safe to weld?

What type of wheel is it? The stock 360 alloys (starfish) are made from magnesium so welding one of those might be tricky.

 

Call wheel techniques and ask for Jeff. He did a good job on my wheels.

 

While the 355 wheels are made of magnesium l am not sure the 360 wheels are.

 

You might not be sure but I am - the 360 starfish alloys are magnesium, the same material as the stock 355 rims.

 

Aw, just put some chewing gun in it and reseat the tire.

I'd get a new rim if it was me rather than weld. Just get one off ebay in good shape, they're cheap enough. Rationale being it's a high performance car, I wouldn't risk a compromise of my rims integrity...

 

From what I remember, Kouroush is running 19" CS Wheels. You can also contact Eric Vaughn at the following link ( http://www.ericvaughnmachine.com/Services.html ). Eric's experience in welding wheels should yield a professional opinion if it is safe to fix the wheel.

 

I think, from what I see, that I would replace that wheel (and I'm someone who would err on the side of eeking out the last bit of life from every component and trying to fix it when broken).

A buckle, a flattened rim, I'd have a go, not a crack like that.

Best.

 

First of all, I'm pretty sure that the 360 starfish is aluminum.
The 355 was made of magnesium, but the 360 design was optimized with finite element analysis (more powerful computer power to design the wheel) and it was no longer needed to use exotic material like magnesium. Aluminum was fine and I think it was 1-2 kg lighter due to the optimized design.

I had an AMG 19'' wheel with a crack longer than this one, but it was parallel not perpendicular to the circumference which was perfectly fixed.
I remember at the rim shop they told me that they can fix any rim as long as the arms / spokes of the wheel are not cracked or broken. If that's the case it is unsafe and they throw away the wheel. Otherwise it is very safe to fix it.

Good luck with your repair

 

buy another wheel, lots of deals out there and yo wont have to worry about it.

 

That'll buff out

 

That is a serious crack. I would not take a chance with welding. Weld penetration would be a concern especially when the weld is ground flush and blended smooth. I recommend post weld Non Destructive Testing to insure integrity.

Bottom line for me would be to replace the rim which I did with a much, much smaller crack on one of my rims.

Good Luck

 

Where are you? In CA you can have caltrans reimburse you.

 

I was going to say the same thing. I've heard of this before, and I believe it's true. In California if the roads break your car, CalTrans pays. I don't have any links to help though.

 

I have a set of HRE wheels that I'm selling. As I was cleaning them up I happened to notice a similar but smaller crack on the inside of one of the rear wheels. I took it to a well known shop called Pico Wheel Service to get fixed. The weld repair they did is bigger than the original crack, they said they have to cut away extra material around the area to make sure there is no corrosion. I was told the wheel is just fine now, but because the crack on your wheel is a bit bigger I don't know how that would affect repair feasibility.

 

but it also must be re heat treated, all in all, to do it right will cost nearly as much as a used wheel. Not much upside on the risk.

 

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist11/business/claims.htm

 

Not personally but I have heard of people getting reimbursed and it wasn't difficult.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/damageclaims.htm all of 2 seconds of googling ...