Date:         Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:36:00 EST
Reply-To:     JordanVw@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         JordanVw@AOL.COM
Subject:      few things you want to tell the tire changing monkeys at the
              local tire shop..
Comments: cc: vanagon@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

i just recently had a set of alloys refinished, and tires mounted on them..

the reason i had them refinshed is for a few reasons..

first reason:

wheel weights.

whenever you are getting tires mounted on alloys, you must specify that you
dont want the wheelweights put on the outer rim..

otherwise the tire monkey will hammer the wheel weights onto the outer lip of
the wheel, cutting into the aluminum, and gouging the finish chipping the
paint..

water and salt gets under the gouged paint and clearcoat, and then in no time
the finish of your wheel starts corroding..bubbling the paint and clearcoat
off..and your finish is ruined..

also ive seen tire monkeys who fail to remove the wheel weights prior to
removing the old tire, and the tire changer machine drags the wheel weight around
the entire lip of the wheel, scratching the clearcoat and paint off the lip as
the old wheelweight gets dragged full circle around the perimeter of the lip
by the changer machine..

when you get your tires balanced, insist on the "stick-on" wheel weights
they peel and stick to the inside of your rim, right behind the spokes or face of
the wheel... or just apply the hammer on ones to the back of your wheel, and
not the front lip.

and when they remount the wheels to your vehicle..insist on them doing it by
hand, with a hand torque wrench..  not an pneumatic impact wrench..  its no
fun when you have to change a flat on the side of the road and you cant get the
wheel off because the tire changing monkey cranked the lugs on there with a
zillion psi of pressure from his air gun..

HTH...

merry christmas...
chris