Thread: Gutter Rash on Detroits - advice please!

Hi all,

Long time reader first time poster!

I'm based in Melbourne and have had my Mk 6 for a couple of months now. While I managed to avoid the nasty hail storm that hit here a few weeks ago, my front left rim has come off second best after an unfortunate "meeting" with a gutter - not happy at all.

Could someone please give me some advice on what my best option is to get this fixed? Tossing up whether to go through the dealership to get this sorted or go through another avenue (such as a specialist)? Very interested to get everyone's feedback.

Thanks in advance - keep up the good work.

Cheers

There's a dedicated forum on Wheels & Suspension. In there you'll find a thread for Scratched wheel repairers in Melbourne.

They'll basically sand back the damage, bog it up, and then paint over it.

I don't think that the dealer would do anything other than offer to sell you a new wheel. Even if they DID offer to fix it for you, they'd just be taking to a third party and then adding their cut. So you may as well go straight to the source

Originally Posted by coreying

There's a dedicated forum on Wheels & Suspension. In there you'll find a thread for Scratched wheel repairers in Melbourne.

They'll basically sand back the damage, bog it up, and then paint over it.

I don't think that the dealer would do anything other than offer to sell you a new wheel. Even if they DID offer to fix it for you, they'd just be taking to a third party and then adding their cut. So you may as well go straight to the source

Yup, what he said.

My local dealership have a mobile guy that comes out and fixes them. all they will do is add some margin on top, best to cut out the middleman.

Thanks for the advice - will keep you posted as to how I go.

Cheers

To be economical, you might want to sit on it for a couple more months to accumulate a few more gutter rashes before doing the wheel repair.

Sadly, these things normally happens one after another in a new car. No point having to do multiple repairs.

Originally Posted by markwid

To be economical, you might want to sit on it for a couple more months to accumulate a few more gutter rashes before doing the wheel repair.

Sadly, these things normally happens one after another in a new car. No point having to do multiple repairs.

Yeah! once you stop scratching the wheels then get it all done. When you are really good at parking the new car then get it repaired. So instead of one mark you might do more in the mean time.

Just a quick update - had the wheel repaired this week by Matt and the team at Wheel Solutions in Richmond (couldn't stand lookng at the damage any longer!).

They did a tremendous job and I highly recommend them to anyone who finds themselves in need of getting repairs of this nature done in the future. Wheel looks as good as new and wasn't excessively expensive to get fixed.

Cheers

Thanks for the update. Can i ask how much did it cost? was there substantial damage or just a few obvious scratches?

Originally Posted by ljs

Just a quick update - had the wheel repaired this week by Matt and the team at Wheel Solutions in Richmond (couldn't stand lookng at the damage any longer!).

They did a tremendous job and I highly recommend them to anyone who finds themselves in need of getting repairs of this nature done in the future. Wheel looks as good as new and wasn't excessively expensive to get fixed.

Cheers

Any pictures before / after?

Price was $250 and the turn-around time was 4 days (dropped the car off on Tuesday morning and picked it up this morning). A good result given I was told there was a bit of a back log after the Easter break. Plus VW quoted a replacement at $1k!

Didn't take any photos (couldn't bring myself to do it!) - needless to say the damage was fairly decent. The scratches covered about an eighth of the wheel on the outside which also went into the black of the wheel. There was also another scratch about 15cm long.

Hope this helps.