Bent rim

[smallbrady89]

I was driving my Lumina (3.1L 97) through a tight corner when the back end slid out and caused the car to pull a 180 into the curb, bending my passenger side rear rim. The tire stayed inflated and there is only a small section of the rim that is bent. i will upload pics later tonight. The car has 15" steel rims and i was wondering if it was worth it to replace the rim or if it would be better to just rebalence the wheel and be on my way. opinions?

PIC: 56K WARNING!!! http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/8061/p10505490uz.jpg

[dwalmop]

Should be able to find one pretty cheap at a salvage yard. Re-balance will not do any good if it's bent more than just slightly. If it's just the lip, and not the entire body, you may be able to get away with it as long as it's not too much.

[smallbrady89]

Posted pic

[Blue Bowtie]

Many tire shops will straighten steel wheels and rebalance for a fraction of the cost of even a salvage yard wheel.

[dwalmop]

Yeah. That one's pretty minor. You should be able to have that straightened.

[jeffcoslacker]

Originally Posted by dwalmop

Yeah. That one's pretty minor. You should be able to have that straightened.

I'm not so sure...it looks like the bead area is distorted a bit, you can bend the lip back, but the bead will still not run true....that'll make it lump and wear a tire funny...steel wheels are like $15 at the salvage yard...just replace it...

[dwalmop]

I used to work at a tire garage and we had a special tool specifically for bending rim beads back. It had an irregular shape, just like the bead. As long as the bend doesn't go back beyond the bead area, it could be bent back, almost to the point of not being able to tell it was distorted. But jeffcoslacker has a good point. they're cheap.

[jeffcoslacker]

Originally Posted by dwalmop

I used to work at a tire garage and we had a special tool specifically for bending rim beads back. It had an irregular shape, just like the bead. As long as the bend doesn't go back beyond the bead area, it could be bent back, almost to the point of not being able to tell it was distorted. But jeffcoslacker has a good point. they're cheap.

Our special tool was a 16" adjustable wrench

I think the "Pull yer own damn parts" salvage yard here gets $5 for a common steel wheel.

[Blue Bowtie]

I recently tried to get two four-hole plain steel wheels for a Saturn SC. $45 each, used, no guaranty of condition. New ones are only $60. Needless to say, they got straightened and rebalanced for about $8 each.

[smallbrady89]

Once i got the hubcap and tire off it was easy to see that the bead was fine. I used a super special GM lumina specific one of a kind tool (hammer) to bend it back into shape and put the tire back on. runs great now.