Well, that sure didn't work.
So, trying to weld the rim on the tire failed, epically. It was flat in a couple of days.
So, we contacted the shop, and the guy told me that he did some looking, and if he got me one of the rims (this is for a 13 year old vehicle where the rims are prone to defect) from his suppliers, that it would be expensive. However, if I got one from eBay, he would mount it for free. He's prohibited from buying parts on eBay. Makes sense.
Okay, my wife is wizard on eBay, how hard can it be?
Well, we searched around, and found a nice one out of St. Louis. We discussed it for a few minutes, and then clicked "Buy It Now" (it was in a no-bid store "auction".) But, between us pulling up the wheel rim and the decision to buy, the item had been snatched out from under us.
So, we started the search again, found a tire that looked exactly like what we wanted, and while Cora pointed out to me the big red writing about it being a stock photo and the that actual item had a different finish, we bought the item.
We then needed to run out pick up our Chinese food order, but ran into a neighbor who had her toddler and new born in the elevator. Her CO2 alarm was going off, her husband wasn't home, and she was going to try to get a ladder, and climb all 4'11" of her up the ladder with a crying newborn and a freaked out toddler to get to the alarm.
We opted to be decent humans, and I got the ladder and took down the CO2 alarm for her. (In other news, do you know that CO2 alarms have a built in expiration date of 7 or 10 years, depending upon the model? Guess how old our condos are? 7 years! Ours died between then and now and chirped it's ever-loving brains out while it was doing it. Thankfully NOT at 2am.) We got back with the Chinese food, and thank General Tso, it was warm and delicious.
This was a Wednesday evening and I was taking spring break off with The Daughter. I had no hope that this freakin' wheel rim, shipping from a mystery location somewhere in the United States, would remotely be there in time for us to do anything with it while I was still out.
But then, a small miracle occurred. Cora, checked the shipping information, and asked, "Do you know where 'Fort Wayne, IN' is?"
Holy Smokes! That's just a couple hours drive from Chicago.
And then Thursday morning, it was heading to Chicago.
And Friday morning, it was out for delivery.
So, maybe 36 hours after ordering it, the rim arrived, and I opened it. And that's when I realized the slight mistake I made. The picture was of a chromed version of the rim, like I have, but the rim they shipped was a silver flecked paint, like I ordered. That explains why it was $100 cheaper than others I'd seen.
Tired of having to pump up the tire every time I wanted to drive my car, I declared, "Close enough" and we took the rim to Car-X and got it mounted. (While we were waiting, we took a walk around to kill time. We got back, and 2 minutes later, there was a down pour! Dodged that bullet!)
So, here's the car. The rims are different, but not too bad. And the chrome one would have looked off, too, since it would have been clean also. There one dent, between the back tire and the tail light. For a 2002, not bad looking.
And once I grunge up that rim, it should be less noticeable. And, if I need to replace the other rims…
I can tell you, it's been a relief not to have to run down to the car 10 minutes before you need to leave to inflate the tire. It's the simple things in life, sometimes.
