DIY Wheel Scuff "Repair"

So an urgent 60 mile round trip to the IVEC to collect some meds they'd forgot to post out saw me not only assaulting one of my fake Ferrari wheels with a concrete curb after taking the gutter approach to a speed bump, but also being tailed and told off by a bike busy for rocking tinted plates and impersonating an officer in high-vis uniform. But having captured it on my thought I'd try and spin it into a net positive by uploading a video showing how I go about knocking back the damage. I did actually share a quick short for a previous scuff on this very same wheel a while back which attracted decent views and got a fair few people's knickers in a twist so thought why not do a full version for this fresh all-encompassing scuff to see how many others I can annoy with my DIY antics. As thankfully with the damage being confined to the edge of the exposed rim knew I could make it look a lot better so headed to Halfords for some assorted sanding paper as aside from a bit of polish and a heavy dose of elbow grease that's pretty much all I needed. Now before cracking on it's worth noting that this crude approach will only really work on diamond cut or polish parts and although it'll leave the wheel looking a damn sight better will still be far from perfect so if only a factory fresh finish will do for you then it's full-blown professional refurb time. However if you feel a full recut is overkill for the sake of perhaps a smaller scuff or just don't have the cash to fork out for one then this relatively simple flat and polish approach might just save your unsightly day. While everything could all technically be done with the wheel in situ think it makes more sense to remove it so after grabbing a few shots of the scuff as it sat went ahead and whipped it off so I could more closely inspect the damage before getting to grips with it in the back garden and while it was pretty clean to start with as I'd only washed the car a few days prior still went ahead and gave it a good shampooing to ensure it was free from things like brake dust, grit or anything else which might interfere with the repair process and I guess you could do this on the car prior to removal if you don't have a sturdy wheel cleaning stand like this to make use of. Once clean and dry then I plonked the wheel on an old towel covered upturned bucket and while it technically makes sense to mask up any surrounding parts that you don't want touched with abrasive paper personally feel it's a bit of a false security blanket that will still likely be compromised so don't bother myself but feel free to take yours up till your heart's content. So despite aluminium being a relatively soft metal you're still going to need some fairly coarse grit to level a wheel scuff by hand so started off with some 240 stuff from my assortive multi-pack here a few pieces of which were folded up and worked over the rim in fairly concentrated fashion to start to slowly smooth things out and while a block would likely achieve a more flat finish than bare fingertips would be difficult to access just the rim without catching the tyre or surrounding undamaged parts of the wheel so just stuck to the old torn paper technique here. The main aim with the heavier grit is to quickly level the scuff and round out the deeper gouges and nicks which I'm not going to like a bit tedious but with sturdy enough fingertips and plenty of persistent elbow grease it's definitely doable if you utilise the folded edge of the paper to generally follow the direction of the nicks and as monotonous as it might be it's worth sticking at as it's the thing that will make the most difference overall so should arguably represent the bulk of the work. Once the main body of the scuff and its accompanying gouges have been knocked back and rounded out which thankfully left the rim looking and feeling a lot smoother in comparison to before moved up to some 400 grit paper for another round of dry sanding this time just aiming to remove the heavier marks that targeting the gouges had left and to even things out in preparation for a welcome wet sand and if you don't fancy blistering up your digits like me then a simple pair of latex gloves might help but in my experience with a job like this they tend to split almost immediately and anything thicker wouldn't allow you to effectively get the work done in a dexterous enough manner so who knows maybe naked knuckles are the only way to go so with the dry sanding done I then moved on to a comparatively pleasurable wet sand starting with some 800 grit that was used alongside a diluted detail spray to begin to refine the rougher dry sanded finish which is always a satisfying affair regardless of the material you're working on and as well as finessing the main sections of the rim also had to try and feather the ends of the spokes that had seen some of the heavier abrasion too to blur the lines between the now naked metal and the existing lacquered diamond cut finish before wiping away any unsightly grey residue then either repeating the process or moving on to the next section a final round of 1200 grit finished up the sanding procedure and although it won't