So I finally went for it, and I attacked my wheels. I must say right off the bat…mission accomplished (so far).
If you haven’t seen my previous entries on this topic, click here and read through them to get some background information and pictures.
First things first, I made sure I had a comfortable seat to sit on while I was attempting this work. I know that I had to be very patient with this especially since I was too lazy to take the wheel off the car. I pushed the car so the curbed portion was right side up facing the sky for easy access.
Now, like I outlined in my previous post, there were a lot of surface imperfections in my wheel that made it look a lot worse than it really was. These “imperfections” a.k.a. burrs were all over the lip because the shape of the lip got messed up from the uneven surface of the concrete.
To fix this, I started with the “half round” shaped file because it seemed to have the finest surface texture out of the rest of the files. I moved the file slowly across a 1″ section of the surface that was curbed. I quickly realized that instead, it was a lot easier to take long smooth strokes across the entire affected surface instead (about 6″). Not only were the longer strokes easier, it also helps to ensure that the surface you file remains as even as possible so you don’t end up with waves.
The metal particles that were coming off were very, very fine so I knew I was removing just a little bit of material at a time. I also made sure to let the file itself do all the work because I wanted to be cautious to not apply too much pressure otherwise the surface I was filing would quickly become flat instead of remaining rounded. So here is where I was at half way through my procedure. No turning back now!
So, if you look at the first picture, you can see that columns A-E was what I had filed down. Directly after column E, you can see the burrs that I have been referring to that make the damage look a lot worse than it really is. On the second picture, you can see the actual size of the particles when I was filing. I told you they were really fine! In the second picture you can also see that I am not going to try and attack all the little dimples in the lip that the concrete curb rash caused. If I tried to smooth all that out, the lip would lose its shape!
One thing I have to note about all this is to make sure you either tape up your wheel with blue painting tape or be VERY careful while filing. My file accidentally slipped and I made a little scratch on the lip. No biggie, it can be easily buffed out but still sucks. You can see the scratch in columns D and E in the picture below:
And after patiently filing down the rest of the damage that I was comfortable with, I finally finished. The filing process took about 20 minutes total.
And here is a closeup of the scratches left behind by the filing. This picture was taken about 1″ away from the wheel itself so they look a lot deeper than they really are in actuality:
So the majority of the surface itself is flat minus the dimples. Which isn’t actually too bad if you think about it because once I remove the filing scratches and polish up the lip, you probably wont be able to see the dimples as much because it should blend together nicely.
That about sums this process up! One thing to note, when all the file marks are pointed downward to the ground, you can barely tell the wheels were curbed. And If I didn’t have stretched tires, you probably couldn’t see the the file marks at all…But this isn’t a perfect world and what-if’s are a way of life. Time to stop questioning and making excuses and just clean up my mess for now!
Ok so if you didn’t know, I had a little encounter with a local curb at my friend’s house the other night. Pictures of the aftermath can be seen here.
Now, I should note that I use the phrase, “Wheel Repair” loosely. My whole plan with this is just to serve as an intermediate, temporary fix so I don’t have to pay to remove my tires for no reason since they are ok right now. Instead, I want to fix the issue as much as possible, then when I need new tires, I will get these wheels fixed properly.
I noticed that a lot of my wheel damage was merely surface scratches and small dimples. Sure, the curb did manage take a pretty nice chunk away from my wheel but I am not even going to begin about thinking how to repair that because it’s out of my league.
Now you might be wondering, why do I want to risk making the damage even worse by trying to fix this wheel myself. Honestly, I have no idea…I feel like I have nothing to loose. I know my wheels are expensive and brand new, the wheels and tires alone are worth as much as used Miata but whatever… At least I can say I did something instead of bitching about my curbed wheels. And in the end, it’s just money right? Somehow if I manage to create more damage, I am sure it can be repaired anyways.
So what is my master plan? Well, I took a trip down to Home Depot and browsed their tools section for some fine metal files. I didn’t see anything useful until I looked a bit closer and found a couple sets of needle files. A whopping $10 later, I had a pretty decent looking set of files which came in a case.
