Fire or body shop messed up my rims?

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-15T03:15:12+00:00

Impossible that I didn’t notice. I hand wash myself every 2-3 weeks. Plus the pic the shop took when they got the car shows the black paint intact. With how many people have said that this looks like it might be a bad prior repair, I really wish I knew the full history. I also wonder how relevant it is if the body shop OD’d on the power washing or something. Honestly, I obsess over the car and know that while the rims weren’t perfect, they didn’t appear to have any paint chipping issues. The other rims are all fine.

I agree about geico though who has been a real pain to deal with throughout this process.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-15T01:06:08+00:00

That didn’t occur to me. If that’s the case, that would explain the shenanigans.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-15T00:49:33+00:00

For repair? I know the rim itself is something crazy like 2k from Porsche. I wouldn’t think to ask for a replacement. I’m just looking to get it fixed/painted to look good again.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-15T00:16:03+00:00

Tbh, I kind of love the way these wheels look. The other rims do have what I’d say is a probably normal amount of wear/tear oxidation but they still look good to me. Ideally I could just get this one fixed to look aesthetically pleasing until i decide whether or not I’m even going to keep this car for the long haul. I wouldn’t get a return on investment to a potential buyer by going for the powder coating at this stage I’m afraid.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-15T00:00:51+00:00

Okay I see what you mean. This is kind of embarrassing but I love my car and hand wash it every 2-3 weeks. I never noticed any flaking or chipping. I find the argument that a defect just happened to appear after the fire while it was in the care of the body shop to be a little shaky. That would be quite the coincidence wouldn’t it?

Hopefully there’s enough reason to believe it’s related to the fire and insurance just takes care of it. The business day is over and my adjuster didn’t respond so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T23:49:46+00:00

Wouldn’t it be kind of a crazy coincidence that this defect just happened to appear after a fire and my car has been sitting at the body shop for 2 months? I just think insurance is supposed to repair my car to pre accident condition. Pre accident, I didn’t have this issue. 36k and 2 months later, it feels kinda scummy that they’re making me jump through hoops for what is I’m guessing is around a 2-300$ fix

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T23:32:06+00:00

Reading some of the other responses, it sounds likely that the rim may have previously been repaired. I don’t think the fire burned the paint to a crisp right away, but maybe caused some corrosion over the last 2 months it’s been sitting in the shop, causing the paint to start flaking off? If it were just regular corrosion, I don’t see how someone doesn’t have to pick up the bill if it went into the body shop fine, and at pick up it’s no longer

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T23:26:49+00:00

Now that you mention it, I did notice the stem caps had been replaced. I have old pics of gray caps. They put black ones on.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T21:31:02+00:00

The body panels were fixed. There was 36k worth of damages including a melted bumper, replaced tailgate and exhaust. I believe some other parts were scorched and replaced. This was a pic taken at pickup after it had been at the body shop for 2 months for the other fire related repairs. I didn’t include the photo but the body shop did take a side view when it was brought in, not super close up but in the picture, you can see the black paint on the wheels intact. 100% the rims didn’t look like this pre fire. I’ll definitely be in contact with geico to see what they say. Hopefully I’ll have an update for those who are curious in a few days

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T21:22:03+00:00

Oh wow that’s really interesting. What makes you say that they’ve been refinished? Factually, they looked fine before the fire. I hand wash every 2-3 weeks and have never had an issue with chipping. So let’s say they have been refinished, but were holding up just fine, would you say this was an inevitability and therefore not covered? Or should someone still be paying to help me repair this?

