Alloy Wheel "Straightening" Tool

[developer]

You may have read that I'd got a pothole derived flatspot on my nearside front and had been looking for a new wheel (Alloywheeldirect £500 :shock.
After a bit of Googling, I found a guy local to me with this machine.
He rotates the dolly to identify the flatspot (pic 1) and then, after heating the area, uses the hand pumped hydraulic ram to press out the damage, with the load spreading counter dolly on the other end (pic 2) - you can see the flatspot on mine
He continues to work on the damaged area until he can get the tip of the dolly to touch the alloy all the way round, indicating the wheel is now round again.
All in, £55.00 including removal, correction and rebalance/refit.
I think that's pretty good.

 

[kamalpatel12448]

You may have read that I'd got a pothole derived flatspot on my nearside front and had been looking for a new wheel (Alloywheeldirect £500 :shock.
After a bit of Googling, I found a guy local to me with this machine.
He rotates the dolly to identify the flatspot (pic 1) and then, after heating the area, uses the hand pumped hydraulic ram to press out the damage, with the load spreading counter dolly on the other end (pic 2) - you can see the flatspot on mine
He continues to work on the damaged area until he can get the tip of the dolly to touch the alloy all the way round, indicating the wheel is now round again.
All in, £55.00 including removal, correction and rebalance/refit.
I think that's pretty good.

Excellent news on getting the wheel sorted, at a more reasonable cost, thanks for sharing.

 

[davidjpowell]

Not arguing that the wheel is not safe or anything, but I think I would be happier not having seen the equipment!

 

[developer]

Not arguing that the wheel is not safe or anything, but I think I would be happier not having seen the equipment!

The two other shops I approached wanted to heat and hammer, though one of them was at least planning to use a hide mallet.

 

[Dieselman]

Not arguing that the wheel is not safe or anything, but I think I would be happier not having seen the equipment!

If it was a £3,000 piece of Snap-on kit the cost would be higher but the result the same.

A car scissor jack can be used to the same effect.

 

[davidjpowell]

I know, but still best left to my imagination!

 

[developer]

I looked upon it as a engineering solution - he'd got hydraulic based "thou" control and I thought the ability for checking the roundness in situ was very clever.

I've not seen any other ways of performing the task, though I did wonder about the effect of heating and cooling, which seemed a bit hit and miss.

I've just realised I meant pic 2 and 3.

 

[Harrythedog]

Doesn't matter what the equipment looks like as long as it's used by an experienced operator who knows what he's doing. I remember watching in awe about 25 years ago when an old timer was repairing a crack in a cast iron impeller bowl on a water pump, it took him all day but you couldn't even see any sign of a split when he'd finished

 

[developer]

This was the only non hammer route I found - I'm open to suggestions about another proven method.

WIM advertise wheel repair so I wonder how they do it?

 

[Alps]

nothing wrong in the way they have done it john, at least it could be hammerred out!