GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Well I ventured on this one pretty much on my own. The results are not that bad, but I need to fix the paint matching a bit. I may take it to my local body shop and have them make me some matching paint to clean it up a bit. But all in all the final result is much MUCH better to the naked eye than previously. Here is the step by step for you!Does your wheel look like this or similar?Products Used: -Spot Putty Bondo-Paint Thinner-Blue Tape-Newspaper-Silver Wheel Paint-High Gloss Lacquer-400 Grit wet sandpaper-1000 Grit wet sandpaperBe sure to put paper all over the car. I mean ALL Over. I had to cover up even more after this. But you get the idea how you should cover up to just the area you are working with.Using your paint thinner and a rag, clean out all the dirt and crap from the scrape/scuff. Here you see it is all cleaned and prepped to go.Now by mixing the bondo with a hardener or just using the Spot Putty itself, you can see it looks a little messy. I slopped it on, my first time with bondo.Now you can sand, I dry sanded with the heavier stuff first, then wet sanded with the lighter paper, here is the result. Nice and smooth to the touch.Seriously when you spray the paint, this paint goes everywhere! So be careful and keep the whole area covered.Like I said, the paint coloring does not quite match, I need to work on that, but I def. had a good idea of how this works and if the paint matched, it would look perfect. But for now its a huge improvement. It's just too shiny for the wheel, otherwise the color itself is good. I will be making a few calls to the body shop tomorrow for paint. Also I have not buffed it down or cleaned up the tire so it shows a little excess. But note the actual scuffed area now!I know some of you are saying, why wouldn't he just get it done by someone else in the first place. Sure I could, but that would cost me over $100 and I would learn nothing nor get the satisfaction. Hope it was an interesting read.

Hey whelan, do you have anysuggestion for getting scratches out of interior panels. Like the ones in the hatch area.

Interior paneling would be a bit harder. The issue being that they typically have a pattern design on them and its hard to mimic. The easiest thing for interior paneling that I have seen is to use a plastic product similar to bondo. You could use an epoxy filler for plastics, then get an interior paint or something to match and using a Q-tip touch up just the area scraped. I've done this before, works pretty well.

Nice job Whelan.But I have to bust your nuts on the prep though.Should have did another coat of bondo to really make it smooth.I can tell you fixed it.But good for your 1st time trying.

please bust away. I figured I would give it an attempt. I think for the amount of rash I have it needs to possibly have to have metal added on to fill. So I may remove it all and just let someone do it afterall. For light grazing this works great but I had some serious curbage.

You hit that curb pretty hard(I bet you were checking a hotty out).It turned out OK.Just,I know you are a perfectionist.But it's a great way to fix minor curbage.I also think you had a little more than minor damage.I was looking for paint to match the Toyota rims for you,but man it's hard to find.

Yeah I think the best option is to just grab a wheel repair shop or body shop and have them make the paint for you. They can match it using laser sights and stuff to get the color combo right.I may actually just pickup a rim from Ebay or something and keep this as a spare with a tire on it. I figure if I'm gonna pay over $100 for a repair shop to fix it, hell just pay $100 for a used one in find condition. But for now, this will do. Hopefully if it doesnt rain tonight I can concentrate on either fixing my ipod connector or the engine bay detail.

Sorry to bump an old thread but I have some curb rash on a couple of wheels and am glad I "Searched" for this thread.Do you think you can place the pics up again? I am a visual type of person lol!Thanks for the walk through

The pictures may be gone but I'll check around. While that is goin on, get a wheel repair show to give you an estimate. Depending how badly messed up the wheel is you may have done other damage such as bending the rim or cracking it.

I will take some pictures tonight if I get a chance. It doesn't look bend, just scratched up a little.