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Encounter with a decreasing radius burger joint pull through on a dark night...
I don't want to pay for a wheel refinish or replacement, but I would like to know if there was some way to clean it up (or hide it a bit...).
The chrome finish obviously makes matching with touch-up paint tough.
chrome is hard. your best bet for a "make it better" type repair is if you have the tools and you're savvy/skilled, to grind down with incrementally finer/smoother bits then polish to a shine. but you don't have much material to work with. might even need to rebalance your wheels. you can also clean up, fill with spot putty, and try to find some reflective chromey type paint for it. decreasing radius type curbs are stuff of nightmare.
IMO, there is nothing you can do at home that is going to make this look better. You are still going to see it from a block away. The brightest silver or "chrome" touch up paint will make it not so noticeable to other people.
Unfortunately that will be difficult to make look better. You can sand it down to make it look smoother and touch it up with a "chrome " paint, but my experience with chrome paint is that it comes out looking like gray or aluminum and not like chrome. The chrome plating has been scraped off and you're down to the aluminum underneath it.
IMO, there is nothing you can do at home that is going to make this look better. You are still going to see it from a block away. The brightest silver or "chrome" touch up paint will make it not so noticeable to other people.
i dont think any reasonable person doubts you'll see the repair a block away. the point is one block away is better than two blocks away
Whopper's are the worst. I too have been burgeralised!!
I recently tried the spot putty repair on my winter alloy wheels. The rash became much less noticable and I am fortunate those wheels are just painted silver so a quick repaint worked out ok.
For the Chrome I will try the spot putty also but then maybe find some chrome like touch up paint to do the final finish. That will all have to wait til the spring though.
yeah wheels are just one of those high exposure items that on a daily car, make more sense to repair rather than replace, when it comes to minor curb rash.
edit: here's some spray i found. i can't vouch for it though. but seems like the one you'd want to check out.
All the chrome paints and sanding in the driveway won't make your wheels look any better, but probably worse. Bite the bullet and come up with around $150.00 and have it repaired by a pro. I have the same wheels, the expensive "noise reduction" wheels that don't reduce noise and scraped one at a parking lot. A pickup truck forced me over and I hit a raised curb on RR wheel. I took it to a wheel repair facility and it was explained to me that it was a 3-4 step process to achieve the gloss of chrome on the spokes. He charged me $150.00 and the wheel turned out perfect. I could never have made the wheel look like new doing it myself and neither can you... Worth the money IMO...
Did the same thing on my ES chrome wheels and nobody can take that out. I bought a new wheel,Yes it sucks
had about 300 miles on it.
bell Lexus online $700 and change, free shipping and no sales tax
Last edited by jimbosr1; Nov 21, 2025 at 03:05 PM.
All the chrome paints and sanding in the driveway won't make your wheels look any better, but probably worse. Bite the bullet and come up with around $150.00 and have it repaired by a pro. I have the same wheels, the expensive "noise reduction" wheels that don't reduce noise and scraped one at a parking lot. A pickup truck forced me over and I hit a raised curb on RR wheel. I took it to a wheel repair facility and it was explained to me that it was a 3-4 step process to achieve the gloss of chrome on the spokes. He charged me $150.00 and the wheel turned out perfect. I could never have made the wheel look like new doing it myself and neither can you... Worth the money IMO...
What city do you live in? --- I can hardly get an oil change for $150 !! --- Yes well worth the money... I had a scratched bumper about the same as your wheel and was getting bids of over $1500 to repair.
What city do you live in? --- I can hardly get an oil change for $150 !! --- Yes well worth the money... I had a scratched bumper about the same as your wheel and was getting bids of over $1500 to repair.
A long way from you unfortunately... Outside Philly in Bucks County, PA... Took two days.
Curb Rash Repair
