Andretti

My mustang was hit last week, and among the damage is one of my 20' Alcoa's.

I was wondering if anyone has had a wheel that was pretty badly gouged and damaged in an accident that was then 'repaired' in such a way that they believed it was like it should be.
The insurance adjuster that was here was pretty confident that it can be repaired, and so well that you'd never know it was damaged, but I have more than a few doubts from my end.

I'm pretty certain that I know the answer, but I'm asking just to confirm my suspicions.

Any past experience described would be appreciated.

I'll attach a pic of my wheel to show the damage...

08'MustangDude

That's not repairable. Aluminum is hard to weld, and the way rims are cast,
even if they could weld, sand, smooth, buff and polish, the balance will be off
at that spot. It would require more weights to balance.

I had something similar happen on a 2000 Avenger ES. A rock fell off a diesel
dummies tri-axle (was not covered), and hit the lower control arm, for which I was
on my way in for the recall. Then it caught the inside lip and bent it outward, and
air was leaking out. Good thing the rim was HOT, I was able to get it off, and
beat the lip back in place with the tire iron. It never looked the same, but it was
on the inside. Had it been on the outside, I would have had to replace the rim
if I wanted it athletically pleasing. If the rim was cold and I tried that, the lip would
have broken off, and I would have been screwed.

You could heat it up and hammer it back round, but won't be able to take that
gouge out. If yours still holds air, then the bead is fine, will just look, well, crappy...

Andretti

Yeah, I put on an 'optimistic' face when he said he believed it could be repaired, but I have to believe that we may be looking at it from two differing 'viewpoints'.

He did strike me as a car guy, but I'm not convinced taking a forged wheel that is made (from what I understand) on a cnc machine from a block of Aluminum, to an 'Alloy wheel' company will give the necessary results.

Time will tell I guess, but I figured it'd be worth hearing if I was alone in my suspicions.

Thanks for your thoughts

08'MustangDude

A forged wheel is sculpted by hammering, application of heat, and pressure to
give it the required shape.

Cast wheels are created by pouring of liquid or molten metal into specifically designed molds.

CNC wheels are made from a solid piece of aluminum.

Even with CNC, they would still weld for the repair. I saw a video of it being done, just don't
know how expensive it would be.