Guys,
I think lots of us have wheel issues - cosmetic / curb rash. My car is not a show winner but I'd like to fix scuffs that I have from a precious owner. It's pretty ghetto looking where it scraped around the center.

-I like the factory's and I dont need chrome per se
-I live in midwest so I get salt and cold
-our wheels are good quality and a replacement would be a particular offset to clear the brakes
-I have good tread so I dont want to buy new tires either

Q Have guys gone on ebay or paid a local powdercoat place to redo? Lookin for costs and actual experience.

Q: Do they need to be media blasted first?

Powder guys seem to have a sliding scale on price. I dont want to pay a TON - but ?

 

Have you researched the difference in cost between a refurb and a used one off eBay?

Check out Detroit Wheel and Tire - they do refurb and have preowned units.

 

Fixing road rash actually pretty easy to do yourself depending on severity of the damage. Lots of utube videos demonstrating diy wheel refurb. For minor scuffs and scrapes it is easy enough to sand down the scrapes with sandpaper (using something like 100/200/400 in progression) than prime the wheel with primer filler from spray can. More severe and deep gouges can be bondo'd and then sanded. Then several light coats of spray can silver auto paint (I used Toyota silver that closely matched existing wheel color), then 2-3 light coats of clear coat. Takes labor, $25 bucks worth of spray paint and sand paper, and time but fix is easy.

Below is a pic of a wheel I repaired on my SC430. It had extensive scuffs in several spots and some bad rash on about 30% of the rim. Repair not including wait times between paint coats took about 2 hours. I used a small palm sander. Rash was pretty bad but none of the rash was so deep to require bondo.