Bad day Yesterday

[nabsim]

I wouldn't repair an alloy wheel either, soft enough to start with, I'd always be worrying about it.

Depends what’s damaged. I cracked an alloy wheel up near Fort William and got it welded up by a company there and good as new. They did say how good they are depends on quality of the metal though, a lot of the cheaper wheels aren’t worth doing

 

[runnach]

They did say how good they are depends on quality of the metal though, a lot of the cheaper wheels aren’t worth doing.

They were correct Nabs, some alloys are just pure crap trying to weld, I use the word try deliberately, as this depends on alloy make up, some fall into what I call the black pudding of the alloy world, a mix of crap. Same applies to some motorbike casing, some weld nicely, others impossible, mostly due to IIRC, magnesium content.

Preparation and cleanliness of material is very important too.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Steel is a much simpler operation as said but with alloys, it is an alloy not just aluminiumumum, and if magnesium, just walk away.

 

[runnach]

Steel is a much simpler operation as said but with alloys, it is an alloy not just aluminiumumum, and if magnesium, just walk away.

Sometimes you can’t tell matl type till you arc up.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

No, I suppose not, we used to occasionally get Mag wheels in for powder coating that had been done before, we had to refuse them as (at that time) there was no way for us to remove the old paint, ( could only rub them down and wet paint them) for anything else we could either dip them or burn it off, not with magnesium, if we dipped them they just fizzled away like and Alka Selzer, we never even tried burning them off, didn't seem a good idea.

 

[nabsim]

I still remember when as an apprentice our shop had a block of magnesium in that Ford competition department wanted us to try and machine. We cleared an area around the mill that was doing it and out best machinist got the job.

Needless to say Ford didn’t want to try again, melted half the milling machine bed away

That would have been around 1969 and we did quite a bit for Fordcomletitiondepartment at that time plus a fair bit of experimental work for various customers

 

[Geek]

You’re ‘avin a laugh. Are you saying you’d trust that rim after it’s had that amount of damage? I think you could well be in a minority of one.
On a lighter note. Glad everything went well after that mishap Trigger.
One day Trig, we could discuss your broom

Minority of at least two. I've seen far worse wheels successfully straightened. Having said that, it might be easier, if more expensive and less green, to just buy a new one. Or preferably get a S/H one from a scrapyard.

 

[nabsim]

Minority of at least two. I've seen far worse wheels successfully straightened. Having said that, it might be easier, if more expensive and less green, to just buy a new one. Or preferably get a S/H one from a scrapyard.

I do seem to remember some decidedly dodgy going on in my younger day, not just repairing damaged wheels but we would make wheel fit that weren’t even close on pcd. It’s stuff you had to do on the banger track and it made its way intoto daily drives. Throw away world these days if yo7 live in a first world country. They would make it like new in India lol