What's a Shiny Wheel Worth?

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Valhallo

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Messages
367
Reaction score
2
Location
Utah
My Car
73' Grande
A couple of days ago now I got sick of my dirty slotted aluminum rims and figured I'd really take the time to fix the problem right. I had tried using hard cleaners before, but with no effect. I jacked the wheel up with a crappy scissor jack (our hydrolic is broken) to take it off for my Saturday restoration of it, and of course I forgot to loosen the lug nuts while it was still on the ground. Even after the 100 times I've removed a wheel I forgot. I wedged one of my ramps under the tire to keep it from spinning while I removed the lugs, but to make sure I didn't forget again I just went ahead and removed the lugs on the other front tire while it was still on the ground. Considering it was my first time, I was alright with the result of sanding it all the way from 240 to 1200 grit and then polishing with emery.

IMAG0156.jpg

After finishing that wheel and getting it back on the car it was late, so I called it a day and figured I'd work on the other front wheel in the morning. That next Sunday morning my dad asked for help running a shock collar fence for our new dog that refuses to be trained. To run the fence we had to trench underground, so I was off to Home Depot to get a manual edger.

In the Mustang.

I got 1/4 mile from the house when going around the roundabout I noticed that turning left it sounded like something was just barely scraping every time the wheel rotated. I Immediately pulled over into a parking lot to take a look. I new it was coming from the front left, so I started looking around in there. I tugged on steering, suspension and anything else I could see as a possible culprit on the underside of the car. When I found nothing loose or disconnected I thought that maybe I had installed the wheel bearing cover incorrectly under the wheel and it was scraping. The best course of action in my mind was to get it back home real nice and slow.

Almost home and the sound worsened. No longer did it sound like a light scraping, but a smacking, and not just on left turns. I pulled over once again and checked, but still found no problem. Literally 1.5 blocks from home I thought I would just get it there keeping it well under 10mph and jack it up in the garage to figure out what the problem was.

I didn't make the 1.5 blocks.

My left tire shot off the car while I was doing 7ish mph, but it shot straight back into the fender. I put on my hazards, gathered up all the lugs out of the road, found my tire at the bottom of the hill and sat on the curb trying to figure out what in the hell just happened when I remember loosening all the lugnuts on both wheels thinking that was what I would do that morning. I had not tightened the left lug nuts before leaving.

All but one of the lugnuts I found in the road were trash, but the lugs themselves were fine. I jacked the front driver side up, put the wheel back on and stole one lug nut from each of the other tires, making 4 per wheel. Got it home real nice and slow, but it was not a pleasant experience with less than relieving results.

IMAG0160.jpg

IMAG0157.jpg

IMAG0159.jpg

The insurance guy will be coming at somepoint to assess the situation and damage. I haven't even looked at it much. I just get damn sad going out into the garage right now.

I can be beyond a dumbass sometimes.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow that sucks! We all make mistakes, you are all right car can be fixed and you have a story that you will be able to laugh about one day!

 
Everyone has a similar story. Some not as bad - some much worse.

You just happen to be willing to share. I'm not sure I could do the same.

For a positive note - yours will remind someone who reads it to be sure and retighten their lugs before quitting that stage of the repair.

Sorry it happened to you, but thanks for sharing.

Ray

 
Ouch! That hurt! Well, it is repairable, but I'd guess about $750 in damage.

Hard lesson to learn. Double check the lug nuts whenever working on the wheels.

 
At least you recognized there was an issue and tried to limp it home rather than what would have happened if you hadn't. Good luck on the repairs and glad nobody was hurt (other than pride)

 
Same thing happened to my car.

uploadfromtaptalk1349139699977.jpg

Except yours is beautiful and has insurance. Mine is rusty but same thing happened at under 10mph and was main reason previous owner let it sit and go down.

 
Everyone has a similar story. Some not as bad - some much worse.

You just happen to be willing to share. I'm not sure I could do the same.

For a positive note - yours will remind someone who reads it to be sure and retighten their lugs before quitting that stage of the repair.

Sorry it happened to you, but thanks for sharing.

Ray
+1 Ray. Nice post.

Valhallo (Mike?) thanks for your post. I guarantee it will help prevent at least one similar incidence in the future. Let us know how things work out.

 
Horrible, Thank goodess no one was hurt and I hope you can get it repaired soon, I recall when driving years ago (a non mustang car) the hood latch broke and hood flew up into the windshield and busted it as well, I was going appx 40 mph so am thankful nothing worse happened.

 
Sorry to hear about you car, that really sucks. Like others have said I have also been there but luckily I caught it before the wheel came off. Hopefully you will get good insurance quote.

 
I guess you guys are right - If this ends up scaring someone into double checking some lugs and saving some heartache, I guess it would do a little to compensate for my hurt pride and hurt mustang.

Insurance is telling me I'm on my own, so looks like I will be fixing a fender instead of installing a new carb and intake. At least I had some funds saved up in preparation for that project, so i should be able to cover it.

As far as the fender itself, I've been trying to figure out if I can repair and repaint this one or ill need a new one, but I'm glad to hear you guys saying that it is repairable. I really have no idea when it comes to body work aside from a tad bit of painting experience. If I can keep the original metal without breaking too much more bank than I will go for it.

Today I took the fender off so that tomorrow I can pack it in the back of the truck and see what some of the body shops have to say. I thought that it might be better to get the whole car to them, but the incident blew a couple of bushings in my steering and I don't have a way to tow the car. We'll see what they say tomorrow.

On the brighter side, my dog is now in awe of the mystical power keeping him in the yard out of the garden.

Same thing happened to my car.

Except yours is beautiful and has insurance. Mine is rusty but same thing happened at under 10mph and was main reason previous owner let it sit and go down.
RacerX is right, those are some similar wrinkles. I guess it makes sense with them being the same situation.

-Zac

 
Last edited by a moderator:
... Insurance is telling me I'm on my own, so looks like I will be fixing a fender instead of installing a new carb and intake...

-Zac
Apparently you're only carrying liability coverage, other wise the insurance has to cover it. The only exclusion (if you have full coverage) would be if the damages were "intential", which is not the case in your situation.

Jim

 
Back
Top