Every tire store/place/expert I ever went to told me its never worth the
bother to try to straighten steel/disc wheels. They'd rather unweld the
center from the rim on 2 piece wheels, and reweld a new rim. Most dents
(like to the lip of the rim on 2 of my Spit wheels) can't be repaired
because of the degree of distortion (you'll never get it back to its true
position, even with some magic Rim Press) WHich I would imagine this
machine is, a variant of the machine that makes new rims....
On a related note:
I looked into chroming the 2 piece welded disc wheels for my TR6. The best
job you can do is to seperate the wheel from the disc, chrome both, and
then re-weld. Not seperating before chroming lead to incomplete coverage
in the weld seam, and your chrome will evenually flake off. Theoretically
your could weld these narrow cracks, machine them smooth, and have them
chromed and balaced, which should take care of the flake/rust problem and
extend the life of the chroming. It would take delicate welding, and just
the right temp as to not warp the wheel.
They costed me the seperate/chrome/reassemble job at about $100 per wheel.
They told me I could have new outside rims of any width I wanted/the car
could handle, with no incremental in cost (this was a wheel shop out in LA)
PS
about the deluge of mail; I use the digest version of bc, and regular for
triumph, since it is lower volume, and when someone does the direct + list
respond "TO", I appreciate the more rapid response. What I am infering
from your mail is that you don't use the digest, hence you will get double
messages. I understand your request and will only respond to the list,
since there are probably others that feel as you do.
>>It seems most cars that have been driven hard (nobody drives LBC's
>>hard do they) end up with distorted rims. A friend in the tire business
>>says that there are machines that will straighten steel wheels, it is quite
>>inexpensive. He quoted me about $15 a wheel. Alloy wheels cannot be
>>straightened by these machines.
>
>WHERE? That seems unbeleveable! I hope it is true (Yeah yeah bad
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Scott R.Cypher Project Manager
Center for Organzational Performance Improvement
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,VA, 24061
SCypher@perform.vt.edu (703)231-2773
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