Rims and Discount Tire (rant)

[TwoDalesDad]

I always ask for the weights to be applied to the inside of the wheels.....Thats what I was taught when as a kid I slung tires for a living......It beat paying to go to the health club...lol

 

[allenfahey]

I would use the beads or air soft pellets. I used air soft pellets in my 42's Pitbulls and there is no vibration at all.

I know you don't want to hear this. From what you PM'd me you have two layers of paint on there now. You are getting to the point you might have to strip a layer of paint off. The thicker the paint is, the easier it is to chip. You might be fine but I wouldn't put another layer on it. The mill buildup is getting pretty thick.

The shop is 100% liable for the damage to your wheels. In my field we used to send out rims to a rim repair place that paints them and our mechanic would install the tires and we never had any issues. If we would have damaged a rim we would have to get the rim fixed again. So if they tell you it was because the rims were freshly painted they are full of it. We now use a rim company that comes to us and they repair the rim with the rim on the car. Pretty cool machine that spins it as it is repaired. Anyways, make them pay to fix the rims. Call corporate and/or your credit card company. Good luck.

 

[matts460]

I am a mechanic I work for Toyota and I mount tires every day IE: Tundra 20" rims alloy and steel! including my own painted steel rims. I use stick on weights everyday, Its hard to mount a tire without scratching/rubbing into the paint on the outer most edges were the tire meets the rim the tire has to stretch across the rim to go on (as you seemed to know) For a stock steel ford rim the hammer on rim lip weight are hard to beat and work best overall. Stick on weights if there good brand (3M) work great and never come off!! I have to use flat blade screwdriver to remove from inside of rims!! The hammer ons will balance the rim best just as factory designed. The little nick in your pic would not really upset me that much would be easy to do when installing weight or using the flat bar to help pull tire on. The installer may have not even noticed he did it! (Its possible) You could touch up with the paint you used and a Q-tip to dab paint on. Just stand back and think its a wheel its going to see some action when you drive it! Now if there was a big scratch more toward the center of rim id be mad/annoyed even if hubcap covers it because if you scratch rim in middle of it then he was not even trying to be carefull!!!

 

[Bronco Sully]

Gents, really appreciate the responses. Guys, I am a fairly laid back dude. For me to get worked up, usually its when I feel someone has been dishonest with me. I worked my butt off on these rims, it was my first crack at properly restoring a part of a vehicle, and damn, despite a few runs in the paint, I was proud of the results. In addition, I get worked up when I feel I've been a bit gullible, probably more so than the former.

Couple things to close out this thread:

- Firstly, I should have done a bit of research given my lack of experience of bigger tires, balancing weights, questions to ask, ability of vendors to do things properly etc..both here on CB and elsewhere. Primarily my bad. I think I was anxious to get to the final result with new tires on the rims and I should have done better due diligence. Sadly, given the state of customer service on damn near anything its unfortunately buyer/service requester beware.

- DT's initial response when I came back...impossible for a painted steel wheel to come out clean. Period, impossible. All painted wheels will come out with some nicks and dings, near the lips and very likely elsewhere on the rim. I respectively disagreed. Said that I did think that was true. Been to a few car shows and seen painted rims and damn, unbelievably, they weren't dinged up. Must be magic I says. Lets turn to the issue at hand, the one that had me irked, that one of your associates told me you could do that. Nodded his head, but did not say anything.

- They moved all the weights to the inside of the tires (3 of them). I don't blame them for any blemishes caused where the actual weights sat as I never told them to put them in the inside. See bullet above on due diligence. I do think 3 or 4 of the other chips, nicks were caused by a young punk wielding a hammer being paid minimum wage. However, I should have known my options. The rig is sitting on stilts (brake lines/overhaul of brake kit) for the next week, so i won't know how the tires will perform for a bit.

- Endgame, I got DT to give me 10% off my tires (Wrangler Duratrac 235/75/15). This pays for roughly half of what I paid for all my paint supplies (thinner/hardners/primer/paint/clear), but does not include my "labor", which of course is priceless...;D He didn't give it up easy. I pointed out I had about 6 months ago I had them put on some rather pricey Michelins on my wife's Tahoe a few months ago and maybe that did the trick.

Is this fair, man who knows, it got me to walk away so I guess for me it was. I will PM Allen again and see how best I can to touch these bad boys up (literally, 5 - 6 inches of rim space). I was never looking for showroom, but if I can do it and it turn out ok, I will be happy.

Chalk one up for experience. Hopefully someone else may benefit from this.

Couple cans of Karbach Hopadillo IPAs (if in Houston, the best IPA in town) and life will be back in balance. Love the Bronco and really appreciate this forum. On to getting the damn brakes done!