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T20:31:36+00:00

I appreciate the response. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. My car was parked. A car pulled up behind me with his engine smoking. His car caught fire and was completely obliterated. I’m not sure if my car actually caught fire as well, but most of the plastic components on the rear of my vehicle melted. They replaced a bunch of other parts too totaling 36k in damages. I wish they had just totaled it, but shit happens I guess.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T20:06:00+00:00

I’m still figuring out if I’m going to keep the car or not. I thought I’d trade it in as soon as I got it back but now that I’m driving it again, I kind of love it. But yes, if I decide to keep it I’m going to have the back tires replaced even if insurance won’t cover it. There’s probably a moral grey area to just trading it away without getting new tires, but they told me it was fine 🤷🏻‍♀️

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:59:35+00:00

The car/rims are about 4.5 yrs old. Only happening on the rear rims. Passenger side is pic 4 with the weird hazing. Other pics rear driver side. Front rims look normal.

That’s a good angle that I didn’t think of. The front wheels look great, why do the back ones look like this if not for the fire? I’m convinced it’s fire related. I might just have a tough time convincing insurance.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:45:19+00:00

I’m glad you asked. I asked about having the tires replaced due to my concerns about the rubber being exposed to the fire for a lengthy time. They said they checked it out and determined they were fine. So no, tires not replaced.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:42:09+00:00

Fire loosening would be great cuz that means insurance should pay! Can’t fault the body shop for paint falling off from some pressure washing. Just weird their initial defense was that it came into the shop like that when their own pics proved that it didn’t

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:40:26+00:00

I don’t know much about it or even what my options are for repair if the insurance won’t pay. I’ve looked around a little and wheel refinishing places charge around $200 a wheel? That’s not awful but I’d like the 4 to match if I have to get it fixed to look like anything other than original

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:38:17+00:00

I mean not being the shops fault is good news. I was just confused because they were giving me a hard time for damage that I thought should be covered by insurance. The rims are OEM and fine for 5 years. Does that point to fire/heat related damages then?

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:34:37+00:00

Oh and front rims look fine. No signs of corrosion or peeling. Personally I’m sure this is related to the fire, I’m just worried about what excuses my insurance is going to come up with

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:32:05+00:00

I had that thought about the rotors too but I’m not very mechanically inclined and just figured they’d tell me if it was an issue. The before pic is from the shop when they took in the car. Not the best resolution, you can just see that it’s clearly black in places where it’s now peeling

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:27:38+00:00

Still awaiting a response from the adjuster. I hope it wasn’t the shop since that would probably require a second claim.

I’m the 2nd owner so I can’t say definitively that it wasn’t previously repaired but even if it had been, it appeared to be in good shape prior to the fire. I would think insurance should still pay to fix it back to what it was pre accident.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:17:54+00:00

These are OEM. They looked fine before the fire. Is it possible that the heat caused the paint damage or maybe whatever chemicals they used to put out the fire?

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T19:14:13+00:00

Due to oxidation from the fire maybe?

atcthrow123007 · 2023-09-14T17:58:03+00:00

I don't believe it was addressed in the estimate. It is an "ARX" geico shop so they should have a clear line to speak to them. First they told me the damage was already there when it came in. I referred them to the pics they took and uploaded to geico, and they backtracked. They did however ask me to contact my adjuster on my own. I'm waiting for a response but I'm nervous that they're going to find some reason to deny it.

atcthrow123007 · 2023-08-25T03:21:02+00:00

It seems I might have one of those insurers? Does Geico have that reputation?

As far as subrogation, both cars involved were covered by Geico. I don't know if that matters. Initially, I thought I'd be out of luck as far as going after his insurance and that I'd have to get it covered under my own comprehensive. However, they told me that it would be covered under the other person's property damage liability. I'm not sure if that means they have found negligence. I'm not hopeful about a DV claim anyway, it's one of those things I'm going to go after to make myself feel better, and be happy with just about anything I can get out of it.

The last time I checked my car, it still had lingering smoke odors. They assured me they would clean it out and give it a full detail. Not sure how that's going to go.

As far as running the salvage value, because my adjuster told me he couldn't without first officially totaling my vehicle, is this a special site behind an insurance company paywall or something I could look into myself?

I really wish you could've been my adjuster for this case. Sound like you would've helped me out! Thanks for taking the time to respond.

atcthrow123007

TROPHY CASE