Shortly after I bought my Ford Flex, I replaced the stock wheels with a custom set of aftermarket rims and tires. Shortly after that, we drove the Flex to Denver to attend my friend Robb Sherwin’s wedding. While in Denver I attempted to parallel park, and in the process I rubbed up against a curb and scratched two of my four brand new rims. Normally it wouldn’t be so bad, but these rims are black, which really makes the scrapes stand out.
Back in Oklahoma, I checked around for quotes on repairing the rims. The original quotes I got ($100/rim) went up when they discovered the rims were black and not chrome, which pushed the price dangerously close to what I paid per rim. Before dropping that kind of cash, I decided to try a repair of my own.
This matte black Testors Paint Pen costs $5.99 on Amazon. The rims are flat black, the marker’s flat black… sounds like a match to me!
The online tutorials I watched and read suggested that I sand the area down with increasingly fine grades of sandpaper, and clean the rim with store-bought cleaners. I opted not to sand the rim, and cleaned the area with spit applied to my thumb. I really wasn’t expecting this repair to look good, so I wasn’t willing to put a whole lot of time and effort into it.
After spit shining (literally) the rough area, I broke out the pen and began applying paint to the area. In the scratched areas, I applied a bit of pressure to the pen, squeezing some extra paint down into the ridges.
This is the point where I began to freak out. As you can see above, the two blacks didn’t match very well, and the painted section was very noticeable. Just when I had given up hope, the paint began to dry, and something magical happened!
Five minutes later, the painted section had almost completely disappeared. The goal of this project was never to fool a tire forensics investigator — it was to hide the scrapes from a foot away so that every time I walk up to my car I’m not reminded of that curb.
Another couple of minutes, and the area has almost completely disappeared. It’s completely invisible from a few feet away, and you would really have to know where the damage was to find it.
The $6 paint pen worked flawlessly, and there’s enough paint left to draw mustaches on everybody. Victory!
Nice repair. In the event any of your touch-up does flake off, I would recommend sanding it and cleaning it, since oil on the metal can interfere with adherence. Fortunately, touching up black isn’t super difficult; you just have to get a close-enough match on the sheen. I’ve done this with more than a few vintage toy trains.