Upon closer inspection of my wheels, I can see that there are a lot of burrs that are sticking up off of the surface making it look a lot worse than it really is. My logic is that if I can at least get rid of those burrs and make the surface flat again, it will look a lot better. Once the surface is flat, I will probably just buff and polish the surface again and try to make it as shiny as possible.
Am I crazy for wanting to attempt this? Stay tuned because I am going to do it anyways regardless of how crazy or stupid you might think I am!
Yeah, you heard me. I owned the sidewalk and showed that shit who is boss with my wheel lip. I don’t care what you heard, the story is not the other way around!
Here are the pictures:
Yeah, whatcha think about that huh? It might have messed me wheel up a little but I left a nice gash on that sidewalk.
Note to self: When trying to park at your friend’s house late at night and you can’t see through your tinted windows, over shoot and park FURTHER away from the curb….screw the 18″ rule
Alright so we have the JDM Theory J’s Gathering Socal 2008 edition coming up on July 20th, 2008. This is the first time ever that J’s Gathering is hitting Socal so it should be interesting. I am not 100% sure yet if I am going or not. My car is on the event flyer but if I am going, I am going to fly down. I really don’t want to drive my car all the way down there…
I am actually looking forward to going down to Socal and relaxing with the homies in San Diego. On the 16th, Ryan wants to do a pregame party at the race horse track in Del Mar. I saw some video on Youtube he linked me to and wow, there are some hunnies on the opening day! The 17th is Freddie’s birthday (AutoFashion). And on the 18th, it is Ryan’s officialy birtday which will be kicked off with a BBQ and then some clubbing or some crap. The 19th is the UFC fight that I really want to get some media passes for otherwise it will be some on the couch watching at Pete’s house (Vertex USA). Sunday, July 20th, 2008 rolls around and in comes the J’s Gathering Socalevent
Hmm…an action packed week or so it seems so far. We will see when the time actually comes around or if I am even there to attend HAHA!
Last July, a 60-year-old teacher from Fayetteville in North Carolina (N.C. for short) complained to the state Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV for short) about her “WTF” (what the f… for short) licence plate after being tipped off by her grandchildren. In response, the N.C. DMV notified around 10,000 holders of the license plates with the allegedly offensive letter combo that they can replace them for free.
End of story, lesson learnt? Not exactly as this week N.C. DMV officials were informed that the same letters appeared on the agency’s own web site on a sample personalized plate (WTF-5505). “I can’t believe it,” DMV Commissioner Bill Gore told reporters when he was informed about the online hitch. “Obviously, I didn’t know it was there.”
True or false: a wealthy individual doesn’t necessarily make said individual rich.
Is there a difference between a rich person and a wealthy person? Can you be one but not the other?
I personally believe that there is a difference between the rich and the wealthy. To me, being wealthy only includes the tangible assets…the cash, the cars, the boats, the houses, etc. On the other hand, I believe that being rich defines ones character as a human being. To me, being rich is much more desirable than being wealthy. Being rich involes a heightened sense of peace with your self and your relationships with other human beings (family, friends, enemies, etc.) and nature. Being rich means having the ability to look past the surface and move to the core details. Being rich…is a lot more difficult to achieve than merely being wealthy.
What do you think? A simple reply with true or false would suffice. Or, if you are daring, explain your logic.
Apparently we aren’t the only ones who know what’s up with Driftgirl.
JDM (4:17:17 PM): “I’ll build a car like yours and KILL yours in under 30 days. Just say the word and we’ll make it public… -Emerald”
JDM (4:17:20 PM): wtf does that even mean
JDM (4:17:26 PM): and where did that come from
JDM (4:17:42 PM): you think Driftgirl is really a white guy that hired a flip girl to pose in pics
\\// /\ I\I (4:18:22 PM): cuz that’s something only peeps hopped up on testosterone would say?
\\// /\ I\I(4:18:22 PM): DUDE
\\// /\ I\I(4:18:22 PM): make that your sig
\\// /\ I\I(4:18:22 PM): PLEASE
I guess if someone does make that their sig on VSC, they’ll only get banned…..
