Greg Michaels: The Story of the Flat Tire + Bent Rim

We were coming back from Greene on Sunday night after dinner at a friend's and everything was going well until we got on Hotel Rd. in Auburn. We normally use Hotel Rd. instead of Center St. to avoid traffic, I think we won't again, at least not until they fix the potholes. Sunday night Lynn ran over one, we didn't think much of it at the moment but not more than a half mile down the road we heard, "wonk, wonk, wonk" so we pulled over.

The tire was flat, worse yet, the rim was dented in two spots. Thank you to our old neighbor and friend Pat for coming to our rescue. Our jack sucks. It's an "X" type jack and the last time we tried using it, the car spit it out the side and the car fell to the ground. Also a big thanks to Stacy, Lynn's sister for coming by to help. Weirdly it was at the exactly at the same spot we got a flat back in November. That time we were driving Lynn's mother to vote.

So we get back home, it's like 10 pm and we look on-line for Saab wheels. It's so confusing, wondering if the price shown includes labor and the tire? Just the part? We put the idea of pricing to bed.

Monday, Memorial Day, I take the car over to Tire Warehouse. They look at the rim and tell us they don't fix alloy rims. Same story at V.I.P. and Pep Boys. They all have "a guy." Getting an alloy wheel fixed is like needing a medical specialist or so it seems. We call one "guy" who was referred to us and he told us it would be $120 to fix the wheel and he does work in Portland. We also called Pep Boys and their "guy" Dave quoted, $85 and he was in Cumberland, which is closer than Portland. Made an appointment for today at 10 am. Hoping the rim could be fixed. We were told a new rim for the Saab would be about $200.

Off to Cumberland to see Dave at Kwicksilver to have the rim looked at and hopefully fixed. We got a bit lost on the way down, but a nice guy at the Gulf station on Rt 100 by Copp Motors gave me the directions. We found the place. Dave took the wheel immediately, looked at it, noticed the dents and in about 30 minutes the wheel was fixed and done. He had it blow-torched, straightened or arced as it is a wheel, the tire mounted and balanced and he changed the tire on the car all for $85. For the extras and quickness I did tip and would highly recommend him. You can either reach Dave by calling Pep Boys, Yankee Ford or looking up Kwicksilver.

We were running a little behind after getting lost so we stopped at Cole Farms for lunch. A great little diner in Gray. If you're ever in that part of the state, Cole Farms is a great place to eat. It's simple food but might tasty.