Crunch... Oops... Alloy wheel spray advice?

[Slackjaw]

So, I'm trying to show a neighbour the Roadster, sitting safely in the road outside his house, when his Mother-in-law starts reversing out of the drive... I'm about three car lengths from her on her left side, across the road. What could possibly go wrong? Well, he sort of leans in and says politely-but-firmly "um, you might want to give her a bit more space". She looks about 90 and is driving a beat-up white Oldsmobile. Doesn't seem too worried about what might be behind her. Some of you have probably seen her around.

So I put it into "R" and creep back, literally creep, but she keeps on coming and I'm trying to watch the reversing camera and her and the wing mirrors, and there are kids everywhere, and the rear right wheel scrapes a 3" high mini-wall of those ornamental stones people put around their lawns (really! what is wrong with these people! ). Now I have three roughly inch-long scrapes on the rims. Very minor really, but after less than 48 hours driving our new car it was a bit annoying.

As pennance/punishment I am planning to follow some instructions like these (linked). It might teach me to be more careful in future.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on using a different spray from the one suggested there. It looks a lot like my alloy wheels but I thought it was worth asking here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doug_G]

All I can say is never stop behind a vehicle that might possibly back up towards you, even if you think it's empty. I found out the hard way (verrrry close call) that you can't always tell if an SUV is occupied looking up from a Roadster.

 

[Slackjaw]

All I can say is never stop behind a vehicle that might possibly back up towards you, even if you think it's empty. I found out the hard way (verrrry close call) that you can't always tell if an SUV is occupied looking up from a Roadster.

Good advice. I am learning how careful you have to be in a Roadster (hopefully, for me, that was "the hard way").

I had another similar experience but in this case an enormous black SUV was right on my tail and I couldn't see the top of it in my rear view mirror. The driver was beeping his horn at me maybe once per second. I thought he was saying I was driving too slowly, even though I was about at the speed limit. I ignored him for a bit but he almost hit the back of the car (at least, that's what it looked like in the mirror) so I hit the juice and gave him a bit of space, only to see then that he had a strip of lights along the very top of his windshield flashing blue left to right and back - it was a firefighter trying to get to the fire station, which was down the road we were on. It all made sense but what struck me was that just because the car was so low and small, I hadn't seen that strip of lights, I'd thought he was harassing me and I reacted badly/dangerously by juicing it above the speed limit. I just pulled over and let him past, which is what I'll do next time someone does that to me. Although I'll be ready to floor it if it looks like they're going to rob me I guess!!

 

[Doug_G]

Now that's funny, although definitely in a not-good way.

 

[NEWDL]

I would find a shop that can just refinish the whole wheel. I can not imagine that you will find the perfect paint match and honestly on a 2 day old car... all I would see is that scratch every time I looked at my roadster....

I have a great guy in Ohio.... if your interested...

 

[mpt]

Slackjaw; What a welcome to Roadster ownership; harassment and a scraped wheel... It can only get better.

I concur with NEWDL, find a garage or search out a wheel repair guy. I've had wheels repaired by a guy that visits Morristown MINI (now Open Road MINI). It's about $100ish per wheel and the results are 'as-new'.

 

[Slackjaw]

Slackjaw; What a welcome to Roadster ownership; harassment and a scraped wheel... It can only get better.

My wife already got pulled over doing 15 mph in Tenafly, but it was a "mumble...mumble... uh, mind if I ask what type of car that is?" thing. We may be able to collect the whole set of Roadster "Experience Cards" in one week!

I concur with NEWDL, find a garage or search out a wheel repair guy. I've had wheels repaired by a guy that visits Morristown MINI (now Open Road MINI). It's about $100ish per wheel and the results are 'as-new'.

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into that. If I can find a specialist to do it for that price I'll be happy. Happy that it wasn't a carbon fibre repair, at least.

 

[Slackjaw]

Slackjaw; What a welcome to Roadster ownership; harassment and a scraped wheel... It can only get better.

I concur with NEWDL, find a garage or search out a wheel repair guy. I've had wheels repaired by a guy that visits Morristown MINI (now Open Road MINI). It's about $100ish per wheel and the results are 'as-new'.

Just to close this thread out, we went with a wheel repair guy. I got a few quotes and also called the Mini dealership you named, but ended up going with

Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists... The World's Largest Mobile Wheel Repair Company

aka Kevin Bishop and Jonathan Godfrey, (845) 558-4123. One of their guys came out to our house, took the wheel off and fixed it right there. Looks good as new, and better than the other wheels (which are dirty!). Total cost $125 which seems very reasonable, especially considering the at-home service.

 

[mpt]

Good news! Good to know.

 

[doug]

before and after pics?

 

[Slackjaw]

before and after pics?

Of course... Apologies for the delay :biggrin: ... I think the T logo provides a fixed reference point so you can see where to look.

The "after" shot was using a flash but you can hopefully see that the damage is cleared up. There's a thumb print or something on the left side of the rim but it is unrelated and only appeared in the flash photo.

 

[tennis_trs]

Of course... Apologies for the delay :biggrin: ... I think the T logo provides a fixed reference point so you can see where to look.
...

It looks like the T logo is a bad reference point and the valve stem would be a better reference point, right? I.e., the valve stem is near the damage, but the T logo rotated WRT the valve stem.

Great work!

 

[Slackjaw]

It looks like the T logo is a bad reference point and the valve stem would be a better reference point, right? I.e., the valve stem is near the damage, but the T logo rotated WRT the valve stem.

Hmm, good point, a bit of a surprise... I thought the T was welded into the wheel. I wasn't there when the work was done unfortunately.

Great work!

We were lucky, I learned something the hard way but the price was manageable, for once!

 

[smorgasbord]

OK, so I did something really stupid the other day. I had a slow leak, and decided to take the wheel off to bring to the shop rather than drive the Roadster in and deal with telling them how to lift the car, give them the lug nut tools, etc. I brought it in my pickup. I got to the tire shop, took the wheel out, and let it stand while I closed the bed door. And of course, the wheel fell over. And, of course it fell onto the visible side. I did grab the wheel, so it didn't bounce up and down on the pavement, but the damage was done. My wheel has a bunch of tiny pits. I think they're in the coating, not the metal, but I don't know for sure.

The estimate to fix (from the pictures, not in person) is $150. A new wheel from Tesla is only about $70 more. Any advice?

 

[wiztecy]

That's the pits! It actually happened to me too... wheel fell over on the visible side and pitted mine. Just cosmetic.... I ended up fixing it myself, just mixed up some JBweld epoxy, filled in the divits, sanded, and even did a slight spray over the rim to blend. I have the grey colored wheels that were the mistake wheels. I really didn't need to spray the area, the JBweld can be mixed to match the grey very well.

I don't think its going to be as easy with the non-grey wheels however. Typically people respray the whole rim.

Menlo Park / Johnny Chan has a company he can refer you to if you want them done by someone.... since they've fixed roadsters/ model-s cars it should look pretty good.

 

[Doug_G]

Funny, I had a wheel fall over just like that on Saturday. D'oh. Nowhere near that level of damage, though. Also it wasn't my regular set of wheels - I have a separate set I use for sticky tires, for autocross.

 

[dhrivnak]

I have scuffed two of my wheels. To my surprise a local guy refinishes wheels for about $75. It is as good as new when he is done.