOL. You went on base and tried to save some money and went to the hobby shop and got screwed. At our hobby shop they require you to mount and demount which I did with my last set, mind you not on the Z, not going to risk ******* up some Rays, but they did the balance. You wont get any money, just being honest. Caulk it up as a lesson learned. Dont take your car to the hobby shop and let them do anything on it. Dont mean to be blunt, because I think the hobby shop kicks *** for DIY, but no, you dont let them touch your car or your wheels. Like a couple guys said, call around and get them refinished, but yeah no touching of any hands that arent yours at the hobby shop brah.

definitely the wrong place to get nice wheels mounted.

For the non-military guys, the hobby shop is a place most bases have with tools where you can work on your car, and a half talented guy checks out the tools to you and gives you mediocre advice.

Being former military Im aware of what a hobby shop is, and I did use it pretty frequently when I lived on base, however a good friend of mine kinda ran it, and he was the only one who touched my car.. this was on Vandenberg AFB. As far as getting them to pay Im pretty sure you are SOL. I also find it hard to believe that there is no tire shop within 100 miles.. If nothing else most bases, at least the ones I have been on have a AAFES tire shop on base that does this stuff, but to be honest I wouldn't trust them either with a Z. What base are you at? Google is your friend.. Personally I think you tried to cheap out and got.burned, chalk it up to a loss learn from it and move on..

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The hobby shop at our base. You can do everything possible on a car minus a dyno. Some bases even have a paint booth also. On our base it is $6 and hour for lift time and everything is included. Have welding booths and presses usually too.
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Hey Japanjay you at Lewis mchord? I see your in Puyallup.. you're in PNW INC right?

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Ex-military, but still got access to base any time. My last assignment was McChord.

I use the hobbyshop on base here all the time.......Difference is I mount/dismount my own tires PLUS I actually work in a tireshop at Costco already lol. If I don't do it at work, then I do it there. The equipment is more then capable. You just had a retard that set the bead breaker right next to the lip of the wheel instead of about 1/2" onto the tire. Your hobby shop sure is a lot nicer though.........lol

Mobile rim repair. Make sure he's a good one. Look on the high-end car forums. If you in SoCal I'd recommend Son Tran. Two of my Nismo Rims were curbed pretty badly and in an hour he had them looking brand new. Good luck man.

That sucks! I had a similar thing happen, I went to the local auto parts store and picked up a perfect touch up match for the stock wheels.
Try it before you give up:
Dupli-Color touch-up part # NG GM 508 (General Motors paint code WA 8867 "Ultra Silver") is a VERY close match for the bright silver paint used on late model painted Wheels.

I did say there was no LEGIT tire shop within 100 miles, not there's not ANY tire shop within 100 miles. Used to have a g6 gtp couple years ago and when I took it to Firestone I was waiting forever so I looked in the garage and my car wasn't there so went outside and saw some dirt ball that was working on it flying down the road. I mean he was bookin it, taking it to the limit. Another experience that made me just say wtf. I'm stationed in Mississippi so the closest LEGIT tire shop would be about 100 miles away in either Jackson or Tuscaloosa, AL

I had this same conversation with a guy at les Schwab when I had a nail in my tire. I had told him that I will take it elsewhere to have it repaired do to damage, scratching the face on the rim all in the same sentence. He stated that he wanted to help and would be held completely liable. He stated he was just giving me a heads up but would order me a new wheel if something where to happen. So I asked him how confident he was without damaging my rim and how long he had been doing this. Come to find out he did a great job without damage.

My question is where is everybody taking their wheels to when wanting to swap out tires without damage? I know there will always be a possibility of some sort of damage. But off the bat there might be damage I found this really odd.

I do all my own work :rofl2: I work in a tire shop.

Sucks about the wheels man, but its probably the best thing that could happen to them... Why hang on to the 18's? Get some new wheels!