I have a smoothie steel rim on my roadster that I have been running for years and 20k miles. I started to get a vibration in the front end, figured it was a tire going bad so I bought a new set of tires. Well, I still had the vibration so I checked the run out and the rim was real bad. I don't remember hitting anything so when I looked at it close, I could see where the center had moved. Checked the other wheel and noticed the center was welded in four places. The shaky wheel wasn't welded so I hammered it back and tack welded the center and did a run out and it was true so I finished welding it but I haven't had it out for a test run. How that rim ever got out of the factory without being welded is something.
No shit he's lucky... How about the liability for the company that sold the rim? wowzers!! Just goes to show you that just because you bought it...don't mean its any good.
my dad had a buddy in his hotrod club who had a set of cragers and the center came out of the rim and wrote the car off, you are one lucky guy thats for sure!
I have seen the rivets break and have the center come out of a tractor wheel. I was only going 2mph so no issue we pressed it back in and welded it. never have I seen a car wheel do that. count your blessings.
20,000 miles??????????????????????? Youre Guardian Angel deserves a nice vacation. And a drink! I had the hub separate on a 65 Chevy pickup rim once and it got hairy fast. That was due to a non-car friend tightening the wheel though and it took a couple of weeks. Go across, not around kinda thing.
I guess they will still balance o.k., but when I went down the road, you could see the tread moving back and forth at least a half inch. I don't think pics would show much as the center moved about a 1/32 of an inch which was pretty hard to see without a magnifier glass. But I do count this as a blessing for sure. I see that it has happened to a lot of people, I know that I will look at rims a lot closer from now on. Thanks for all the comments guys.
The newer tire machines grip the rim, not the hub hole don't they? It's likely this unwelded wheel never would have got past the tire machine if an old machine was used!!! Buy a few lottery tickets while your luck is running this good!!!
my buddy had this happen on his chevelle with a new set of cragers, the right rear rim came completely off during an autocross, but the center was still on the car. it was never welded either. everyone, go crawl under your car and make sure your wheels are welded.
Its amazing you were able to travel on the Missouri highways without it coming apart. Those highways are like a battle field.
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