Rims and Discount Tire (rant)

[Bronco Sully]

This is a pretty poor shot with a camera phone but should give you an idea. I took my newly painted rims, which I did myself (primer, base and clear) to a Discount Tire to get some new tires (you know where I am going with this). As we all do, we put a bit of effort into getting things done properly. Take a look at the photo (there were similar hacks like this on 3 out of the 4 rims, none came out unscathed) and let me know if you'd be irked.

I made the point, several times, that I did not want them scratched and that they had been repainted to which they replied they would be able to handle it. I figured there might be a slight scrape or two on the edges, but nothing more. Some of the hacks went thru primer to the metal.

My first mistake, I should have asked around regarding good tire shops. I could not have been more straight forward with my request at DT. In another post I said I was going to take them back and tell them to yank the tires off and give me my money back, but that still leaves me with the hacks.

Just canvassing to see what others would do. Thoughts?

I am guessing I am going to try and get some money out of them and go back and try to patch the rims up with the paint/clear I still have left (not a real fun job). Damn, I wanted these things to look nice. Shit, couldn't they have scratched the damn things where the hubcap would cover it?!?! This was my first crack at painting and spent a lot of time on these suckers and got some great advice from folks here.

I am much more pissed off than my email lets on. Don't let these guys touch your wheels, or at least the one on Shepherd St. in Houston.

 

[thegreatjustino]

I'd have brought the issues up to the manager before leaving their property. If you left with them, the can simply claim you damaged them on the drive home.

 

[Bronco Sully]

Off course it as raining, cold and windy for Houston, and I had my daughter with me so I loaded them up in my truck and left and didn't inspect them till later this evening. You are right though, I should have looked at them prior to leaving.

That being said, what remedy would you have asked for?

 

[viper982]

Looks like they put the wheel weight in the wrong place after their first spin of the balancer and then had to move it. I would have asked for tape weights...

 

[broncnaz]

Very hard to say what to have asked for I understand the fustration but Im not sure what you would get out of it if anything. Maybe they will buy you some paint? Id say they probably have some fine print somewhere that absolves them of any incidental scratches on wheels especailly painted ones.. After all your performing a lot of operations on a small area some of them will scrach the wheel just by nature and things do happen. Is it right maybe not
They can always say your paint is part of the issue. Many wheels are powder coated or painted with epoxy paint which stands up to a lot more abuse than standard paint.

Your best bet may be to ask them if they have any policey for scrached wheels.

Of course if you take the tires back well you'll have scratches again when the wheel weights are removed and when the new tires from another place are installed they may get scratched again.

 

[thepunisher]

Wished that's all I had to worry about! Your stressing over nothing. At least yours is on the road.....

 

[beerad]

Looks like they put the wheel weight in the wrong place after their first spin of the balancer and then had to move it. I would have asked for tape weights...

My thoughts exactly ..... if you are that picky why would u even allow clip-on weights on the outside.....

 

[Justafordguy]

I had a similar experience with Disount tires here in Tally about a month ago. I took my new M/T Classic locks in to have KM2s mounted. I showed the guy the instructions from the manufaturer about how to balance the wheels with the lock rings bolted on after the tires were mounted. He agreed and said they would be done in two hours. 8 hours later they had not even started on them so I left them over night. The next day I go pick them up and the rings had never even been bolted on. He said try them and if they wern't balanced he would redo them. I get home to install them and 3 out of the 4 new wheels are scratched and one had a gouge in the aluminum.

 

[Bronco Sully]

My thoughts exactly ..... if you are that picky why would u even allow clip-on weights on the outside.....

To be honest, I've never had tires this big before and the wheels that were on the truck before had no weights on the inside or out and ran smooth. I did step up the size from 225/75 to 235/75. You live and you learn, if I'd known about stickons, I certainly would have asked for them just never needed to know about them previously. The sracthes and dings weren't isolated to areas around the lips either.

I guess my moan here was that I was told they could do it without scratching the rim up, they didn't do it, full stop. A few lessons learned here, mostly on my side. The first was belivieng what they told me. If I get anything from them, I will let you know.

 

[rastiss]

They should take care of it. Might be less likely since you didn't say anything when you picked them up. Sam's has bought 3 wheels for my dually due to incompetent help.

 

[blubuckaroo]

Have you ever worked in a tire shop? It would be pretty hard to avoid putting on weights without damaging paint that way. You should have requested "no outside weights." Good luck with your repair.

