As winter melts into spring, there’s no denying how much the weather truly plays into your car’s health. After a season of fierce cold and gallons of windshield wiper fluid, it’s always a good idea to take your ride into an auto shop for a seasonal checkup, oil change and fluid top-off. But the spring present a number of problems of its own — namely, potholes.
They hide in puddles. They pop up out of nowhere. They wreck your rims. As seemingly unavoidable as potholes truly are, there’s actually plenty you can do to help your car offset their damage, and it starts with touching up your wheels. The process is simple, actually, but it’s always best handled by an expert with years of experience. The steps are as follows:
Deep cleaning and de-greasing.
You can’t treat a skin wound without washing it out first, and the same thing is true for treating gutter rash, curb nicks and the various other other battle scars your wheels have to endure. Once you bring in your car to the autobody repair shop — or once the mobile wheel- and rim-cleaning service comes to your driveway — the first step it removing the wheel and cleaning it thoroughly before any special tools can be used to treat the affected areas. If you happen to have some de-greaser on hand, don’t hesitate in putting it to use.
Wet sanding and epoxying.
The next step is the most essential for really getting to the nasty bits of the damage because it requires some wet sandpaper (the manual way) or a high-powered sanding tool (the automatic way) to buff out the damage. As the rim repair pros will have the right tools, they’ll also have the precision that most DIYers won’t, which is why it’s always a good idea to call in the experts for a rim refinishing job. Once the damage has been buffed out, the wheel repair specialists will then glue up your missing chunks with epoxy adhesives. Your wheel is almost good as new again, but not before…
Priming and painting.
Nothing says “good as new” like a freshly painted wheel rim, especially the kind that’s made of strong material like alloy or aluminum. Once the epoxy has been dry-sanded to become level with the rest of the rim, technicians will then prime the entire wheel for the paint job. Autobody repair shops will often carry the right paint hues because they deal with rim refinishing all the time. Once they match up the color, the wheel will be taped off to prevent over-spraying, then finally painted. Once that’s good to go, the wheel and rim together will shine as bright as brand new.
We’ve given you enough info here on how to DIY the job, but again, it’s likely going to be a lot more complicated than you think. For the best results, contact the pros at a local autobody repair shop today.
