Do-It-Yourself Wheel Repair

Scratched your wheels? There are many tips on sprucing up your car’s paint or preventing the interior from looking worn in the first place, but the wheels need attention too – especially since they usually take the brunt of urban driving; parallel parking and curbside drop-offs are a rim’s worst nightmare. If your painted metal is looking the worse for wear, here’s how to repair it yourself without spending a fortune.

First, you’ll need the following materials:
Scratch filling primer
Wheel paint (to match your specific wheel color)
Clear lacquer
Paint thinner
Bondo spot putty
Sand paper 240 and 400 grit
Masking tape

Step 1: Remove the wheel from the car. If you choose to keep it on, make sure to fully cover the car with a cloth and tape it down so as to seal it from the spray of the paint.

Step 2: Clean the wheel. Soap-up, scrub and shine that puppy. Then use paint thinner to specifically clean just the damaged area and nothing more. You want to remove all polishes and waxes from the surface in order to properly repair it, which means you’ll need to really rub the area, wipe it down and repeat.

Step 3: Once the damaged area is completely clean, you’ll need to prepare the wheel for sanding. If the tire is still on, use the masking tape to cover the area underneath where the wheel meets the tire. You can use this time to completely cover the tire to protect it from paint as well. It may be a pain, but scraping paint spray off the rubber is much more tiresome.

Step 4: Gently sand the damaged area using 240-grit sandpaper. Once you’ve sanded it down a bit, wipe the area clean and apply the putty to the scrape. Just cover the specific area and don’t worry about getting it flat and smooth because you’ll be sanding it down. Let the putty completely dry before attempting to sand it smooth using the 400-grit sandpaper. You want to make sure it feels flush to the original wheel surface – a flat block will help to create the desired effect.

Step 5: Once again, if the wheel has not been removed from the car and tire you’ll need to fully protect any exposed areas you don’t want flakes of paint to stick to. It’ll happen, trust us. This is where the scratch filling primer comes in. Spray it on the repair area, let dry and then sand it down with 400-grit or finer sandpaper. Add more putty if there are any uneven areas and repeat. It’s very important to clean off the overspray with a rag immediately after spraying the primer and paint. There’s no reason to get paint anywhere but the area on which you’re working.


Step 6: Now comes the painting. You’ll want to read the instructions on the spray can for the most correct application techniques. We’d recommend testing the spray paint out on some scrap metal before applying it to something you actually care about. After you spray it, don’t forget to wipe away the areas surrounding the former scrape.

Unless you’re a DIY junkie, be sure to let the paint fully dry before attempting the next step, otherwise the paint will lift and you’ll have to start again.

Step 7: Apply the clear coat after the paint is completely dry. No need to wipe away the overspray from this.

You’re done! Considering the estimated $50-60 material costs, you’ve saved quite a bit of money by not taking your wheels to a body shop. You’ve also ensured you’ll never have another freakout over a scraped wheel again.

Is Your Car Ready for a Road Trip?

If you are planning a road trip this summer, it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t just put gas in your car and go. A pre-trip vehicle check can determine how road-ready your vehicle is so you can take steps to have any problems fixed before heading out for vacation:

• Check filters and fluids, including engine oil, antifreeze/coolant, windshield washer and power steering, brake and transmission fluids.  Dirty air filters can waste gas and cause the engine to lose power.

• Check the hoses and belts and replace if they become cracked, brittle, frayed, loose or show signs of excessive wear.  These are critical to the proper functioning of the electrical system, air conditioning, power steering and the cooling system.

• Check the brake system and make sure the battery connection is clean, tight and corrosion-free.

• Check the tires, including tire pressure and tread.  Under inflated tires reduce a vehicle’s fuel economy and uneven wear indicates a need for wheel alignment.  Tires should also be checked for bulges and bald spots.

• Check the engine to make sure it is delivering the best balance of power and fuel economy and produce the lowest level of emissions.

• Check that the gas cap is not damaged, loose or missing to prevent gas from spilling or evaporating.

Summer Car Care Tips

For many drivers, the summer is the time of year when your tires hit the pavement most, and car care doesn’t take a vacation. Be sure your car is ready for all that mileage.

To help, here are some tips to get your car in tip-top shape for the busy driving season ahead:

• Wash and wax your car thoroughly. If you can afford it, have it professionally detailed. Direct sunlight can cause a car’s finish to become dull, but a thorough washing and waxing can also help keep your car’s paint and clear coat looking good.

It’s tempting to run the car through an automated car wash, but those big revolving brushes can dull the finish over time. If you’re not allowed to wash your car at home due to regional laws or neighborhood rules, seek out a good drive-thru wash and hand wax instead.

• Check and set your car’s tire pressure to the level specified in your owner’s manual or on the driver’s door sill. As temperatures warm up, the air in your tires can expand and that might impact the way the car handles.

Be sure not to over-inflate the tires. While low tire pressure can cause the tire to heat up if it’s not rolling down the road properly, extreme over inflation can cause a blowout in high temperatures. If you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, take your car to a shop like Big-O Tires, Sears Auto Center or Firestone Auto Care Center. Those kinds of chains will usually do it for free.

• Have a qualified mechanic do a visual inspection under the hood. If you’re comfortable doing this yourself, check for worn belts or hoses and make sure your coolant (sometimes called anti-freeze) isn’t too old. Coolant lasts a long time, but keeping track of when it was last changed, especially in older cars, can help you avoid overheating as the temperatures gradually climb.

Driving Tip: Don't Have Your Car Visible Anywhere in Your Mirrors

This is one of those things that takes next to zero effort to do right, but that almost everyone does wrong.

You hopefully already know that the "blind spot" is the name for the area on either side of a car that is invisible to wing mirrors. It's such a frequent cause of accidents that higher-end car models have adopted fancy radar or camera systems capable of detecting other vehicles in your blind spots and delivering the information to you in furiously urgent beep-screams as you swerve in terror and/or crash anyway.

However, the technology isn't the problem - the necessary equipment to eliminate blind spots was around back when Henry Ford was still producing cars. All you need are your car's wing mirrors - which most people have adjusted incorrectly.

You see, blind spots can be put into full view of your side mirrors, provided that these mirrors are adjusted to contain no part of your own car. Just angle them away from you until the point where your car is no longer visible in either one, and leave them there. That way, there's no overlap between them and the rearview mirror, and any car that's passing you on either side will remain in at least one of your mirrors until it enters your field of vision.

 

Admittedly, this seems less like a "tip" and more like "the most obvious piece of instruction of all time," but nobody freaking does it. Manufacturers have to let you adjust the mirrors (due to things like differences in driver height), and most people simply don't know how to do it. That's why those same engineers are spending millions on technology meant to eliminate blind spots -- they have simply failed to teach people not to point their goddamned mirrors at the sides of the vehicle they're attached to.