Wheel straightening?

I've got a set of Ronal Turbos for the CRX. They look great on the face, but I just discovered that all of them have some sort of damage to the barrel. A couple of dramatic flat spots on the back side.

Any experiences to share with wheel re-rounding companies?

I have a local place I took two wheels two, they charge 100 per wheel to fix, one wheel needed fixed the other one didn't so they only charged me for one. Point is, they are real, do a great service, and can fix quality wheel for way less than replacing them. This was for BMW 16x7 inch wheels. I think BBS manufacture originally so pricey to replace but "soft metal" according to my local bmw tech. hope that helps. I know I'm not in your area but shops that can do it, can almost work magic, it seems like.

There are some really good companies, I use Cliff Jacobs because they are not far from me and do an excellent job.

10 pound sledge. I call it Sir Beats-A-Lot.

In reply to Knurled:

Rubber mallet?

Depends on how much you enjoy getting bored.

Hit the sucker, hard. It took a lot of force to bend it, it is going to take a lot of force to un-bend it.

IME, a straightened wheel is never as good as a never-bent wheel. They usually need a lot of weight to balance, and they've been weakened so they aren't good for track any more. Since it costs $100-150 per wheel to straighten them, IMHO it really only makes sense to straighten a wheel that would cost $300+ to replace. So I'd do it for bent expensive OEM wheels that I can't find cheap takeoff replacements for, but that's about it.

In reply to Knurled:

Agreed. I've beaten a few aluminum wheels back. A rubber mallet is about as good as an oversized inflatable hammer. Take the tire off, set up a few 2x4s and whack at it. So far I've been kinda surprised at how well it gets back to a round shape. You can mount it back on the hub and spin it to check for roundness.

If they have serious barrel damage, it might be a good idea to mount them on a balancer and spin them to check for lateral runout.

WildScotsRacing wrote: If they have serious barrel damage, it might be a good idea to mount them on a balancer and spin them to check for lateral runout.

Thats how i do it, then whack until good. I straightened a pretty nasty trailer wheel last week instead of buying a new one. Kept tossing on balancer until it ran true

I have a friend , now retired, that used to run a wheel repair business. He always said that using a hammer to straighten an alloy wheel was a terrible idea and led to wheels that were hard to balance and prone to more problems including cracking. I do realize that he had a vested interest in his own methods, but I think he was right in most cases. He also brought back some damaged wheels that I would have called junk.

He used a special jig with a hand pump hydraulic press and a few run out gauges to repair the typical damage to the inboard flanges. Most alloy wheels could be as good as new in five minutes.

I found out about the damage when I put the wheels on the balancer, actually. Runout isn't all that bad.

I got a good enough deal on these wheels that they're probably worth trying to fix. They're for street use on a 2000 lb car, so I don't think strength is going to be a problem. I'll see if there's anyone within 200 miles who can pull this off.

I found This when I was looking to straighten some rims a while back. Seems like a pretty good little jig.

That said, I ended up using the bfh method as suggested by others above. It worked pretty well, have put a lot of km's and numerous pot holes on them since and they have held up fine.

I cut a 2x4 to match the interior curvature of the wheel and then use a bottle jack on the bends. If the wheel barrel is wide enough I'll double up the 2x4. A hammer can help once you've got the jack pumped up. Just give the wheel a whack on either side of the head of the jack from outside the wheel. Depending on the wheel you can crush the wood. The next time I do this I think I'll make it from 3/4" plywood.

I need a torch, too......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClCZONHVMGY

This one shows a gizmo that basically does what my bottle jack and wood stunt does....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JImp8B5N2-c

This machine bends the wheel straight automatically:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8YUOHxP--I

There used to be a place on south santa fe in denver that did it, but alas, they are no longer there.

I have also used the sledge trick with great success on my SVT focus. Bent one of the stock 17s back to straight, balanced it, and have been dailying, autoxing, rallyxing, and rotating that wheel for six years since. No other problems.

I deliberately leave the tire on. It theoretically keeps the rim diameter from expanding (splitting). Maybe it helps, maybe it just makes me feel better.

Spec Wheels or Woodys here in Denver still straightens wheels.

Looks like there used to be a place here in Grand Junction, but they are no longer. I'll call some of the wheel/tire places to see if I can get it done without shipping the wheels over the big bump. Although I'm curious about trying it myself.

The other option is to just return these wheels to the guy I got them from, he's offered to take them back. Then I start over. But man, those Ronals are just too cool.