C5 Tires Followup

I thought I'd give you guys an update on the Tire/Wheel situation.

After not locating anyone in the region who could repair the wheels, I
decided to take matters into my own hands.
I decided to remove the wheel weights myself to see what the actual damage
was like.
I used some stiff plastic to slide beneath the weight as I pulled it away
from the wheel with a pair of channel-lock pliers. Once I had isolated the
weight from the wheel, I took a small phillips head screwdriver and slid it
in the gap where the "clip" went around the wheel, and popped the weight off
the wheel.

There is some scuffing, but no apparent cracks in the poly.

I took it back to the same Firestone store and personally watched a very
competent technician balance the wheels using lead tape.

Apparently the "Service Manager" who did the crappy work has had some other
bad experiences.

I took the time to help point his career in the right direction from several
angles. Hopefully his "skills" won't be applied to any more Corvette wheels.

And cooler heads prevailed.

When I changed tires on my C5, they removed the factory weights and put
the weights on the inside. The factory ones had scuffed the outside rim
of the polished wheels even tho the weights were the coated kind that
were not supposed to damage the wheel. I was quite upset at the time but
got over it. There are more important things in life to be concerned with.

Chances are any or all of the following will happen.

You will:

get rid of the car sooner or later.
get a rock chip in a wheel which will be much worse.
get a set of aftermarket wheels which you will like better.
get a curb scuff in a wheel.
forget this happened and just drive the car and enjoy it.
remember that no one else will know the wheels are damaged.

Thanks for the follow up.

Dave
WI

PS. I don't think my (un)polished C6 wheels are so great either but I'm
almost over that.


Pappy wrote:
> I thought I'd give you guys an update on the Tire/Wheel situation.
>
> After not locating anyone in the region who could repair the wheels, I
> decided to take matters into my own hands.
> I decided to remove the wheel weights myself to see what the actual damage
> was like.
> I used some stiff plastic to slide beneath the weight as I pulled it away
> from the wheel with a pair of channel-lock pliers. Once I had isolated the
> weight from the wheel, I took a small phillips head screwdriver and slid it
> in the gap where the "clip" went around the wheel, and popped the weight off
> the wheel.
>
> There is some scuffing, but no apparent cracks in the poly.
>
> I took it back to the same Firestone store and personally watched a very
> competent technician balance the wheels using lead tape.
>
> Apparently the "Service Manager" who did the crappy work has had some other
> bad experiences.
>
> I took the time to help point his career in the right direction from several
> angles. Hopefully his "skills" won't be applied to any more Corvette wheels.
>
>