[Shotimes] flat tire - tire wall damage?

[cmichaelo@optonline.net]

You've probably heard, or even experienced, this tire incident before:

I ran over a nasty long fat (4mm diameter!) nail along the side of a road.

By the time I got home the tire was completely flat.

I probably drove for 2-3miles with the tire totally flat (very slow though) .

The nail pierced right through the middle of the tire.

My questions are

1) Can this even be fixed?  The hole is pretty wide.

2) Did I damage the reinforcement of the sidewalls? Externally, the shape of the side wall looks fine, except some of the rubber has been worn off (where the rim pressed down on the collapsed wall).  But  there's no bulging or warping of the sidewall.

The tire is a Pilot Sport 235/40-18. Almost new.  This sucks.

Michael
94MTX,green,BOS+,Koni/Intrax,Baer,Corbeau
SHO items for sale: http://hometown.aol.com/cmichaelo/for_sale.html