Alloy welding/refurbishment

Frank the Manc

hit a pot hole over the weekend and when i took the wheel & tyre off to inspect i was greeted by the following sight:



[IMG]http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6320/35117948hs2.jpg[/IMG anyone know of a good wheel specialist in the south east, i know there is a lad in Wellington Bridge and the wheel doctor in Tipp, anyone any experiences or advice. thanks[/img]

Tipsy Mac

To be honest I doubt that fracture could ever be safely fixed, you will have to replace the alloy.

victor1

If not too far away - try ballyneety tyres outside limerick, john collins - if its possible to salvage the alloy he's yerman, about 70/80 yo yo's i reckon

Paddy001

It could be fixed I've seen wheels fixed that had chunks missing and they cut out a piece from another wheel and welded it in!

Frank the Manc

victor1 wrote: »

If not too far away - try ballyneety tyres outside limerick, john collins - if its possible to salvage the alloy he's yerman, about 70/80 yo yo's i reckon

sound for that, id say ill try the wheel doctor, hes a bit closer, fired him an email anyways to see what the craic is.

Brabus

Frank the Manc wrote: »

hit a pot hole over the weekend and when i took the wheel & tyre off to inspect i was greeted by the following sight:



[IMG]http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6320/35117948hs2.jpg[/IMG anyone know of a good wheel specialist in the south east, i know there is a lad in Wellington Bridge and the wheel doctor in Tipp, anyone any experiences or advice. thanks[/img]

In the south-east, heres a suggestion;
http://www.daltontyres.ie/alloyrepairs.asp South Tipp.

Also if your willing to travel;
www.wefixalloywheels.com In Bray.

Frank the Manc

thanks for the replies, ended up goin to the wheeldoctor in tipp town, sound fella, welded both cracks for €75, done in a hour. you want to see some of the alloys he was repairing, chunks half the size of your fist, but i dont know how they would balance though with all that weld
anyways heres what he did for me, didnt get a pic before i got the tyre on

gofaster_s13

Looks like he only welded over the crack !!

GreeBo

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

Looks like he only welded over the crack !!

+1
and he nicked your euro!

victor1

`could just be picture but dont think he did a particulairly good job?

Alun

victor1 wrote: »

`could just be picture but dont think he did a particulairly good job?

I was going to say that too, I don't think I'd be driving on that wheel with any level of confidence to be honest. I've seen professionally done alloy repairs in the past, and you wouldn't be able to see where it was repaired at all.

And, OP, could you maybe resize those photos to a reasonable size, say 800x600 or thereabouts?

Paddy001

Well all they would do is weld it up, and polish off the excess weld with a grinder to bring it level with the wheel again, so it should actually be a way stronger weld like that

eringobragh

The Weld doesn't loonk the most discreet maybe a pic with the whole wheel would help

Alun wrote: »

And, OP, could you maybe resize those photos to a reasonable size, say 800x600 or thereabouts?

X2 Microsoft Image Resizer:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe

Masada

Thats actually a decent weld, alloy is pretty difficult to weld and that job looks clean, it needs to be ground down though, its neat enough that with a grinder, some p38 and some time, you'd never even know it was there.,

miceal

It could have been ground down a bit better.

But sure as long as the wheel goes around and you have no more problems with it who cares

gofaster_s13

miceal wrote: »

It could have been ground down a bit better.

But sure as long as the wheel goes around and you have no more problems with it who cares

The wheel would go around all right until some day on the motorway it breaks up at 80mph which could be unpleasant to say the least. the proper way to weld an alloy wheel is to cut/grind the wheel right back, refill the removed material with weld and dress/finish in a lathe and if being done really properly the wheel should be x-rayed to check the integrity of the wheel and the repair, you threw 75euro away and were left with a poor looking possibly unsafe repair.

killwill

I have gotten a couple of wheels repaired by Wheeldoctor before and could not fault him at all. Look @ www.driver.ie for references. Results speak for themselves. As far as I know the weld is always left on the outside of the wheel for extra strenght and he cuts a V out of the crack for proper penetration and grinds back flush on the inside. My wheels were easily balanced afterwards too.

ownsel

killwill wrote: »

I have gotten a couple of wheels repaired by Wheeldoctor before and could not fault him at all. Look @ www.driver.ie for references. Results speak for themselves. As far as I know the weld is always left on the outside of the wheel for extra strenght and he cuts a V out of the crack for proper penetration and grinds back flush on the inside. My wheels were easily balanced afterwards too.

+1
I've had some work done by Anthony (The Wheeldoctor) before and I couldn't rate him highly enough. He knows what he's at believe me.

Paddy001 wrote: »

Well all they would do is weld it up, and polish off the excess weld with a grinder to bring it level with the wheel again, so it should actually be a way stronger weld like that

I have to agree the weld would be much stronger as it is and if it is not interfering with anything I'd leave well enough alone and you shouldn't have any probs at all.

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

The wheel would go around all right until some day on the motorway it breaks up at 80mph which could be unpleasant to say the least. the proper way to weld an alloy wheel is to cut/grind the wheel right back, refill the removed material with weld and dress/finish in a lathe and if being done really properly the wheel should be x-rayed to check the integrity of the wheel and the repair, you threw 75euro away and were left with a poor looking possibly unsafe repair.

I can't say i agree with you. That wheel isn't gonna break man. Did you not look at the size of the crack in the first pic with the €1 coin? It just looks bad because the picture is so blown up. The crack is only small and the welding looks bloody good to me as it hasn't even been dressed. Who's going to see it where it is any way? To repair a wheel like you’re talking about above would cost more than a new wheel in most cases so I don't think it would be economic unless they were very expensive rims like split BBS's or the like.

CrowdedHouse

Rather you driving on it than me OP

I put more value on my life than the price of a wheel.

Paddy001

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Rather you driving on it than me OP

I put more value on my life than the price of a wheel.

Chances are unless you bought your wheels new, yours have been repaired. I work in a tyre centre and there are plenty of wheels come in that have been fixed, and some more than once. No harm at all really, a new one could break too you know if it wasn't welded properly or weak welds or whatever

10-10-20

Guys, a weld only adds strength to a wheel when it's done properly. Otherwise it may well weaken it. I have to agree with the poster who said that the wheel should be xray'd during and after the process as that's the only way to tell whether it has been fixed correctly.
Once complete, it does need to be placed back on a lathe and then rebalanced professionally.

I've repaired rims a number of times, but only where there has been a dent, not a crack, added.
I would still not class the wheel as 'safe' now, any repairs to parts such as these will weaken the structure of the wheel!

Mac 3

ownsel wrote: »

+1
I've had some work done by Anthony (The Wheeldoctor) before and I couldn't rate him highly enough. He knows what he's at believe me.

+1,have no complaints whatsover. A Gentleman to deal with and if I needed more work carried out on my alloys, I'd go back to him in the morning.

Frank the Manc

the weld is on the inside lip of the wheel so there is no need to gind it down as it wont be the least bit visible from the outside.

from the amount of alloys he had in the shop id say that my repair was easily the handiest one there, there were some rims that were in a far worse state and to see the before and after job you wouldnt believe it.

ive heard nothing only good about the wheel doctor and hes doin enough work to perfect it.

here are the resized pics for those who said it was a bad job.

mk2rsman

I have used the wheel doctor myself on a few occasions and I must say that his work is excellent. I have seen him repairing wheels and his welding is first class he`s welded bigger cracks than that on my wheels and never had a problem with them they balanced and run perfectly. I would recommend him to anyone down to earth sound bloke

saww

does any1 know where i could get a replacement alloy for my 306? look at the picture 17'' wolfrace 6 spoke