Pothole meets HRE wheel - help

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Jan 24, 2007 | 01:01 AM

STLBLUES

Thread Starter

Drifting

Joined: Jan 2004

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From: Broken Arrow Oklahoma

St. Jude Donor '09

Pothole meets HRE wheel - help

My friend hit a pothole and bent one of his HRE wheels. We called HRE and they want around 500 for the repair. That was for a new rim bolted to his center. How much would a wheel shop charge to repair/ straighten the bent rim? Does anyone know of a good shop near Oklahoma?
Thanks, Steve

Jan 24, 2007 | 09:37 AM

John Shiels

Team Owner

Joined: Jul 1999

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From: Buy USA products! Check the label! Employ Americans

how bad is it? pic's

Jan 24, 2007 | 11:04 AM

RskyBns

Burning Brakes

Joined: Aug 2002

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From: Los Angeles CA

HRE is a pain in butt. They have great looking wheels. I have 19" & 20" 547's on for the last couple years. One started leaking through a hairline crack in the outer....took 2 months to get it all back and pretty much could care less about anything except charging an arm and a leg for the repairs. And I only live right up the road from them! Now I have another wheel that is starting to do the same thing. Crazy thing is they have just gone through normal driving....no off-road or racing or even hitting potholes.

So good luck to you in whatever happens. Beautiful wheels, unfortunately, not worth the headache for me when this kind of stuff happens.

Jan 24, 2007 | 11:53 AM

STLBLUES

Thread Starter

Drifting

Joined: Jan 2004

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From: Broken Arrow Oklahoma

St. Jude Donor '09

I will try to get a pic to share. Its bent bad. I dont think a rubber mallet will fix it. It might but its hard to beat on a high dollar wheel

Jan 24, 2007 | 11:53 AM

Ducati749

Racer

Joined: Mar 2006

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From: los altos ca

Around the bay area...I hear of people getting bent rims fixed for 300. However i believe this is for a bare aluminum rim, are they finished?...500 seems steep to me but i bet the rims will be in tip top shape...It appears these rims crack as well...If it were me i would sell off the rims and pick up diff ones.

Jan 24, 2007 | 12:03 PM

Ducati749

Racer

Joined: Mar 2006

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From: los altos ca

Quote:

Originally Posted by STLBLUES

I will try to get a pic to share. Its bent bad. I dont think a rubber mallet will fix it. It might but its hard to beat on a high dollar wheel

Some info:
-The wheel shops use a lead mallet to bang back the rim.
-Aluminum doesn't bend back well, especially forged. (if the bend angle is too steep when you bend it back it will crack)
-Heat will help aluminum not crack when bending (But if you rims are forged, heat can dampen the forged effect, not to mention the finish.

Jan 24, 2007 | 01:12 PM

Blue Lightening

Burning Brakes

Joined: May 2003

Posts: 850

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From: Green Lane Pennsylvania

I think I might almost qualify as an expert on this matter. I went thru three bent front HRE rims prior to solving the problem. Each time it was the outer rim on a front tire. It does not take much of a pot hole or road defect to bend the outer rim on an HRE.

I looked into getting the bends repaired but they have to heat them and no company would gaurentee the results. The best thing to do is to replace the outer rim. I have never had any problems with leaking after repair and neither should you if they were put together properly.

The third bent rim ticked me off the most. I was going less than 15 mph in a driveway on a cell phone not paying attention and hit a small pot hole. It is amazing that the rims bend but the tire doesn't go flat.

The solution was to install wider tires on the HRE. I was running Pilot Sports 255x35x18 on the front. The side walls were not sticking out far enough to protect the rim. I switched to a wider tire 265x35x18's and have had zero issues with them ever since.