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[swamp2]

Well the time had to come, if you drive your car "normally" are often in a hurry and parallel park sometimes, I think some wheel scuffs are pretty much inevitable. They were at least for me . I scuffed the right front then about a week later the right rear. I wish I had some before and after pictures but was so pissed and in a hurry to get a fix done, I don't. These were my first two scratches on my new baby and I'm sure you can relate to that sinking feeling when you hear and feel your wheel grind on a curb. Even a pretty minor scuff makes a terrible noise and sensation. Despite not having pics you'll have to trust me this worked KILLER. If you are a perfectionist - the kind that will examine his/her wheels with a microscope and obsess over anything less than a perfect and new looking wheel, forget it. You'll have to have the wheel entirely professionally refinished to get back to there. This gets you 90% of the way there with about 30 minutes of easy do it yourself work.

A bit more about the scuffs. Mine were only about 1" or so long. They had paint transfer from the curb as well as clear coat removal and some fairly deep gouge/scratches in the alumimum itself. Although not terrible I kind of felt that cosmetically my wheels were ruined. Man was I kicking myself in the ass...

This works particularly well in two cases. 1. With 19 inch OEM wheels. Why? Because they are basically a polished aluminum finish, which will match the raw aluminum finish you get with these steps. 2. With fairly light gouging of the aluminum. It should be painfully obvious but do not use this procedure if you do not have at least some gouging/scratching in the aluminum itself. If you have escaped with just paint transfer or lighter scratches you could try either just the rubbing compound or the 600 grit + rubbing compound.

Steps:

• Get yourself a good combo pack of sand paper (Home Depot) including 60-80 grit all the way to 600 in about 4 steps. I used 80, 120, 220, 600. You could go more steps in finer increments but I would not go less.
• Tape off the area just slightly larger than the damaged area with masking tape.
• Begin sanding with the coarse. The idea here is to remove as little aluminum as possible but still remove as many of the gouges/scratches as possible. Here I mean the gouges/scratched directly in the base aluminum of the wheel.
• You only need to sand with each grit for a couple dozen passes or so
• Continue to work your way to finer and finer grits. You will see the raw unfinished aluminum better and better as well as be removing just a bit of paint/clear coat along the very outer edges of the area you taped off.
• Finish up with the finest grit.
• If you see any gouges that you can remove by switching back to a corser grit you can go back to coarse then back again to fine. Just make sure you watch your wheel for any flat spotting or excessive material removal.
• After the last passes with the finest paper use some automotive paint polishing compound "rubbing compound" and a rag to scrub the area aggressively. Just dab some compound on the rag and hit it 5-10 times back and forth with a lot of pressure.
• Viola - remove the tape and enjoy a wheel that will look undamaged to the naked eye and by a quick glance.

The only remaining step will be to finds a suitable clear coat that can be brushed on. Almost everything "off the shelf" in a spay can will be not nearly durable enough for a car wheel. Any suggestions here on a good material for the clear coat is welcomed.

I truly hope this makes at least one of you feel very relieved at your carelessness in banging up your beautiful 19s on your M. Enjoy.

[M2381]

Thanks for taking the time to write this! It's extremely helpful and I have a feeling that I will scuff them soon

[Big Windy]

thanks swamp...hopefully i never have to use this.

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by swamp2

The only remaining step will be to finds a suitable clear coat that can be brushed on.

BMW touch up paint comes in a 2-pack with clear as one part of the set.

[WCH]

Thanks for this. I scuffed one this weekend and agree that it almost physically hurts when you do it. Glad to hear that this turned out well and I plan to give it a try.

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by GregW / Oregon

BMW touch up paint comes in a 2-pack with clear as one part of the set.

Thanks.

Regular body colored paint is what you are referring to?

Although probably a decent mix, I'd bet there is a better choice for the clear.

[eclipsisNA]

Nice writeup Marshall. I scratched my right rear wheel up two months ago while talking to my mother on the phone. Twas' a sad day.

[ChinoOrtega]

I'll do this today and post some before and after pics, thanks swamp!!!!!!

[JEllis]

Nice write-up....on that note my E36's wheels are bare aluminum with a little off the shelf clear coat. However, the clear coat is mostly gone now and I am seeing some staining now. You will need something really strong to hold up and I will be interested to see what you come up with!

Jason

[Johan@WSTO]

thanks for the info..... this is really helpful

[newtom3]

actually ... this does NOT work. It turns out on my 09 BMW M3 the 19" wheel surface is painted (and clear coated)... it looks like naked aluminum, but it's not... there is definitely a paint, duller/greyer/silver than aluminum.

This procedure by the OP is great, but it only preps you for a real paint application afterwards. I am just going to have the body shop do it.

[swamp2]

^

Depends on your standards.

-It certainly is true that th OEM 19s are painted and clear coated. The whole reason this works pretty well for MINOR scuffs is that this combination of paint and clear looks very similar to polished aluminum.
-This is clearly a good alternative in terms of price/cost/effort to a full wheel refinish.

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by swamp2

^

Depends on your standards.

-It certainly is true that the OEM 19s are painted and clear coated. The whole reason this works pretty well for MINOR scuffs is that this combination of paint and clear looks very similar to polished aluminum.
-This is clearly a good alternative in terms of price/cost/effort to a full wheel refinish.

If you're a perfectionist, it would serve you well to find a good wheel refinishing shop. I have a great local guy that would charge about $150 (including dismount, mount & balance) for this, but it would be PERFECT.

[dawgdog]

I have scuffed the wheels of my e46 M3, and my 550 with M5 (style 166) and others. I had "the wheel guy" I was referred to by my SA repair them and he was mobile. Cost about $50 wheel and a very good job. You would really have to examine the wheel closely to tell there was any damage, and even then you might not detect it.

[signes]

This is a great quick way to at least smooth things over, thanks swamp.

The link below contains a detailed run through of a more involved process. Not sure I would want to attempt it but it looks like for the more patient perfectionist that doesn't want to go to the wheel shop that it would get you more "finished" results.

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/ext43.shtml