[zavy70]

Took my rims in to get sandblasted so I can paint them... notice one rim has cracks about an inch long from two of the bolt holes.
Can it be repaired or is it junk?
Hate to get rid of it since it's original to the car.

[RamAirIV28]

trailer queen or driver?

[zavy70]

Show quality driver...
Was thinking of using the rim on the spare tire?

[Sirrotica]

V the cracks out and have someone that can weld, weld them on both sides. After welding you can smooth up the welds. I would leave the welds bare of paint for awhile to verify the cracks aren't starting again and after a reasonable amount of watching them you can paint them again

There is no need to throw the wheels away since the center is welded to the band from the factory. There is no temper to worry about since they are made from cold rolled steel.

If you want to reinforce them you can have someone in a machine shop make a 3/16" plate for the backside. I have seen it done on corvette rally wheels to make them stronger for dirt track cars before racing wheels were commonplace. Welding them is probably plenty strong enough for 99% of the people on this forum. The cracks may be caused from someone getting overzealous with an impact wrench at some point.

[zavy70]

Thanks for the feed back...
I'll get it repared and use it as a spare.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

V the cracks out and have someone that can weld, weld them on both sides. After welding you can smooth up the welds. I would leave the welds bare of paint for awhile to verify the cracks aren't starting again and after a reasonable amount of watching them you can paint them again

There is no need to throw the wheels away since the center is welded to the band from the factory. There is no temper to worry about since they are made from cold rolled steel.

Agree 1000%.

K

[GTO JOHN]

x2 on Brad's post. One of the most in depth and informative posts I have read lately.

[Andre]

I'm fairly certain that your life is more valuable than an original wheel on your car. So, I ask you this. If the wheel has started to develop cracks that you can see, wouldn't it be prudent to have it examined by a professional to find cracks that you can't see? Not sure what process they use now? Magnaflux? Black light? Sonogram?

I would also take the other wheels in and have them done at the same time for piece of mind.

Cheap insurance.

[steve v]

Wasn't there an article 10-15 years ago (by John Sawruck?) about the additional stress on a factory rim that was designed for bias tires & was now running radial tires? The lateral force on the rim is much higher w/a radial tire & IIRC he said the stock wheels were unsafe to use with modern radials.

While rim failure is rare on a street driven show car I gotta agree with Andre, check your other rims & don't take a chance with them.

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by steve v

Wasn't there an article 10-15 years ago (by John Sawruck?) about the additional stress on a factory rim that was designed for bias tires & was now running radial tires? The lateral force on the rim is much higher w/a radial tire & IIRC he said the stock wheels were unsafe to use with modern radials.

While rim failure is rare on a street driven show car I gotta agree with Andre, check your other rims & don't take a chance with them.

Agreed.

Yes, I think there was. It was topic at a GTOAA meeting too a while back.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by steve v

Wasn't there an article 10-15 years ago (by John Sawruck?) about the additional stress on a factory rim that was designed for bias tires & was now running radial tires? The lateral force on the rim is much higher w/a radial tire & IIRC he said the stock wheels were unsafe to use with modern radials.

Originally Posted by Old Blue 66

Agreed.

Yes, I think there was. It was topic at a GTOAA meeting too a while back.

Yes - My perception was that the majority of folks believed John was over-reacting and being alarmist.

K

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Yes - My perception was that the majority of folks believed John was over-reacting and being alarmist.

K

...of course that does not make his opinion wrong.

That being said the factory did indeed have heavier rims for severe (read: police) duty. Chevy rims are pretty flimsy, enough that on COPO cars they used Olds rims stamped with a Chevy part number.

I would be more concerned about crappy Chinese bearings.

[b-man]

Hang it on the wall in your garage, it's now a display piece.

Buy another one that's not cracked.

[400 4spd.]

Originally Posted by b-man

Hang it on the wall in your garage, it's now a display piece.

That's exactly what I did with a Rally I. I painted it, put a non-correct trim ring on it and a center cap. But I also have lots of extras.

[GT182]

Originally Posted by b-man

Hang it on the wall in your garage, it's now a display piece.

Buy another one that's not cracked.

I'd do the same. No original rim that's cracked is worth saving only to you and your car bodily harm down the road.

Use it to hang your air hose or garden hose on it. Or as a base stand for a buffer or grinder.

[Sirrotica]

Keith, I believe that also, because in the early 70s when you could order either radial or bias belted tires there was no difference in wheel options. While the radials do have a higher traction coefficient it isn't that high of a percentage to exceed the design ratings of the wheels.

If you autocrossed your vehicle 50 times a year then maybe after severe treatment week after week you could see a design deficiency. BTW, when a wheel fails due to side loading the raised area surrounding the outside of the lugs is where they fail not around the lug holes. This is caused by the dies they are formed over make this the tightest bend and the thinnest portion of the center section making that portion the failure point. Being around dirt track most of my life I have seen multiple factory wheel failures due to side loading. As I said before the cracks on the OPs wheel are most likely started by a inept tire jockey and a over torqued wheel stud and nut.

I myself took 2 1973 15X7 honeycomb wheels and removed the polycast centers and used them for 5 years no modifications to increase strength, just as GM constructed them on the outside (Right) wheels on my dirt track 67 GTO and my 69 GP stock cars with no failures. Anyone that follows dirt track racing knows the RF takes the most side loading followed by the RR wheels. As I said 99% of the people on this forum will never stress a wheel like I did in that racing application, leading me to believe a properly welded wheel would be fine for it's intended usage no matter what tire design was used with it. There are very few members on PY that ever race any type of events that would cause enough severe side loading of any wheel to put it in a failure mode. The picture below shows how a honeycomb looks with the polycast portion removed on my 69 SJ GP, these are the wheels run for 5 years in severe side loading situations without any failures. I ran them on my 67 GTO pictured in my signature for 2 years before building the GP. They are on the right side so they aren't visible in this picture.

