i bought a set of 200s style wheels 15x7 fronts and 15x8.5 rears...i bead blasted and painted the fronts, no issues, but the 8.5 rears seemed to have small areas of corrosion approx 1/4" long on the backside of the wheel right behind where the flat machining for the wheel lug nut washer sits in. see pics of the wheel(s) after blasting. my question is with an area this thinly machined from the factory ( the corrosion was very hard to see before the blasting ), would this be considered a "cosmetic" repair or should the wheel be heated up, say in a bbq at a steady temp and tig welded ? My father in law tigs aluminum parts for his aircraft all the time and suggested the pre-heating. If the pre heating is required, should I make up a torque plate of sorts out of say 1/4 mild steel and bolt it to the wheel to keep the surface as flat as possible? My aluminum welding / repair experience is limited, never had to repair a wheel before...any info would be greatly appreciated. the wheels are going onto my 55 Dodge truck, Dakota frame, 8 3/4" diff, 440 automatic....not a race car. shine on me , o gods of aluminum wheel advice .......
Id let him tig them ,Or Jb weld Lug nur washer should hide that ,Id run them but check them frequently ,
If I am understanding the pictures correctly; those voids were from 2 machining operations on opposite sides? If so, then how can you add weld material without changing the machined surfaces? I guess the backside machining is for the center cap, and if so, then weld the back side and notch the caps to clear the welds? The welds would just eliminate a place for a crack to start IMO. I'm not a tig welder, but I would not want to BBQ it, as it's sort of a non structural weld...and a small weld at that.
good info so far guys, thanks....I still have to check the fit of the rim on the axle/ drum and verify the spacing inside, the surfaces inside are machined for clearance, I assume someone may have run the wide wheel on the front of a vehicle, thus requiring clearance for the snout of a hub to clear, but since this is on my rear , i doubt the weld would be in the way of a flat contact surface mount. i can see at least two cracks in the same area at the edge of the washer mount surface on one rim, and in three places on the other rim....i can't see the structure being affected.
Looks like someone went nutz with the depth of the lugnut chamfer tool at the factory where they machined those.... YIKES!
The problem is not the lug nut area spot facing which looks to be about standard for a 200S but the fact that the hub register has been enlarged and bored deep enough that it has intersected with the lug register. If you don't need the deep bore on the rear wheels I would run a bead around the bottom of the hub register to restore what was there before or at least close up the voids. What you have now are not cracks but a simple lack of material in that area. The problem is that cracks might propagate from those openings now that they are there. Roo
that is what I was thinking Roo, that the rest of the material would start to weaken or crack from the voids. I'm surprised that they didn't crack previously from the thin material at this location....I am glad I cleaned them off, I was tempted to just run them as is , but the color was not what my minds's eye had in mind for the project. I'll update after the welding.
The Jalopy Journal
