{"id":1532,"date":"2016-02-29T17:18:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T22:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rimbladesusa.com\/rimblades\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2023-06-28T23:05:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T23:05:18","slug":"the-high-cost-of-an-unprotected-alloy-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/the-high-cost-of-an-unprotected-alloy-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"The High Cost Of An Unprotected Alloy Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rimbladesusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/curbed-wheel-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"curbed wheel\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/h1>\n<p>Wheels are one of the most noticeable features on any vehicle, if not <em>the<\/em> most noticeable feature. If your wheels are damaged, it can alter your vehicle&#8217;s appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, rim damage is easy to do. Curbs are the most obvious source of wheel damage a\/k\/a &#8220;curb rash&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rimbladesusa.com\/cover-up-wheel-curb-damage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more on that here<\/a>), but there are many other ways for your wheels to get damaged:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Automated car washes where your vehicle is &#8220;pulled&#8221; through the wash. These systems put your tire and wheel between two metal rails, either of which can do damage.<\/li>\n<li>Potholes, particularly in parking lots. It&#8217;s easy to overlook a small dip in the parking lot, but driving down into a hole that often has a jagged edge is no good.<\/li>\n<li>Road debris, especially if your vehicle has very low profile tires<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Wheel Repairs Are Expensive<\/h2>\n<p>If your wheel is scratched while parallel parking (for example), you have a couple of options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>You can buy a new wheel<\/strong>. This isn&#8217;t the cheapest option, but many people decide to buy a new wheel anyways (more on that in a moment).<\/li>\n<li><strong>You can have someone repair your wheel for $75-$150<\/strong>. Of course, wheel &#8220;repair&#8221; isn&#8217;t fixing damage so much as it is applying putty, sanding the wheel down, and re-applying clear coat. This type of repair is always visible after the fact.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You can cover up the damage<\/strong> with a set of RimBlades, Plasti-Dip, etc. It&#8217;s not a bad solution (RimBlades will apply right over damage), but it&#8217;s not ideal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You can do your own repair with a DIY wheel repair kit<\/strong>, which will save you a few bucks but make your repair even more obvious than if it were completed professionally.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Which brings us back to option #1 &#8211; buying a replacement wheel.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve got an OEM wheel, you can buy a replacement online easily enough. You can expect to spend hundreds of dollars, but you&#8217;ll get a perfect replacement. To offset the cost, you can probably sell your damaged wheel on eBay or Craigslist.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve got an aftermarket wheel, buying a replacement can be difficult. Many aftermarket wheels are limited production, meaning that you&#8217;ll have to buy a used wheel or find a close (but not exact) replacement. Sometimes, you have to buy a wheel that&#8217;s the wrong color and have it refinished to match the wheels on your vehicle. It&#8217;s doable, but not at all cheap.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, there&#8217;s no good way to deal with a damaged wheel. Therefore, you should protect them from damage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rimbladesusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/rimblades-e1456784121957.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rimbladesusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/rimblades-300x165.jpg\" alt=\"orange rimblades\" width=\"300\" height=\"165\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Preventing Wheel Damage<\/h2>\n<p>The best way to handle wheel damage is to prevent it. Prevention starts with careful driving and parking, but there&#8217;s more to it than that.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Many tires are available with a thick &#8216;rim protection&#8217; bead<\/strong> that will reduce the odds you scrape your wheels against a curb. These tires often cost more than standard replacement tires, however, and the thickest beads tend to make a tire look beefy and truck-like.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You can attach a wheel protector, like RimBlades<\/strong>. RimBlades attach directly to your wheel, and they are made from a pliable rubber\/plastic material that absorbs damage that can also stretch without tearing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You can avoid situations that could result in rim damage<\/strong>. Parallel parking isn&#8217;t a necessity in most cities &#8211; avoid rim damage by finding a garage. Likewise, if you avoid driving in the winter, you can avoid a lot of potholes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Obviously we&#8217;re a bit biased, but we think buying RimBlades makes the most financial sense. Tires with a rim protecting bead demand a premium price, and in many cases, they offer very little protection. As for &#8220;avoiding damage,&#8221; it&#8217;s always a good idea, but it&#8217;s easier said than done.<\/p>\n<p>RimBlades are an easy-to-install, non-permanent solution to prevent rim damage. RimBlades use a top-notch adhesive to stay in place (the same stuff that you find on wheel tape weights, which are used for wheel balancing) and a proprietary rubber and plastic blend that absorbs rim damage and prevents scratches. Plus, a set of RimBlades that will protect four wheels is less expensive than wheel repair.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about RimBlades <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rimbladesusa.com\/why-rimblades\/\">here<\/a> and pick up a set today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wheels are one of the most noticeable features on any vehicle, if not the most noticeable feature. If your wheels are damaged, it can alter your vehicle&#8217;s appearance. Unfortunately, rim damage is easy to do. Curbs are the most obvious source of wheel damage a\/k\/a &#8220;curb rash&#8221; (more on that here), but there are many other ways for your wheels &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/the-high-cost-of-an-unprotected-alloy-wheel\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,51],"tags":[48,49,52],"class_list":["post-1532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rim-protection","category-wheel-repair","tag-diy-wheel-repair","tag-rim-damage","tag-wheel-repair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rimguardpros.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}