A curbed wheel is not only a cosmetic job
On a light vehicle, wheel damage usually arrives as a scrape down the outer edge from a curb, and it gets treated as something to live with or ignore.
Two reasons it is worth more attention than that.
The first is that the damage breaks the protective finish and exposes the metal underneath. In a humid climate that starts corroding, and the corrosion spreads under the surrounding coating rather than staying where the scrape was. A mark that is cosmetic this year is a larger repair in three.
The second is that a curb hard enough to mark a wheel may have done more than mark it. A slightly bent rim flange will not necessarily look wrong, and it will hold air for a while and then stop, or produce a vibration that outlives a balance.
Which is why a wheel that has taken a hit is worth looking at rather than judging by eye, and why a scrape is worth dealing with before it becomes corrosion.
What refurbishing restores
Stripping, inspection, correction of what can be corrected, and refinishing, which puts the protective barrier back. The national wheel refurbishing page covers the process and why a persistent leak is usually the wheel rather than the tire.
A crack or structural damage ends a wheel, and the inspection establishes that before work starts.
While the tire is off
The whole job is easier and cheaper when the wheel is already bare, which means the moment to deal with it is when tires are being changed or when a casing goes for retreading.
Say so when you book tires, rather than booking the wheel separately later.
About this store
The Mabelvale store runs seventeen services, offers tire and wheel balancing at the same address, and is managed by Corey Germany.
See the national wheel refurbishing page for all 42 locations.