Straightening bent rims

[gatesj at twcny.rr.com (John K. Gates)]

Well, the only ones I've done are my steelies for my daily driver snow
tires, and I did that with a 3 pound hand sledge.  I wasn't shy with them,
I figured no loss if I destroy them but they went right back 100%.

I'd ask Allyn for details on straightening something halfway decent like
tear drops, he's the guy who did it on alloys.  He talked about using a
dead blow, that sounds a lot more appropriate for alloys.  It seems like
you'd at least want a piece of wood between the wheel and the hammer, and
that might be a little unsafe because of rebound.. (I'm Mr. Safety now
after I messed myself up good a couple of times)

John K. Gates
--
'97 Jetta GLX - daily driver
'85 Scirocco Flash Silver, waiting for my new house/shop for a complete
teardown/buildup sometime soon...

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004, Raffi wrote:

> I'm thinking of straightening my tear drops on my POS Jetta... what hammer
> do you recommend?
> -RGK-
>
> At 01:28 PM 7/15/2004, John K. Gates wrote:
> > > > why is everyone set on going to a wheel repair place?
> > > > all you really need is a dead blow hammer and some method of spinning
> > > > the wheel to check for trueness. i use a portion of a rear axle beam
> > > > with rearrotor installed. the rotor gives me some leverage if a wheel
> > > > is VERY bent and i need to slip a jack between the rotor edge and
> > > > wheel lip.
> > > > Al
> >
> > > As much fun as I used to have trying to true my road bike wheels, I
> > > think I will leave that to someone with more expertise....
> >
> >I too have tried to true road bike wheels and see the point, but there are
> >a whole lot less variables here; you don't have 32 or however many spokes
> >each exerting its own force, just a solid piece of alloy.  With enough
> >force you should be able to get it pretty close with what he's talking
> >about.
> >
> >I know I've straightened steel wheels pretty close with a BFH for my snow
> >tires and have gotten them just fine even though they're more "springy"
> >than alloy..
> >
> >John K. Gates
> >--
> >'97 Jetta GLX - daily driver
> >'85 Scirocco Flash Silver, waiting for my new house/shop for a complete
> >teardown/buildup sometime soon...
> >
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