The Pothole Epidemic, Why So Many Drivers Need New York City Rim Repair

New York City is one of the most populous locations in the entire US with roads driven over by hundreds of thousands of people every day. When most people think of NYC, they see the glittering lights, towering buildings, and imagine a world where hover-cars would not be all that out of place. From the children on school buses to wealthy professionals driving to seven-figure jobs, everyone bumps and scrapes over the unbelievably rough New York City roads. While pothole repair must be left in the hands of local government, as drivers the best thing most people can do is try to avoid the really big ones and check your vehicle regularly for damaged rims. If you have a damaged rim or rims, you are going to need professional New York City rim repair from a company you can trust.

Where Do All These Potholes Come From?

Asphalt roads are fantastic. When poured right and properly maintained they are smooth, slightly shock-absorbing, and relatively simple to repair. However, there’s no denying that they require regular maintenance and sometimes complete-surfacing to retain the benefits they offer to drivers. Unmaintained, they form a rough and pitted surface dangerous enough to make drivers long for the simplicity of gravel and dirt roads which can at least be filled easily.

In New Your City specifically, the problem stems from decades of road work cutbacks to make room for lots of other things that aren’t preventing and fixing potholes. In the late 80s and early 90s, the city worked hard to keep up with and even overcome previous years of road neglect, achieving over 1,000 lane-miles of repairs each year. However, since about 1996, that number has significantly dropped off, and the crews have had trouble reaching even maintenance minimums resulting in an increasing number of potholes and rough roads with every year.

Unfortunately, neglecting real maintenance and resurfacing means the city is instead paying for an increasing number of pothole crews which is an insufficient break-fix solution to the growing problem of roads that are falling apart. Wear and tear on New York roads is significant and every year the city does not keep up, more potholes form that are repaired. It is become nearly impossible to avoid badly pitted roads, but you should do your best to dodge as many individual potholes as possible.

The Danger of Potholes

The epidemic of New York City potholes is more than just irritating. These holes do not just spill your coffee, shake your bones, and make an unpleasant scraping sound, they can seriously damage your car. When a vehicle goes over something rough, hard, and uneven like a pothole, there’s often a moment of ‘drop’ and then another of ‘bounce’ in which one wheel of the car falls with all the car’s great weight into the hole, then has to roll back out over the edge, usually at some velocity. As you can imagine, this is not at all good for your car and anything the pothole makes contact with or disrupts can be damaged by the interaction. In many ways, going over a pothole is like jumping a sharp curb with all the potential wheel and undercarriage damage that entails.

The Damage a Pothole Can Do

Potholes have the potential to damage multiple parts of your car which can cause compound damage if not taken care of quickly. Every time you bump over an unavoidable pothole, you should check your care carefully as soon as you are parked. The pothole could have easily scraped the side or undercarriage of your car with the broken edges. While scratches can be fairly easily repaired, you will want to make sure that any impact with your undercarriage has not punctured or broken anything important.

Of course, the most likely damage that can be caused by a pothole is to the tires, rims, and possibly even your axle. First check your tires for flats, punctures, and abrasions that could lead to flats or uneven wear later on. Next, take a close look at your rims which often take the brunt of a pothole’s impact. Rims are what hold your wheels rigid and pointing in the right direction. If one is bent, it will cause the wheel to wobble and throw your entire car out of balance. Finally, take a close look at your axle, which is the bar between the wheels. While it is rare, very bad potholes can damage this vital piece as well.

Seeking Professional Rim Repair

By far, the most common aftermath of a nasty pothole impact is a bent rim. Thousands of New Yorkers every year see this one kind of vehicle damage. The good news is that you do not have to get new ones even if your rims are decorative and it seems like they will never be the same again. All you need is a talented metal restoration expert who can not only straighten your rims back into shape but will also completely restore the decorative finish to bring your rims back to the same or better quality than they were before the most recent vicious pothole.
With the unavoidable frequency of potholes, it can be tempting to try and repair your rims yourself, especially if this particular form of damage has happened to you more than once in the recent past. For scrapes, scratches, and minor finish damage, you should be perfectly safe to do your own repairs but when it comes to a bend or significant dent, it’s important that you seek out a professional who can guarantee that the rims are perfectly straight and won’t throw out your car’s alignment with a nearly imperceptible wobble.

Where to Find New York City Rim Repair

There are dozens of auto repair shops in the city and surrounding area, but if you are on Long Island or have custom rims it would take an artist to restore, then you may want to consider TLC Metal Restoration. As a family owned and operated business, TLC is dedicated to doing whatever it takes to make a happy customer. If you just want a no-perks rim restoration, we will straighten your rim back out to perfect machine quality and hand it back. If you want your rims repaired then sandblast-stripped, completely refurbished, and finished in mirror-bright chrome, we are happy to do that for you as well. With experience in everything from metal artwork to simple door frames, we are confident that no matter what you are looking for in rim repair, we can handle it.

The pothole situation here in New York is not going away soon, but neither is TLC Metal Restoration. Anytime you need us, simply call or show up at our door with your damaged rims and we will be more than happy to get you back in ship-shape and driving safely on the road again. For more information about rim repairs or any other metal restoration or repair work, you might need, please contact TLC Metal today! We are always happy to lend a hand.