Good luck with your research into the DIY project. If it goes well, you could probably get a side job.

I sent him a picture of the tire valve and he said it would need replacement because he'd have to remove it the way it's attached to the wheel and that would damage it. I think I'm gonna go with the 3rd place that offered $160-- because of the price and also the location is more convenient for me. Edited to add: the $160 place had a website and I was able to see a gallery of before and after pictures. What sold me was that there was a wheel that had pretty much the exact machined finish as my wheel and it looked great after repair.

 

Sounds like you found a good shop, I'm gonna do a little research into local repair shops as well. Thanks and good luck!

Edit- just noticed you are in Cali as well. Were abouts?

 

Thanks! Hopefully this will turn out well and I won't ever curb the wheel again. I'm in the San Gabriel Valley area. I'm sure there are places near you that can do a good job for a reasonable price.

 

Guys, do what i do.

When you go to parallel park, or are parking next to a curb/side walk regardless, adjust your passenger mirror on the fly so it aims down and showcases the ground/side walk. Very easy to park and avoid scratches that way.

 

Excellent advice. I'm gonna do this from now on. I wish it didn't take a $160 mistake for me to learn this. Been driving this car for over a year and I still forget that with 19" wheels, the wheels (and not the tire) get the wrath of the curb. When it happened, I heard a small sound then went to check the damage after parking. Having driven an Explorer before (and still), my habit was to look at the tire and I saw nothing. Then after washing the car, noticed the wheel damage and wanted to cry.

 

Hahah we have the same wheels too... dealership actually curbed one of mine on delivery and it cost something like 700$ to replace the wheel as per fords OEM price.

 

$700 per wheel? Insane. After I curbed my wheel, I went on ebay to see if there were any listings for this wheel and the cheapest I saw was $175 (but it was for a take off that had pretty much the exact kind of rash as my wheel). Other listings for mint condition ones were anywhere from $250-$299. That's when I decided to go the repair route. My wheel is at the shop now and I'll post post-repair pics after I pick it up tomorrow.

Also, you gave a good solution for preventing curbing with parallel parking. What do you do for the way SONIC curbed his wheel (i.e. backing out of a parking spot)?

 

700 per wheel is insane, no thankyou! I would truly say the way to avoid my mistake is to concentrate on the task at hand and not what is gojng on around you. The spot I was in was one of those spots where you can pull straight in. The curb to my right was rather large, but as I was walking to my car I noticed a car behind me waiting for my spot, and while I was backing out I noticed another car to my right waiting for me to back out. I totally got distracted on the two cars as I was backing out and turned my wheel to early! Completely my fault! Looking forward to your before and after pics!

 

That's kind of what happened to me. Except I was pulling in paying attention to other things.

 

It really didn't help that the spot I was pulling out from was at the gym and the women waiting for my spot was the yoga instructor :-) talk about a distraction!

 

Got my wheel back and I'm very happy with the job done. I told the owner that his place does great work but that I hope I never have to see him again. The integrity of the machined finish on the wheel is just like it was pre-curbing.

 

Great news friend! Looks awesome.

 

Wow, those turned out great!

 

Agree!

 

Thanks, everyone! I'm extremely pleased. Went to the same place to get coffee this past weekend and was sure to aim my sideview mirror down at the curb.

 

I'm going to talk to my old stereo shop about making up a relay to do this automatically when we put it in reverse. Tons of luxury cars have this feature, I'm sure it can't be hard to implement. Maybe we can eventually offer it as a plug and play kit.

 

That really did turn out well.

 

Where'd you take it for repair?

 

Yeah it'd be a nice feature to have. When I was telling my sister about my curbing woe story, she told me that her Mercedes does it automatically. Ironically enough, a couple days later she curbed her front wheel backing out of a spot.

It's a family owned place in Azusa, CA. Nice folks.