So I just received the SA55Ms that I'd been waiting for awhile, and went to have them installed. I went with a highly-recommended installer in the area. Unfortunately, I still wound up with what I think is a pretty significant amount of wheel damage. They said the paint on these wheels was thin, and they were as careful as they could have been. I do believe they tried to be careful, as I spent over 6 hours there for a mount/balance/alignment.

The area around the hub has damage on all four wheels, this one's the worst. There are a couple of wrench nicks in the lug nut holes as well, unfortunately.

Perhaps I'm being too ****? Anyone with SA55Ms have similar damage? I brought it to their attention, and told them I'd get back to them.

EDIT: See all the images here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonne...7624415239855/

 

It doesn't look like they took the utmost care but at the same time that paint looks really, really thin and not very durable.

 

looks thin but **** that, make them pay for it. i know for a FACT that can be done with chipping as all of the equipment i have in my shop would def not cause that. they clearly coned the wheels from the front for either the mounting or the balancing without using any type of plastic or rubber cone. you can cone it from the rear and then go on from the front with a bigger "bowl" with rubber on it.

 

Yeah, I say BS on their service. Plenty of wheels that are painted that get tires mounted and balanced. the chip from the impact gun, is definitely from being careless.

The guys I goto, even for past cars, do manual labor carefully removing/installing each lug..... On another note, I know what it's like to get BRAND new wheels you been waiting for and have a tire shop ruin them.

Discount tire ruined all 4 of my Work VS-XX back in the day, had never even been out of the box while in my possession and they denied everything. I spent 275.00 per wheel getting repaired.

 

I don't even know what I'd ask for. I had to wait forever to get this set, who knows how long it'll be before another one came in, and I doubt they'd pay for that either way. I don't know if it could even be decently repaired without repainting the whole wheel.

The biggest disappointment is a did a ton of research, and this shop came so highly recommended. I posted in the regional forum and got at least half a dozen recommendations for them.

Huge bummer. Here's the other three wheels, if anyone's interested.

 

They are wheels, they will get damaged a bit. Scratch, nick, ding, flake, etc... I have a set of Advans and I get rock chips on them. Do I care ya a bit. But, after a few years you can repaint them or powder coat them. Just live with it. It's not a show car.

 

Show car or not, the tire shop shouldn't be damaging your wheels. I had a set of Rota's that got no damage on two sets of tires. And my Volks, one got slight damage during tire install but the tire shop sent it out immediately to get repaired like new.

 

Discount Tire scratched up my stock wheels when installing new tires for me. I pointed it out immediately, and they just basically denied it. You might want to at least show the damage to the shop, but I wouldn't expect them to do anything for you.

 

you have light weight wheels and to keep them light they use very thin paint. Just wait till they start chipping.

 

I found some other damage that indicates carelessness. There are about 10 impact wrench chips, 1 chip where a valve stem wrench would have gone, and 2 chips on the outside of the rim that must have occurred during mounting. If it weren't for that, I'd chalk it up to thin paint and call it a day.

I'm going to call the place tomorrow and talk to the owner, since he wasn't in today, if only to tell him what happened. I don't know what remedy I'll push for, if any. Still kind of upset. Not the most exciting way to cap off a 3.5 month wait for these wheels.

EDIT: I added a link in the first post to a gallery of all the photos I took.

 

I just got my SA-55M in BBM mounted, balanced last week and have ZERO damage at all on any of them and I didn't even take them to a tire place, just the local Honda dealer. I made sure before hand that I got the service manager to sign a piece of paper saying that if ANY damage, even a nick happened while in their shop they would replace(not repair) the wheel and he signed it cause we take all of our cars there and they like us. That damage is just carelessness and poor mounting and or crappy equipment. If anything the damage should be on the edges and you got aftermarket lugs which usually clearly say on the package do not use impact wrenches. I would push for new wheel(which they won't) so try to get them to get a PROFESSIONAL tire repair guy to fix them and if he is a pro it should not be noticeable. Good luck

 

ive been working at and running a tire center for 6 years now and i can say with a 110% that all that damage is due to careless of the tire tech and without a doubt the tire center should cover the expense. they have insurance for a reason.

 

Looks horrible.

At least make them have a pro fix em.

 

Def take it up with the manager. Think of it as helping out the next guy.

Interested to see how these wheels hold up over time. Agreed the work had to have been careless, but these things don't appear to be too tough.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. The more i look at them the paint is extremely thin. I was hoping to get some but in BBM. But now I want to see how they do.