Oh man, those wheels are awesome. It looks like the left wheel is 1 piece, & the right is a 2 piece wheel....
Save them w/ a pro would be ideal. Those same guys scrapping them had not smoke cigs or drink/drug party right? 'cause the odds of death by police are far grater than repaired wheel failure.
Nope, both are 1 piece. The 15x6 wheel on the right are a little older than the 15x8.5 on the left. The center flange is a little larger, the spokes are a little more rounded, and the transition area between the polished and painted area is slightly wider. All very subtle differences, and you can't spot them when they're 133 inches away from each other and mounted on the truck!! Didn't want to spend a bunch of money, so I ran what I had laying around.
The main difference is the width. which has a different appearance on ET wheels. They seem to turn the front side different on shallow wheels. To the OP, If they are free, I'd certainly take them, but as some have mentioned, I'd consider either having Team III repair them, or not use the cracked wheels. If the crack was on the outer rim I'd feel fine having it done by any qualified welder. The wheels are still available from ET to match, so you could use the good pair, and then buy two that match. The Team III ET wheels are not cheap, but shipping the two wheels both ways, plus repair cost will most likely equal the price of two new wheels to match. Might be possible to eventually find a good used pair at a swap meet, etc., but no telling how lucky or how long that could take. I bought 4 ET spoke wheels at the swap meet here last year with tires for the price of one new wheel, $325. Not perfect, (little curb rash) but very decent shape.
Mount tires on them and use them as ROLLERS ONLY! for future projects. Or make some bitchen grinder stands out of them. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I think these are cheapies but are 15 x7 and are not uni lug Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
No - ONE good bump or pot hole and this wheel could break apart. The integrity of the wheel has been broken. Not worth the risk of your life or and those around you.
If they were mine I would fix them. I of course would not do this for a customer due to the liability if anything goes wrong. Plus my insurance guy would drop us if he saw this on an invoice.... Find a welding company and offer to pay cash and you will be fine. If you can't find anyone local you can ship them to my shop and I will weld them for you. I am a certified welder and I have welded miles and miles of Aluminum as well as some magnesium and titanium.... Plus a couple million miles of steel
Didn't you recently start another thread on the repairability of a 5 spoke? IMHO, the repair costs to that no name wheel would be higher than finding another wheel that wasn't cracked. Probably only worth the repair expense if the wheel is valuable or next to impossible to replace.
I got two other ones with cracks I will post tomorrow but they are 14s Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
They say, "If you jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and have your feet pointed perfectly straight and your head tilted back just right, you'll live." It's always the "just right" part that screws people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQyWku-X-xI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzR1AHLablg not endorsing any of these companies or the process.just thought it may help the original poster. Alloy rim repair and re-manufacturing has been around for a long time in the collision industry.
So you have 3 wheels that are cracked, all the same manufacturer? Maybe they are trying to tell you something?
Is you life worth a $ 150.00 broken fixed wheel ? I would toss them I'd look for a another good set. Gees man - your talking a cracked (possibly fixed) wheel going down the highway. How could you possibly drive with out thinking - I may have had it fixed but I hope it doesn't break. Good luck man.
You have 3 cracked wheels? Are you sourcing these cracked mags from a wrecking yard, recycler or tire shop's bent and broken wheel pile?
I know i posted a thread already on this i just now got a camera phone where i could get pictures and got the hamb app on my new phone so couldn't figure my old thread out. So sorry to whom is stressing over it. I know it's probably a bad idea but just threw it out there to people who possibly took the chance and did it and never had it crack again. . Thanks for all info.
I just had a wheel on one of our MB's repaired, no welding but it cost me $145.00, dealer cost. Had problems with sand cast wheels from years ago with the bead flange (outer portion of the wheel) cracking, I figured this was due to the fact that the wheels were not designed or mfg'd for radial tires. Repairs are common place on BMW's MB's Audi's, we have maybe 4 or 5 wheels that need help when we can get to them. In my case the fix was cheaper than replacement if I could find another.
once there cracked theyre nothin but junk, you can repair them but no matter how good the repair is IT WILL FAIL at some point, the weld will soften the hell out of the aluminium, you could get it tempered and heat treated again but that spot will always be damaged.
ALL old mag wheels should therefore be bead blasted, magna fluxed, X-rayed and finger printed for the present and future safety of fellow travelers everywhere.
i'm going to need this thread notarized... couldn't you just leave an extra car lengh to be safe? also, todays et is not yesterdays et.
Insurance co don't give a crap about anything other than the bottom line .if a wheel cost more than a quick weld job which way do you think they would go..JMHO
ask a real metalurgist!! ask for the complecated answer first, its real interesting and youll never repair weld another aluminium wheel again.
Here we go, cracks on the lip and barrel are repairable if not to large, ie 1/4 of the way around is not repairable. Also some of the wheels in the 60's to 80's were high pressure die cast, these wheels are not repairable do to the internal structure and alloy. Wheels that have cracks in the spokes or hub pad cannot be repaired safely, as the welding affects the heat treatment of the wheel. Since the wheel cannot be re-heattreated without excessive distortion the wheel should not be repaired. We have welded spokes and lug holes up and also plugged and welded lug holes, after re-drilling lug holes these wheels were sent for rotary fatigue testing, none of them passed the testing. Spokes re-cracked, generally in the heat effected zone and lugs loosened due to metal deformation. From this we assessed that these areas should not be repaired. Oh and yes I did weld up a wheel and completely re-heat treated it, it passed testing ,but was so distorted it could not be used as a road wheel. scott
Boom there you go! Looks like you have a really neat hose holder or 3. You'll be the coolest kid on the block, the envy of the neighborhood and everyone will want to be you.
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