 

[Bronco Sully]

Have you ever worked in a tire shop? It would be pretty hard to avoid putting on weights without damaging paint that way. You should have requested "no outside weights." Good luck with your repair.

Negative on working at a tire shop. I will see if they can move them to the inside and still keep a smooth ride (Tires x weights - 2x3, 1x2, 1 x 0). Call it lack of experience with these types of tires, I've never had to deal with this before. Should have asked around here prior to doing this, that was a mistake. It would probably tempered my expectations and highlighted the potential issues.

Also, there were some hacks outside of the lip where the weights sit. Like an errant wrench or something smacked it. I just showed the one pic near the lip. Personally, I think that is unacceptable.

My ire has subsided a bit and I know I can touch them up with probably 2 hours of my time as I still have extra paint and clear. Hopefully they can put them on the inside (and tape weights).

I will be a painting maestro by the time my Bronco gets re-shoed!

 

[Bronco Biff]

......I'd avoid stick on weights. The ones that do stick eventually the lead separates from the double stick tape which is a pain the get off or it could come off with your paint. I'd would specify the knock on weights on the back only. A competent tech may have to make more than 1 attempt getting the tires perfect also requiring the weight to be moved slightly for optimum balance.

 

[1sicbronconut]

Looks like they put the wheel weight in the wrong place after their first spin of the balancer and then had to move it. I would have asked for tape weights...

X2 and I've had to move weights around plenty of times to get wheels/tires to balance. just saw the part about damage in other areas our machine doesn't even touch the rim during mounting/dismounting and the part that is close has a teflon cover on it.

 

[AZ73]

Does look like it was caused by the weights being moved. I always use taped weights on the inside of the rim but you might want to try beads inside the tires so you don't been weights.

 

[tcb-1]

Like others had said, the tape weights do come off eventually, trust me.... If your as picky with your rims as I am, you need to do the homework on finding a "caring" shop. Amazingly enough, the small mom and pop shops do a much better job and care more that the custom wheel shops. And talk to the techs. A little conversation with the tech on what you expect, and being present when the job is being done will help.

 

[Apogee]

Does look like it was caused by the weights being moved. I always use taped weights on the inside of the rim but you might want to try beads inside the tires so you don't been weights.

My thoughts exactly...no weights, no worries.

 

[bronconut73]

My thoughts exactly ..... if you are that picky why would u even allow clip-on weights on the outside.....

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.

 

[bronconut73]

Have you ever worked in a tire shop? It would be pretty hard to avoid putting on weights without damaging paint that way. You should have requested "no outside weights." Good luck with your repair.

I have. Sears, Firestone, and Supershops.

Regarding the weights. There are things that can be done. Most of which have already been covered here. I think beads or stick on weights would be my choice, but if you're going for the nostalgic look weights on the outside kind of support that look. Ya'know what I nean?

We had to be super careful at times. If you had an old beater with nasty rims on your ticket you could maybe go a little quicker and not be as careful. But if you see perfectly painted, really cool/expensive rims or new rims then you slow down and be more careful. I NEVER scratched a pretty rim ever. There are precautions you can take. Rags at the pinchers, appropriately bent sliders/spoons, extra tire lube, and even getting one of the fellow tire grunts to give you a hand for portions of the tire mounting. By the way this was all over 20 years ago, before they had the fancy "no touch" tire mounting machines that Discount has used for at least 10+ years.

So I'm calling shenanigans on your remark. Have "you" worked in a tire shop?

Yes those tires could be mounted without scratching the rims. I could do it with a 30 year old tire mounting machine today and I haven't touched one in well over 20 years much less with the new "no touch" equipment they use today.

Discount just let a kid do it. They are famous for hiring young guys. It is a kind of physical job and doesn't pay particularly well so it tends to be young guys and well......that's what you get with a typical young guy who just doesn't know how important it is to care about what you're doing even if it isn't much fun.

 

[AZ73]

Like others had said, the tape weights do come off eventually, trust me.... If your as picky with your rims as I am, you need to do the homework on finding a "caring" shop. Amazingly enough, the small mom and pop shops do a much better job and care more that the custom wheel shops. And talk to the techs. A little conversation with the tech on what you expect, and being present when the job is being done will help.

I've use taped weights on my Porsche for 17 years, 5 years running the Silver State Classic in the 140 MPH class. I've never lost a weight because they're put on correctly. In fact, the rules require them as "clipped" weights will fly off.

For my Bronco, I'll be running beads on the inside because of the 33's.