Don't do this #%!&@!!! (wheels)
 

So I take off my lobster fork wheels to clean the backs & inside.

Look carefully to be sure the tires are wider the the od of the rims so I wont rash the paint when I lay them face down . . . clankety clank . . . the sound of wheel hitting concrete Damnit !! Four little "rashes" near the lug holes.:banghead:

Apparently the inner part of the wheels are wider than the tires.

I post my stupidity so others wont have to.:thumbup:

Bummer. My Carrera Sports are very close in that regard. I always put down an old beach towel before I lay the wheels over. Sorry you had to learn the hard way.... :(

I'm rediculously anal retentive about my rims and watch closely when I clean.

However, last year, I dropped one of my Boxster rims.

$149 later it was new again... So, I've been there done that got the shirt.

I did my brake pads last year; I did everything super careful, taking it slow, took the wheels off and laid them on blankets, cleaned the insides of the wheels and brakes, right when I'm feeling satisfied about how good I've been to my Porsche, I go to torque up the lugs and scrape the fender with the handle of the torque wrench.

Turns out the fenders stick out enough past the wheels that a long torque wrench will scratch them :banghead:

Sorry to hear.

Jay H - my buddy did the same thing with one of my rims. He was trying to be helpful, knocked it over on its face and it cost him $150 to refinish one of mine. That was an awkward moment.

I had one front rim that had a small amount of curb rash (I bought these rims used from Wheel Enhancement and they never mentioned the curb rash - surprise!). Anyway, of course the rim I dropped over wasn't the one with the curb rash so that I could kill two birds (two damages) with one stone (credit card swipe). I dropped the one that was the best of the 4 I got...

Murphy's law as applied to P-cars: "The best wheel will always fall on its face"

One of my jobs in the past was in electron microscopy. You could spend hours trying to section into and getting a mirror polish on a one inch diameter sample. If you dropped it the darned thing would almost always land as we said 'jelly side down'.

Anyone had the edges of the "lobsters" polished...I have one that is mildly scratched and one that has hardly noticeable edge scrapes...(I'm talking about the lip, just about 3/4 " wide)

Look before you Leep. The tires like michelin with rim protection work by having the the lip of the tire protude out further than the wheel.

I'm sure we've all learned lessons like this in the past... One in particular cost me a new windshield on a BMW when a simple gear shifter removal didn't quite go as planned.... The good news is that a good wheel refinisher can make the wheels look like new and it's not overly expensive. I've seen first hand what these guys can do and you'll never know the wheels have been repaired.

I feel for you. My lobster claws all had plenty of rash when I bought the car. I sanded the roughness a bit and used silver touch-up from our former Volvo, which matched fine. I don't like my car looking like a demolition derby special, but I'm not anal enough about scratches and rim rash to spend $$ having them refinished.

It still depends on the wheel. My Pirelli P-Zeros have a very pronounced protective lip but the Carrera Sports protrude enough in the center that any irregularity in the ground surface, or slight bounce of the tire could cause contact.

I had brand new powdercoated wheels, and was trying to quickly shuffle them from inside the house to the porch without the dogs getting loose, when one got away- rolled off the porch, and fell over, face-down, on the concrete stairs. ARGH! Let this be a lesson to the rest of you, as well: tires roll!

Ah well, at least takes the pressure off of having to baby them in the future, right?

Would a dealership know about a wheel refinisher or is there another suggested place to search?