Grrr! So this happened last Saturday, the day before the Scoobies for Boobies cruise...
Hoped it could be repaired, took it to a tyre shop which will at this stage remain nameless. Unfortunately they called later in the week saying it was too close to the edge to be repaired and would need a new tyre. Bummer. Thought I'd better do at least a whole axle, so asked for a price for two new tyres. They quoted Bridgestone RE003s, did a quick look on here and elsewhere on the interwebz and found they were pretty decent. Rang around a few other places to make sure their pricing was good and discovered the Bridgestone 4 for 3 offer, so then I thought bugger it, do all 4. Fair enough.
But here's where it really gets annoying...asked them to not use a rattle gun (aluminium lug nuts) and be careful with the custom paint job...get it home with the new rubber and inspect the wheels and bingo...
Luckily when Owen at Meltham's painted them for me, I got him to give me a pot of touch up paint. They don't look too bad now, but I know it's there.
Worst part is when I rang the place and was told..."yeah we noticed the custom paint job wasn't very good....lots of touch ups here and there". When I politely informed him he was talking rubbish, I was told, "I can assure you we know far more about rims than you do"...end result was that the owner will be calling me on Tuesday when he gets in. We'll see how that goes....