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hello,

i am writing this looking for some help about my wheel that i damaged hitting the sidewalk, since the grey turbine type of wheel is quite dark the damage is very noticeble even from distance.

is there a possibility to fix it by myself? any paint i could buy? any suggestion on how much it could cost in a tesla service center?


Thankyou for the help.

Nik.
 
Post a picture.

In general though, only a professional can properly fix this kind of damage. Even if there is a very small amount of metal missing, it will have some impact on the balancing of the wheel. If I were trying to get this type of damage fixed, I would not be going to Tesla, but rather a high end rim store, as they are almost certainly more experienced with this type of repair.

For or future reference, this type of damage is called a "curbed wheel".
 
Tesla does sell touch-up paint for the grey turbine wheels - it's great for small damage. I have used it several times and it's a pretty close match. It's available on their accessories for the Model S page.

I've also completed scraped one turbine wheel all the way around on a curb. That was too much for me to fix, so I found a local wheel repair shop to sandblast it, repair it, and powdercoat it to the matching OEM color. You can't distinguish it from the other wheels now and it cost me about $120 USD.
 
Thankyou for your help,

I will post a picture in the morning, but I guess it is a pretty big damage :(
My problem was mostly that since i am living in italy here is hard to get to a rim store (i found one that is 'kind of' similar not closer than 250miles away) so i wanted to know if is possible to do it by myself. I will go get the touch-up paint for sure in the service center (the accessories website do not sell out of the U.S.) and will see if i can do something with that.. under 200$ is a good price i guess for such damage..
Thanks Again.

N.
 
image.jpg

This is the wheel curbed after hitting an angry sidewalk :(((
 
This is the wheel curbed after hitting an angry sidewalk :(((

Ouch :(

Touch up paint will make the damage less obvious, but it will still be very noticable because of the roughness where the metal got carved out.

The good news is that this can be repaired to 100% good as new with a skilled wheel repair service, but you will need to find a shop to do it. From what others have posted here, it looks like Tesla SC's in the USA are somewhat familiar with this and have decent prices, so perhaps the same will be true for you.

Truth is, with Z rated tires, even just curbing a tire an lead to damage as the compounds are very soft, so even with 19's there is still a big risk of damage to expensive tires. Need to just learn to be very mindful of the curb!

Let us know how the repair goes.
 
You won't believe that has been just one touch to the sidewalk.. but at a 80km/h :cursing:
The most stupid sidewalk on a bridge i ever saw..

I manage to find a shop that will 'regenerate' the wheel and the cost is around 100€ so i am pretty relieved, the only problem is that i need to figure out if i want the car standing on a brick for a week or I should get some 'cheap' wheel to go around (ONE WEEK WITHOUT TESLA IS UNBEARABLE) :biggrin:

THANKYOU all for your help and support.. will let you know how this will end.

- - - Updated - - -

So true ;)


You need curb feelers lol

View attachment 66797
 
What you need is Alloygators, it will cover up most of the damage, and prevent it from happening again.

Alloygators will hide "most" of the damage but will not fix it, and the balancing WILL be off. Alloygators would not have prevented all of the damage either as some of his damage went well into the actual turbines and not ust the bottom edge.

Also, these rim protectors have the downside of just being ugly all the time.

I've had 21" Rims for a few years now, and while I have had damage in the earlier years, I've learned to be very mindful of curbs, which I think is the best option as far as 21" rims go. Truth is, hitting a curb like that is bad for your tires too, and that type of damage can lead to a catastrophic blowout at high failure, so it's a valuable lesson to learn anyway.
 
Thankyou for all your suggestions, i will check out this alligators as well.. I have been talking to the rim regenerating shop and they are on holiday for like 3 weeks :( and yesterday i also found my tire (not same as the one on the damage wheel) cut with a nife! :cursing:
So now, with all this luck i got, i ended up spending christmas holidays with a Smart car when i wanted to really test my Tesla in a long trip... Hoping in a better new year for my Model S..