 

[AZ73]

Gents, really appreciate the responses. Guys, I am a fairly laid back dude. For me to get worked up, usually its when I feel someone has been dishonest with me. I worked my butt off on these rims, it was my first crack at properly restoring a part of a vehicle, and damn, despite a few runs in the paint, I was proud of the results. In addition, I get worked up when I feel I've been a bit gullible, probably more so than the former.

Couple things to close out this thread:

- Firstly, I should have done a bit of research given my lack of experience of bigger tires, balancing weights, questions to ask, ability of vendors to do things properly etc..both here on CB and elsewhere. Primarily my bad. I think I was anxious to get to the final result with new tires on the rims and I should have done better due diligence. Sadly, given the state of customer service on damn near anything its unfortunately buyer/service requester beware.

- DT's initial response when I came back...impossible for a painted steel wheel to come out clean. Period, impossible. All painted wheels will come out with some nicks and dings, near the lips and very likely elsewhere on the rim. I respectively disagreed. Said that I did think that was true. Been to a few car shows and seen painted rims and damn, unbelievably, they weren't dinged up. Must be magic I says. Lets turn to the issue at hand, the one that had me irked, that one of your associates told me you could do that. Nodded his head, but did not say anything.

- They moved all the weights to the inside of the tires (3 of them). I don't blame them for any blemishes caused where the actual weights sat as I never told them to put them in the inside. See bullet above on due diligence. I do think 3 or 4 of the other chips, nicks were caused by a young punk wielding a hammer being paid minimum wage. However, I should have known my options. The rig is sitting on stilts (brake lines/overhaul of brake kit) for the next week, so i won't know how the tires will perform for a bit.

- Endgame, I got DT to give me 10% off my tires (Wrangler Duratrac 235/75/15). This pays for roughly half of what I paid for all my paint supplies (thinner/hardners/primer/paint/clear), but does not include my "labor", which of course is priceless...;D He didn't give it up easy. I pointed out I had about 6 months ago I had them put on some rather pricey Michelins on my wife's Tahoe a few months ago and maybe that did the trick.

Is this fair, man who knows, it got me to walk away so I guess for me it was. I will PM Allen again and see how best I can to touch these bad boys up (literally, 5 - 6 inches of rim space). I was never looking for showroom, but if I can do it and it turn out ok, I will be happy.

Chalk one up for experience. Hopefully someone else may benefit from this.

Couple cans of Karbach Hopadillo IPAs (if in Houston, the best IPA in town) and life will be back in balance. Love the Bronco and really appreciate this forum. On to getting the damn brakes done!

It does suck. All your love put into making them perfect. I'm painting my Bronco and I just know the first nick is going to kill me. Best of luck working it out.

 

[beerad]

Picky?

They scratched up perfectly painted wheels and he made it clear that he wanted them to be careful with his recently painted wheels.

Regarding picky......beerad we have seen your rig and it is an outright stunner. I can only hope mine looks that good one day. So I am thinking you are probably pretty picky too Bro.
Haha.

Um thank U.... tape weights .... never ever assume someone will take the care u do with your rig ...you will be setting yourself up for serious heartache!

 

[jw0747]

do you plan to run those same painted wheels on the road? would hope not because almost every time you drive especially if you take it on dirt or gravel roads they're going to get dinged up.

and don't ever be so laid back that you leave a place before you express you displeasure and agree to a solution to the problem. I've dealt with DT for years and they are always agreeable to almost anything especially if it has to do with customer satisfaction.

 

[Ranchtruck]

Use balancing beads or sand inside the tire and skip the wheel weights entirely. I'm a cheap SOB so I've taken to using a few OZ of propylene glycol RV antifreeze poured in through the valvestem. I'm not paying to get the used junkyard tires I run balanced. It works great.

 

[Bronco Sully]

do you plan to run those same painted wheels on the road? would hope not because almost every time you drive especially if you take it on dirt or gravel roads they're going to get dinged up.

I understand they are going to get beat up, but personally, i would like to be the one responsible for doing it. Not some guy with a hammer at DT (who said he wouldn't do it).

I would hate for my paint shop guy to say "hey, now that we've finished, you mind if I throw a few rocks at your gorgeous rig, its going to happen anyway as soon as you hit a trail." or " you are going to get door dinged in a parking lot, so you mind if i pop your door with my knuckle, just to get it out of the way now?"

When I used to surf, completely opposite, we used to have a good buddy put the first ding in your board. Just a pop on with the knuckle to be done with the wondering when it was going to happen.