On my way home from work yesterday afternoon, a large piece of metal was lying in the middle of the road. Mind you there are many cars on the road, it is a four lane expressway, so there isn't really much room to work with. Traffic is traveling about 55-60 miles per hour, nothing out of the ordinary. By the time I realize what the object is i had to choose: either i can swirv into the car next to me or the railing on the other side of me. Hmm, so what do i do, I swirved to the right(towards railing), but not enough to hit the railing, and it just wasn't enough to completely mis the item in the road.

It appears that I turned the wheel just right so the object in the middle of the road could practically slice my wheel and tire. About a mile further, the expressway turns into a regular street called Beach Blvd. When I get to the first traffic light, which is red obviously, I get out of the car and look at what damaged had been done. It was not pretty!

Next thing I know a car next to me is waving at me trying to tell me something. So I slow down and try to make out what they are trying to say. They told me that the metal piece/object that caused that horrifying damage to my rim and bumper was from a careless construction-semi-truck that turned right a couple roads back. So I am thinking to myself...gee thanks but wtf am I supposed to do now that they are probably no where to be found! And the fact of the matter is, is that there is a decent amount of traffic b/c it's 5:30 in the afternoon, and even if I did try to find this guy/truck, chances are he is long gone.

Sorry, don't mean to vent, but this is just so frustrating!

My main question is: is this repairable?
The damage is what you see, but the rim is also bent badly.

I am going to discount tire co. today to see who they know that can fix it, and how much they will charge, but i am just looking for any answers with previous experiences like this.

Also, do you think I could pursue the city for something like this?
Just a thought, the question was brought to my attention a couple times by close friends.

 

Wow......that sucks bro...

I had to swerve to avoid a couch on the freeway a while back.

I don't think your rim is "fixable" but you can always try. I would look at replacing it.

 

wow thats a pretty bad gash.. i don't think you're gonna be able to repair that thing especially if the whole wheel is bent. volks are pretty hard they're not very easy to work with.

much luck tho

 

Mike,

Got your PM a few minutes ago. I have been all over Florida the past few days working (Jax., Orange Park, Palm Coast, and Perry) so I haven't been on the internet. What is the latest with your car?

Shay

 

In relation to pursuing the city or something...not sure what to tell you. The closest thing similar to me was a couple years ago or more I was running around Jax on various appointments and scooted downtown to my office to pick up some stuff for the next meeting. In doing that I took a different route to the building which led me by a construction site. They were sandblasting, cleaning, spraying something on this building and the mist swallowed me up while at a light right next to the site. I went home ASAP to wash the car off to find the "mist" had adheared to my paint and everything else. Little white/gray specs everywhere on my black paint. WTF!!! I had a detail guy look at it and give me an estimate to fix. Basically he had to clay the thing for about 2 1/2 days straight but luckily the construction company after a few calls did pay the bill. Maybe you'll have the same luck but not knowing who the actual company, city division, etc. actually dropped the material I'm not sure how solid that avenue is at this point.

Best of luck though and very sorry to hear about your car. Luckily it's just a tire and rim. Not cheap but it could have been a lot worse.

 

Well, I ordered a new wheel from evo s2000. Then I ordered a new tire from disc tire co. All in all, I spent about $740. ouch! I am pretty much out of luck with trying to find out what company the truck worked for and will just have to eat the loss. I am not happy about the whole thing, but what can you do??? right.

I am supposed to be picking up my rim from my girlfriends house in ga tonight and hopefully the tire will be in later tonight if not tomorrow. So I am hoping to have the rim back on by tomorrow night, the latest!

 

You should have just taken it to a rim repair shop. A good one probably could have repaired that. I had something very similar fixed a year ago.

 

ya looks totally fixable....outter lip could been welded back and refinished....

 

What's your insurance deductable? You can get them to cover the damage (minus deductable) w/o incurring points.

 

Deductible is only 250, but if i make a claim my premium will go up, and i would rather do that for an emergency-emergency (a rainy day).
I took the rim to a couple repair shops and all of them said they couldn't fix it! i am still trying to find a place that can, so if anybody has referrals for the northern florida area, pass there info my way please.