serve to remove much material we'll refine the finish to a point where polishing can take over so it's definitely worth spending a few minutes gently doing with light fingertip pressure and plenty of lubrication to ensure no fresh marks are inflicted from stray bits of contamination even if as I say it doesn't look or feel like much is being done then once I was happy that all previously scuffed parts of the wheel were looking and feeling suitably smooth and free from any indented damage thoroughly spritzed it over with the detail spray one last time before wiping it over with a fresh general purpose towel to remove any dust and residue prior to moving on so a handy little mp9 micro polisher and some of Turtle Wax's trusty one and done compound were then used to impart some shine back into the freshly flatted metal first spreading the product at low rotary speed then working it in a more moderate one and looking back I probably should have used the auto bright duo two-in-one paint and metal polisher featured briefly on my old mountain bike a few months ago that I completely forgot I had but either way this particular compound abrasives are still thankfully capable of reviving freshly sanded metal now while polishing metal like this generally won't remove heavier marks which is why it's important to get rid of them first it will serve to essentially bring that previously dull sanded finish back to life with some shine and while a nifty little machine like this certainly helps you can do it by hand if all you have is poverty spec elbow grease in the armory just try to ensure that you finish up the sanding with a nice fine grade of abrasive and maybe go with a microfiber applicator pad for a bit more bite than a foam one once the rim had been sufficiently polished up I just had to quickly turn to one painted section of the wheel with a fresh pad that I'd had to lightly flat after cack-handedly catching it with some of the heavier stuff when sanding earlier but the little micro polisher thankfully took care of that in an instant allowing me to then give all parts of the wheel one more wipe down this time with a strong solvent-based prep spray to remove any unsightly aluminium oxide infused splatter so I could then move on to protecting the freshly polished surface so because the sanded and polished metal is now completely exposed to the elements you need to ensure you protect it or it will quickly oxidize and while a dedicated metal sealant would make sense or even a durable ceramic coating which is what I use to keep the previous scuff repair on this wheel looking fresh because it's summer and I keep on top of the car with regular washes and protective spritzes went with some durable fuso coat paste wax instead here as this would help to enhance the shine as well as protect the surface so after priming and applicator pad with some of it thoroughly worked it over all of the freshly sanded and polished parts of the rim let it sit in the sun to dry for about 10 minutes then buffed it off to reveal a nice slick protected finish that so long as it's not left to diminish shouldn't dull anytime soon but if for whatever reason it does then a quick hand job with something like an all-in-one polish or the same product you used in the first place should quickly bring it back to life to finish things up then I thought it made sense to thoroughly dress the tire as it only takes a minute and will further help to detract the tension away from the DIY repair parts as well as give the impression it's a well-kept wheel that's never been near a curb so went ahead and thoroughly brushed some graphene acrylic stuff from Turtle Wax into it before letting it soak in for five minutes then buffing off any excess from both the rim and the tire itself to prevent unsightly sling that funnily enough can sometimes look like rim damage itself and aside from replacing the wheel called it a day there because as you can see for the sake of a sand polish and superficial protection the wheel was now looking about as good as it realistically could be. So with a DIY repair like this that doesn't make use of any filler paint or machine cutting you're going to be left with a slight contrast between the freshly polished rounded metal you've worked on by hand and the perfectly flat cut and lacquered parts created at the factory which is a bit of a giveaway if you know what you're looking for but on a cheap wheel that's fitted to a 10 year old daily driver that's a price I'm personally willing to pay to no longer have an unsightly scuff on show and thought might be a price others who maybe can't afford a professional refurb are willing to pay too. Now after going to the trouble of doing this you obviously want to try and keep your semi-repaired rims away from any other curbs that might be lying in wait but with this particular car being a daily driver that regularly has to traverse its way over under and through all manner of potentially damaging obstacles unfortunately can't promise you it'll never happen again. For now though and to reward you for sticking around till the end we'll leave you with some recently captured Thinkware U1000 dash cam footage so enjoy.