Alloy wheel touch up/ repair advice

[RP64]

I had an encounter with a kerb and lost

I have addressed the tyre damage in a separate thread and people are saying not too big a deal.

In terms of the alloy wheel, is this worth having refurbished or would I have reasonable success in touching this damage up? The damage is quite shallow and covers just the edge of the wheel. Would I need to use filler or would a couple of coats of primer and then the touch up paint work? How would you colour match alloy wheels? These are ford wheels and I have seen that people recommend moondust silver and sparkle silver. The wheels are a light silver I would say

[SteBrown91]

I’d personally leave that

[swisstoni]

Personally I’d just carefully touch it up.
Once it’s painted you’ll stop seeing it at all after a coupe of weeks.

At the moment it’s jumping out at you every time because the damage has just happened.

If you are super fussy and want it perfect again I’d see if the wheels are still available new. Sometime the prices are quite reasonable. (I’m assuming there’s not a full size spare).

[RP64]

SteBrown91 said:

I’d personally leave that

I'm kind of thinking along those lines, maybe just try to find a touch up paint that would match and neatly touch it in. Especially if the tyre is fine.
I could spend £100 on a wheel refurb and £200 on a new tyre but I'm not sure it's worth it or necessary.

[RP64]

swisstoni said:

Personally I’d just carefully touch it up.
Once it’s painted you’ll stop seeing it at all after a coupe of weeks.

At the moment it’s jumping out at you every time because the damage has just happened.

If you are super fussy and want it perfect again I’d see if the wheels are still available new. Sometime the prices are quite reasonable. (I’m assuming there’s not a full size spare).

There's not a full size spare. We all want our cars perfect I suppose but then there's the gap between the ideal world and reality! The damage isn't very deep so I'm thinking of I just paint on a little primer then cover that in a silver touch up paint it'll be barely visible. Just need to try and find the right colour touch up paint.
The car isn't perfect anyway, the wheels are in good condition (well they were until this) but there's a few stone chips etc. It's a 5 year old Mondeo in daily use, I don't think it could ever be perfect :/

[LuS1fer]

A light bit of wet and dry to smooth it and a dab of silver modelling paint like Humbrol enamel to stop future corrosion. You will barely see it.

[anonymous-user]

RP64 said:

I'm kind of thinking along those lines, maybe just try to find a touch up paint that would match and neatly touch it in. Especially if the tyre is fine.
I could spend £100 on a wheel refurb and £200 on a new tyre but I'm not sure it's worth it or necessary.

I would not get the wheel refurbished, there is no guarantee they will be able to match the colour of the other 3 wheels. My car has dark silver wheels and one has been refurbished at some point and is a slightly different colour to the rest. It is utterly noticable to me and annoys me every time I walk to the car.

I would take a 1 inch slight scratch to the rim over this any day.

[RP64]

LuS1fer said:

A light bit of wet and dry to smooth it and a dab of silver modelling paint like Humbrol enamel to stop future corrosion. You will barely see it.

It is quite shallow damage so I'm thinking along these lines. Skip the filler because I'm not a pro and I'll probably make it look worse. Lightly sand it and then primer and touch up paint.

[RP64]

Joey Deacon said:

RP64 said:

I'm kind of thinking along those lines, maybe just try to find a touch up paint that would match and neatly touch it in. Especially if the tyre is fine.
I could spend £100 on a wheel refurb and £200 on a new tyre but I'm not sure it's worth it or necessary.

I would not get the wheel refurbished, there is no guarantee they will be able to match the colour of the other 3 wheels. My car has dark silver wheels and one has been refurbished at some point and is a slightly different colour to the rest. It is utterly noticable to me and annoys me every time I walk to the car.

I would take a 1 inch slight scratch to the rim over this any day.

This is a good point and the other wheels are all fine so no need to refurbish all 4. Hopefully I can neatly touch it up.

[Pica-Pica]

SteBrown91 said:

I’d personally leave that

Me too. Wait until either:
a) enough further damage comes along to justify a proper job, or
b) your cautiousness in parking has increased and no further incidents occur, then repair.

[RP64]

Pica-Pica said:

SteBrown91 said:

I’d personally leave that

Me too. Wait until either:
a) enough further damage comes along to justify a proper job, or
b) your cautiousness in parking has increased and no further incidents occur, then repair.

Haha I'm not that bad at parking. Twice in 12 years and over 200,000 miles isn't such a bad record I don't think.

I think I'll try to neatly touch this is in for now. The car is going to need to services of a body shop anyway for some other issues so probably will just have it all fixed at once

[Smint]

I would definately touch it in, not just to make it look perfect again but to stop corrosion setting in now there's some bare alloy for it to attack.

[RP64]

Smint said:

I would definately touch it in, not just to make it look perfect again but to stop corrosion setting in now there's some bare alloy for it to attack.

Yes I will do this, I'm thinking of skipping the filler as it's quite a light graze and I'm not a pro so I think it would be messy. I was just going to lightly sand to smooth it, apply some primer and then paint.