The Cragar S/S wheels with the cast centers welded to cold rolled rims bands are a lot more likely to break in a side loading incident than a stock rally I wheel, even if it was repaired IMO. I have seen these wheels fail in street duty and have never liked the way Cragar assembled them. Yet thousands of cars run them on the street every day with no cares whatsoever.

[Sirrotica]

You guys seem prone to throw out serviceable parts, and that's your prerogative.

Myself I'd weld the cracks and run it, and never give it a thought. If anyone is worried about anymore cracks that may be there, heating the metal up with a torch in the suspect area will expand the metal and show cracks not visible without heat applied. I wouldn't worry about magnaflux etc. This is how people found suspect weak areas before there was such things as magnaflux or dye crack detection on materials that wouldn't become brittle by heating such as cold roll steel.

I guess that makes the difference between a mechanic and a parts changer. A mechanic can repair almost anything, a parts changer can't do anything but replace parts. They don't have the background to know what can be repaired or rebuilt. To quote Harry Callahan, "A man has to know his limitations."..........................

Anyone that thinks that bent or cracked wheels should be discarded, look at how many wheel repair services are shown in a quick Google search. They do bent cracked and out of round wheel repair for a fraction of new price.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bent...client=firefox




OP you asked for opinions and you have plenty of them, you have to decide what works for you.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

You guys seem prone to throw out serviceable parts, and that's your prerogative.

Myself I'd weld the cracks and run it, and never give it a thought. If anyone is worried about anymore cracks that may be there, heating the metal up with a torch in the suspect area will expand the metal and show cracks not visible without heat applied. I wouldn't worry about magnaflux etc. This is how people found suspect weak areas before there was such things as magnaflux or dye crack detection on materials that wouldn't become brittle by heating such as cold roll steel.

I guess that makes the difference between a mechanic and a parts changer. A mechanic can repair almost anything, a parts changer can't do anything but replace parts. They don't have the background to know what can be repaired or rebuilt. To quote Harry Callahan, "A man has to know his limitations."..........................

Anyone that thinks that bent or cracked wheels should be discarded, look at how many wheel repair services are shown in a quick Google search. They do bent cracked and out of round wheel repair for a fraction of new price.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bent...client=firefox




OP you asked for opinions and you have plenty of them, you have to decide what works for you.

The arrogant part of your post is here in bold.

None of the members giving their opinions in this thread needed to be put down this way.

Brad, I fully respect your knowledge and experience in the automotive field but you don't know enough about my mechanical background or that of the others here with differing opinions to pass judgement, totally uncalled for and elicited the unkind response from 400 4spd.

I won't list my mechanical experience or qualifications here, but I'll say that in my eyes it's more prudent to replace rather than repair since these wheels are easily obtained. Doesn't mean I couldn't repair it myself, I just see that it's not the best road to take in my opinion.

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by b-man

The arrogant part of your post is here in bold.

None of the members giving their opinions in this thread needed to be put down this way.

Brad, I fully respect your knowledge and experience in the automotive field but you don't know enough about my mechanical background or that of the others here with differing opinions to pass judgement, totally uncalled for and elicited the unkind response from 400 4spd.

I won't list my mechanical experience or qualifications here, but I'll say that in my eyes it's more prudent to replace rather than repair since these wheels are easily obtained. Doesn't mean I couldn't repair it myself, I just see that it's not the best road to take in my opinion.

Bart, if you take offense at that paragraph then your pretty thin skinned. No one was put down. The reference was made to people that replace rather than repair things and I refer to them as parts changers, as did my best teacher, my father. No one was named personally and if someone identifies themselves as a parts changer rather than a mechanic, how is that my fault? If they aspire to be more than a parts changer then there's always repair of parts as an avenue to advance themselves, save money, and keep their car original. I did also say that it's anyone's prerogative to throw parts away rather than repair them, however that wasn't what the original question was from the OP.

The original question was asked if the rim was junk. NO it's not junk, and the man asked if it could be repaired as it was the original wheel that came with the car. I was one of the first to respond and got a thanks and a nice attaboy from another member. The car only came with 5 original wheels, replacing them makes it non original. As has been said countless times here on PY "it's only original once." IMO that is what the OP wanted to do and wondered if it was indeed possible, and yes it is totally possible. Then I'm contrdicted by a bunch that come on here and tell him that he should replace it when that isn't what he proposed initially, he wanted to keep the original wheel.

I also listed a link to many wheel repair services to show yes indeed it's not a fallacy that wheels can be repaired safely as well as monetarily a sound decision because there are companies that indeed do nothing but wheel repair. If the OP didn't feel comfortable repairing it himself then there are companies he could send it to for repair outlined in that link I posted. If that's you definition of arrogance and then someone personally attacks me in a public forum, it is what it is. As far as I'm concerned I'm over it, I get admonished for being "arrogant" and the other guy goes away with nothing. Anyone that felt "put down", that was never my intention.

I don't pay a penny for the use of PY and it's a privilege to be able to post here. I try to pay back some of the free usage by answering members questions to the best of my abilities. I may re-think offering my experience to the people on here because it seems to be more trouble than it's worth. I guess it will all even out in the end.

PEACE...........

[400 4spd.]

Are you an arrogant know-it-all ass all of the time?