Straightening alloy wheels

Last fall I swerved to miss a cat in my Miata and ran over the curb. It bent both of my PS side wheels noticeably (ruined both tires, too). The wheels are the NB factory 16 x 7 five spokes. They both now have a pretty significant kink in te outer lip. They're currently in my garage at home.

I know that there are places that will straighten bent wheels, but I'm curious to hear from anyone who's had it done. Are there durability issues? What's a fair price? If anyone could reccomend a good shop in the St. Louis area, I'd be willing to give them a try.

I don't know anywhere in your area, but I had some wheels straightened and refinished by Wheels America. Cost me $100/wheel, and they came out perfect.

I've got some wheels I plan to send to them again, when the money materializes.

Yeah, there's a shop in our area that straightens alloys. We bought set of 6 aftermarket rims for the Miata and one was bent. About $100 and perfect...on the car for about 5 years now. Wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

I give it a great "it depends".

Over the years, I've always found that most factory alloys can be found used from a local yard or online for about the same price as straightening a wheel. I also believe that once metal has been significantly bent, it can be straightened, but the metal has suffered fatigue.

Now, if you have particularly rare/old/collectible wheels, go have them straightened. But if you have a relatively modern and common wheel, just go buy another.

I'm not sure what it costs to straighten bent wheels, but I'm fairly certain that cats are free.

Depends on what alloy the wheels are made of. I needed to create tapered runners from 6061 tube for a custom IR manifold. Machined a tapered steel die (from a HF 2" trailer ball!), and used my 12 ton HF press to push the die into the tube (with lots of lube!). In the T6 temper, the first aluminum tube cracked and split. These tubes were hard enough to ring like chimes if dropped. Looked up the procedure to heat treat the T6 to T0 temper (thanks Mr Internet!), used my kiln, and did the deal. Now, instead of ringing, just a dull thud. A soft one rolled off the workbench by accident, and it left a flat spot on one edge where it hit. Used the die and press again, and they spread 'like buttah' into perfect tapered runners. After forming, I followed the process to retemper back to T6, and they were back to original hardness.

EvanR wrote: Over the years, I've always found that *most* factory alloys can be found used from a local yard or online for about the same price as straightening a wheel. I also believe that once metal has been significantly bent, it can be straightened, but the metal has suffered fatigue. Now, if you have particularly rare/old/collectible wheels, go have them straightened. But if you have a relatively modern and common wheel, just go buy another.

That's a really good point. Once it's bent, it will never be as strong as it once was. I tried to buy a replacement wheel, but never found what it was.

mc wheel in keene nh they do great work cars and bike wheels!

http://mcwheel.com/