Damage by tire installer, weighing options
 

A few days ago I replaced the summer tires on my shiny new 370Z with some all seasons that I plan to use as a compromise between that and an actual snow tire.

The tire place I used (Firestone) managed to chip the paint on two of my wheels. :shakes head:

Pretty frustrating because I made it crystal clear that the car was new, the wheels were *perfect* and that any damage at all wasn't going to be acceptable. They assured me it would be fine.

The damage is one spot on each of the two wheels right at the rim, as you'd expect.

So, they've offered to have the wheels repaired at a local shop that will strip them and then powdercoat. Takes 3 or 4 days - during which my car sits at the tire place on a lift or jackstands or somesuch.

My first question is are these wheels (Sport package) originally painted or powdercoated?

The wheel place assures me they will match the factory color.

I'm really leery of having brand new wheels with essentially minor damage completely refinished.

I can envision a downward spiral of turning minor blemishes into wheels that don't look right or have a finish that will not last like the factory finish.
And then I'm trying to get the wheel guys to redo them, or buy new wheels etc.

And then there's the risk that the tire place will damage the newly refinished wheels putting the tires back on.

Did I mention the car has 750 miles on it? Sigh.

Alternate plans include buying replacement wheels (no idea of price for those Rays), or just trying to do some touchup on the small chipped areas.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Don

post pics of the chips. honestly, if i was you, i'd either insist they powdercoat ALL of them or none at all. Get an estimate from another powder coater, even mike the powdercoater (he's on the forums) tell them you want to have them write you a check to have them powdercoated. Just keep the money, and if you ever sell the wheels, it'll make up for the difference that someone would have paid for a PERFECT wheel vs a slightly blemished wheel. don't sweat it too much.

There are shops that will actually come to your house or work and remove the wheel and fix any damage and paint them in about an hour. You can also take it to the shop. There is no need to powdercoat them. Search damaged in the 350z forum.

^^^+1, all or nothing. these shops need to be held responsible for this kind of crap. I worked at a goodyear doing tires and never scrapped one rim working there. they were just rushing and not taking care of your rims.

If you go the powdercoat route, make sure they follow the same process that Nissan gives the Rays sport for a good match.
A black base coat, silver powder coat, with a clear coat finish.

small claim court is not worth the time but hopefully it doesnt go that far

shouldnt go to court, just hold them responsible and either get all rims refinished or get a quote and have them cut u a check.:werd:

yea in a perfect world thats all you have to do. Ask and a check is given to you lol.. Im just saying if they are giving you a hard time thats the LEGAL process :)

Sorry to hear. Most tire places do not know how to handle 18+ size wheels and especially challenging when you introduce TPMS modules inside.

Don't count on the wheel finish to match. Get them all painted.

my local tire shop charges extra for 18"+ for mounting/dismounting, anything. however, thats because they use extra care and different equipment to make sure this doesn't happen.

Thanks - appreciate validation of my expectation that tires can be mounted without damaging the wheels!

Don

Yeah, that's one reason I'm really ticked - would have been happy to pay extra (which I think I did a little anyway, not sure).

Made it as clear as I could to everyone I spoke with there that "The car is new, the wheels are perfect, and my expectation is that they stay that way."

Don

It just gets better and better.

Between rainy weather and kids coming home for t-day etc., didn't have a chance to really take a good at all the wheels in the sun.

Just did, and discovered that of course they managed to do some damage to all four wheels. :mad:

The other two are not as obvious as the two I noticed first, which were through the silver and down to the black. But damaged they are.

So I think this solves the issue of them not matching if only two get repaired - at this point it's all four.
Sure the Firestone manager will be even happier to hear that - he seemed plenty unhappy when it was just two.

The more I think about it, the less I like the new powdercoat solution. I'm unsure if that would be as good as the factory finish (no idea, this is outside of my realm of expertise).
And I'm not wild about losing the use of my car for 3-4 days while it sits at the tire shop.

Giving serious thought to telling them I want four brand new wheels, and they are welcome to take the damaged ones and sell them, repair and sell them etc.
Not liking their screwup becoming my problem. Which it already has been. This has already consumed too much of my time and energy. :shakes head:

Pics of all four wheels. Hard to see on some, much more visible to the eye.

Don

ask them to pay you the cost to have all 4 powder coated. buy a touch up kit, touch them up and either put the money in the bank or put it towards another set. While i do feel that the shop should be held responsible for what they did, you aren't going to get anywhere if you expect them to pay 3-4k for a set of new RAYS. Yes they did chip them, but they did not totally ruin the wheels, and they definitely aren't going to cover that cost.

talk them into giving you money that is equal to the value of having all 4 of them refinished. then take that money and put it towards some nice *** wheels, and sell your stock ones to someone who wants to refinish them in black or something anyway

Yeah, probably true. I'd like to find some middle ground, but the reality is that they screwed up, not me, so I want to be reasonable but not get walked on.
But not asking them to go $3k out of pocket. In the scenario I describe their cost would be: Cost of new wheels minus whatever they could sell the damaged wheels for. My bet is that after the dust settled their $$$ cost wouldn't be hugely more than them paying to get 4 wheels powdercoated. I could do the same of course, but don't really want to fool with selling wheels etc.

At this point I'm not asking for compensation for mental anguish or anything (even though there has been a lot of that), just that they return the car to the condition it was when I placed it into their hands.

Think one of my next steps will be calling the dealer and asking them what/how they get wheels repaired. Lou Fusz (where I bought the car) seems pretty serious about their Zs, so I'd trust their advice.
Wishing I'd looked into using them for the tire swap as well. :-/

Don

Nissan scratched my wheel the other day and i made them fix it but i should have made those A$$ holes buy me a new one

:shakes head: which nissan stealership was this at?

Tire place f'd up my rims too. Now I have to get all four touched up.

I had the same problem from firestone a few months back. Next time, look for a place that does touch less/ lever less mounting and make sure they know what you are talking about. I was lied to into thinking that was the method used and had asked before hand. Long story short, they basically used a crow bar to pry off the tire. I sent Firestone corporate an email and that pretty much got the shop managers attention. I suggest you do the same. They would have fixed it but I would have to leave my car at the shop. No way in hell that was happening. I ended up getting a full refund. I could have asked for a new set, but I was seriously an inch from knocking the manager out for saying it didn't look that bad and that they "mount wheels for BMW's and Mercedes all the time." I will never have anything done at Firestone ever again. You would think a place that specializes in tires would be good at mounting them. Expensive lesson learned I guess.

Sorry to hear you had similar issues.

I was actually feeling bad about sort of implying they would mess up my wheels as I told them how I expected the wheels to be undamaged after the tire mounting.

Not feeling bad about that now. :shakes head:

Don