I was driving dowtown last night going thru an intersection where the cheap townies (dpw) used a cut off saw to make the crosswalks on our paved streets look like they are brick crosswalks. They acheived the "fake brick crosswalk look" by cutting grooves into the pavement and then painting the cross walks red. The grooves just happen to be wide enough to conceal an alternator bolt that had fallen off of some poor shlep's vehicle. My right front tire made contact with the bolt sending bouncing into the path of my right rear tire. It went straight in thru the tread and punctured thru my rim on the other side. At first of course I didn't see the rim damage. I just assumed it was a large bolt, and figured the hubby would be able to patch it after I got home on my donut spare. Hubby came by with the truck to pick up the tire and take it back to our garage while I went on my way to the auto parts store to finish picking up parts for the customer's car we had sitting on the lift at home.
When I got back to the garage he told me he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he was able to patch the tire. The bad news however was demonstrated by his impression of trying to inflate the tire for me. At first I thought the hissing air was a bad valve stem. Then he turned the rim over and showed me the 2 gaping gashes on the inside of the rim were the bolt had punctured thru the aluminum. Granted these are just factory rims, but still it sucked.
I attached the pictures according to the instructions, however if they aren't here when this posts, I have successfully posted them in the 1999+ gallery. Does anyone know if the two punctures can be heli-arc'd without causing structural damage to the rim? If the rim is toast, does anyone have any GT rims for sale????
When I got back to the garage he told me he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he was able to patch the tire. The bad news however was demonstrated by his impression of trying to inflate the tire for me. At first I thought the hissing air was a bad valve stem. Then he turned the rim over and showed me the 2 gaping gashes on the inside of the rim were the bolt had punctured thru the aluminum. Granted these are just factory rims, but still it sucked.
I attached the pictures according to the instructions, however if they aren't here when this posts, I have successfully posted them in the 1999+ gallery. Does anyone know if the two punctures can be heli-arc'd without causing structural damage to the rim? If the rim is toast, does anyone have any GT rims for sale????