Scratched my rims taking off the lugs.
 

Yeah yeah flame me for not spending more than ten hours looking for the answer...

I used the f$%$#king spare tire iron and it scratched the rims. Very happy.

Suggestions on a better way to remove lugs when the f$%$#%king dealer used Mr Hulk's Air Gun to cement them to the wheel.

Thank you.

Loooooong deeeeeeeep socket wrench

Go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy a 36" breaker bar and #21 socket. I keep mine in the car under the trunk mat.

Shop Kobalt 1/2-in Breaker Bar at Lowes.com

Grrrrrrr. Haha. Heading to Sears so I can take off the next three. :tiphat:

Thanks guys. Sears...tires...drinks...search the forums for info on how to repair 40th rims. :)

Any good rim service can repair the rim to like new shape.
:tup:

While you are at Sears, pick-up a torque wrench. Lug should be torqued to about 85 ft. lbs. Someone please correct me on that.

while at sears grab a hammer and hit yourself on the head for doing it.im playing bro.damm I hate that feeling,knowing people cant really see it but u know its there

IIRC, it is given as a range of 80-90 ft. lbs in the service manual. Whenever I remove my wheels, I usually do 85 and then re-torque a day or two later to be sure they're all snug.

Haha. I have several. Maybe I will post pictures of them all and get some advice on which one would be appropriate. >.<

Used to keep my breaker bar and socket under the trunk mat too. Now it's just the torque and socket.


OP why are you removing your wheel if you don't have a torque wrench to put it back on properly???

I have springs, spacers, and a camber kit coming on Thursday. Since I have never put a car up on jacks I wanted to do it early so that if I had any issues I could deal with them tomorrow. Last thing I wanted to do was to deal with crap with goodies sitting around! My plan was to get a torque wrench tomorrow in preparation for putting the wheels back on after the mods.

I actually have an 18" wrench but not a 21mm socket. So I used the spare thing. Didn't notice the damage until after I got the wheel off. :/

On a bright note...I got it up on jacks using a forum thread about where to put them!

wrap the side where it makes contact with the wheel with masking tape.

or something like these...

Amazon.com: Astro Pneumatic 78803 1/2-Inch Drive Thin Wall Flip Impact Socket Set with Protective Sleeves 3 PC: Home Improvement


in my cars, i keep a breaker bar with the deep sockets and tape around the side of the sockets.

I had a couple scratches on my gloss black Volk rims from tire install and I hand buffed them out with 3M rubbing compound and a quality micro fiber towel. Literally took out 100 percent of the scratch.. I even put under a LED light to see if there were tiny swirls...

I also hit it with a swirl remover after just to be a perfectionist. If I were you I would try this before you do rim repair. Rim repair will look great BUT I will guarantee the color will not match the rest of your wheels... So either do all to match or none at all. I can speak first hand from a set of 350z track rims I had done.

Hope that helps

Cheap and easy fix. I have never scratched any of wheels on the Z and I have taken them on and off several times using the stock bar. And this is on my powdercoated orange wheels. Wrap about 5 layers of electricians tape around the head of factory bar....
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...psae668a46.jpg