Tire machine trick to not scratch painted wheels?

[gearhead1]

Yes just as others mentioned a new rim clamp style is best. The vertical post machines such as Coats 40-40 does not touch the rim when breaking the bead, but they clamp the rim with a cone in the center. Center clamp is not an issue with a center cap to cover it. The 30-30 and earlier have a design that does clamp the rim, which requires the plastic cover.

Just find a place that knows what they're doing, that knows what they can do with the equipment they have.

 

[shampoop]

Silicone spray is made for lubricating and conditioning rubber......how is that not the right stuff? We are a Honda dealership so we have plenty of Pro Honda silicone spray, why go to Napa?

We have a coats tire machine but we still hand mount all tires so I guess we are wierd......

From my experience good tire lubes have a high film strength. Silicone spray does not. Think gear oil vs wd-40.

The only 2 i've used that I liked were

#1 Some thick blue/purple stuff that very closely resembled dish soap but spread easier, was designed to be able to be diluted but we never did.

#2 The "euro" paste, a white paste in a bucket that works great when newer. If it doesn't get used quickly it will dry up if left uncovered regularly. Not a problem anywhere that actually does a lot of tire changes.

Those coats 40-40 machines should only ever be used on either steel wheels, or if you have the correct attatchment with the plastic piece, older aluminum wheels that still had large sidewalls. EVEN then, it has a tendancy to rip beads to some degree, so for anything other than junk tires like say a winter tire changeover, I would never use one.

Any quality shop will have quality machines and people who know to use them. Shops that scratch wheels don't. Find a quality shop.

 

[Nickmm]

As everyone mentioned, that shop is probably dated. Its a local tire store that seems to have a lot of business, but figure where I am at. Most people own trucks, and if you see any kind of nice car on the road its probably not modified and probably doesn't have tires like this. Just not very common. We have a few people like that, but not many. So like usual I'll be on my own on this one. This is a shop with tire in their name, and they are large, just not very careful, and probably high volume. I shouldn't have paid them, to be honest. Oh well.

As well, my bottle of dawn+water is pretty nice. I use it for installing windows in Peterbuilts and Kennys. Keeps the rubber from slicing up. I am guessing that the napa stuff (or even K*Y :-D) would work better, but dawn is a pretty useful all-around lube/degreaser.

 

[theoldwizard1]

From my experience good tire lubes have a high film strength. Silicone spray does not. Think gear oil vs wd-40.

Original Murphy's Oil Soap paste !

 

[WhiffySpark]

Yes just as others mentioned a new rim clamp style is best. The vertical post machines such as Coats 40-40 does not touch the rim when breaking the bead, but they clamp the rim with a cone in the center. Center clamp is not an issue with a center cap to cover it. The 30-30 and earlier have a design that does clamp the rim, which requires the plastic cover.

Just find a place that knows what they're doing, that knows what they can do with the equipment they have.

This needs to be cleared up

This is what a no touch machine is. You still have to use spoons to take the tire off. That's where most scratches come from. Personally I can do it with any machine it doesn't make a difference to me.

And scratches don't come from breaking beads. Only inpatient idiots do that

 

[fsae0607]

This needs to be cleared up

This is what a no touch machine is. You still have to use spoons to take the tire off. That's where most scratches come from. Personally I can do it with any machine it doesn't make a difference to me.

And scratches don't come from breaking beads. Only inpatient idiots do that

Agreed. When I worked at Costco Tires we would purchase the plastic iron protectors. If we didn't have any, you could substitute a folded up rag where the iron contacted the rim when dismounting. You also had to clamp the rim from the outside, so the claws wouldn't mar up the rim. Finally, you must adjust the shoe using the knob by the shoe lockdown lever to move the shoe away form the rim. This is where the "touchless" comes from.

It was about technique and taking your time. Whenever people brought in or had nice aftermarket wheels for us to service, we would always quote them a longer wait time, explaining that we would take our time to not scratch their wheels and to have one of our experienced tire guys work on their car. Every customer understood this. No excuse for scratching wheels with a modern "Euro-style touchless" machine.

 

[Darius6t9]

Find a shop that has the hunter auto34 tire machine. I kid you not. I love this machine. It does not touch the face of the rim at all. If you are seriously worried about your rims getting scratched then that is the machine you want for it. Find a shop with that one. Used one for 3 years. Even and idiot couldn't scratch the face of the rim with this machine.

 

[kiatech]

First shop I worked at had a Corghi Master Code. THAT was the cats meow.