Hello all,

I recently purchased a set of Bogart aluminum wheels for my 70 Chevelle project. They are super lightweight wheels meant just for drag racing.

When UPS dropped the wheels off, they bent the inner lips on each of the rear wheels. The backspacing was incorrect on the wheels so we sent them back so they would fix the backspacing and inner lip problems. When they came back, the backspacing was correct but they only fixed the one inner lip and didn't do a good job on it.

The bends are hardly noticeable to the eye and not worth sending back to repair again. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could straighten these myself? Any help is greatly appreciated as always!

Thanks,

I wouldn't try it myself, if they are not true you could get a vibration.

There is a place out east that straightens rims.

I think it is called "Ye Old Wheel Shoppe" in MD..

pdq67

There's a guy out here who repairs them out of a step-van. He's got a good setup in there to fix them on site, usually. For some of the bigger jobs, he'll take them to his shop. I don't if I'd try to do aluminum myself, but I'm going to do an old steel chopper wheel I've got that looks like it had a bad time with a curb or huge pothole. I'll probably make up some wooden bucks that fit the good part of the rim, then run it through the press on the bad part until it's straight again. Luckily, it's over one of the spokes (1" tubular steel - 6 spoke wheel), so it didn't bend in towards the center too.

Another possibility, although not cheap by any means, is to install bead locks. Makes tire changes at the track a snap too. I've got a set of Bogart Force 5's that I'm thinking about getting bead locked, cost $650.00 to do a pair of wheels. For me, the choice is either get the bead locks or buy another set of wheels for my street tires. Decisions, decisions :D .

QUOTE]Originally posted by Rumblin70SS:
The bends are hardly noticeable to the eye and not worth sending back to repair again. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could straighten these myself? Any help is greatly appreciated as always!

Thanks, [/QUOTE]

First you should report it to the vendor.

Hardly noticable, take it in to the tire shop and mount it on the machine to check runout. Maybe it's ok.

I have fixed a billet aluminum wheel myself.
I have read of guys fixing them themselves since they are soft. I tried it like they said. Kinda crude but it turned out awsome. Mine was dented in and I put a few layers of cardboard down on the ground and used a 2x4 and a hammer to tap it back into shape.

bent rim before repair (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/mild68ss/bentrim.jpg)

I had to repair a set of Bogarts last season after the place I sent them too to get slicks mounted on bent the heck out of both wheel lips. I hammered them back on a flat surface with a rubber mallet and a 2x4. I ran 154 that weekend on them, no vibration at all. Fix em yourself and maybe throw them on a wheel balancer and see what happens, it's just aluminum.

doesn't UPS have some kind of insurance to cover shipped items that they damaged? i would think they would take care of you since they were the ones that caused the damage.

Guys,

Thanks for all the insight, I appreciate it very much. I think I'm going to try the rubber mallet and 2x4 trick. The bends are really small and I have two sets of rear wheels. I'll use these for the street tires I'm running.

As far as going through UPS, I could but I think it would be more trouble that it's worth. As I mentioned, the bends are hardly noticeable and I should be able to straighten them if I take my time.

Thanks again all!!