God I love the Challenge Rims on your Spider!
The parts replacement suggestion is quite over the top and almost ridiculous. A shock replacement? Do you know what that shock costs?. The Challenge rims are soft and bend easily. That absorbs most of the stress. A wheel replacement should be more than sufficient.
Yep.... $1331.48 (US) plus shipping....... what does a 430 cost if the bottom of the shock breaks off and spears him off in the wilderness? Interesting comment......... since as far as I can see no inspection has been made. My point is that either a THOUROUGH inspection or replacement of ALL susceptible parts must be made before a decision is made as to what needs replacement and what doesn’t. To recommend just replacing the wheel without inspection or replacement of other parts is just plain STUPID……
How many MECHANICAL ENGINEERS does it take to change a Ferrari Rim? We'll have to see how long it takes for them to decide if they want get it fixed or replaced first.
Stupid? Do you own a 360 or a 430? Do you know and understand the suspension of these vehicles? Have you personally experienced this type damage with these wheels? If you have not then your comments are speculation w/o value. You used the word "stupid". Maybe that's applicable then to your approach.
lol. I'm a Mechanical Engineer as well and I have no idea on what to do. Sorry to hear of the incident, but, be positive, at least it didn't fire you off into a tree or something. You did well to control it to a safe stop. 74mph isn't slow for that to happen. Unfortunately all to common those bloody potholes.
Just to add my crap in here....... I would just get it repaired. I also hit a pothole recently in my old Ford Fairlane. Its an alloy centre with steel rim. Here are the pics, got it repaired and its on its way back to me. That was a quick and easy fix. Cost me $180 to repair it. Anywho, I have seen full alloy and magnesium wheels that looked like a throw away to me, (thats how bent they were) that have been repaired by these same dudes that repaired my wheel and come back looking like new! I asked a few times if they just buy a new wheel and send that back up as the workmanship is amazing!! I still dont believe they can do what they do, but I have seen many examples of the work done now and its top class IMO! It wont hurt to take it a wheel repair specialist and have them take a look. Looking at your pics, that damage is very minimal and I am pretty sure they would fix it. A $200 fix as opposed to a $2000 wheel, I know which track I would rather investigate first. That or get a hammer and bang it out yourself. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I'm not a M.E. but I would have that damaged rim replaced not re-worked on.... You will not have the 100% reassurance like that of a new rim, undamaged rim. Personal experience...I had a similar rim damage about last year...Darn pothole!... But on visual check the rim didn't have any warp/bend, not even scratches. Continue driving for the next few days... Guess what' on the 5th day, after being on the road for a while, started to feel the rear sorta skiddish, traction less kinda feeling... Pulled over and found the lip-part of the rim just about to split away from the rest of the rim..
Cheers Pap a bit of sanity here...my point exactly. The wheel "MAY" need to be replaced but take it to someone that is experienced in repairing these things first for an expert opinion... And PLEASE check the upright, shockie, hub,rack and any other unsprung parts af the car before just slapping a new wheel on and thinking all is ok.
I guess some of you think that, just to be sure, I have to have the whole car replaced WWoC had the wheel checked out, and told me it can be repaired. They have a vested interest to sell me a new rim, but they didn't. That is good enough for me.
Hi We are blest to be in this great country USA! Now your question was not: can you replace the rim ? Yes you can fix it and you now that how accurate can any one? from online to make diagnose on any thing!!!! It is what you need to do and you know it a new one ! Way You a Ferrari owner thats way you do not take a chance if you drive 200Mil H ! you will not have 1 Sec to say S...... thats way ....
As a prospective Mechanical&Electrial engineer I join the "replace!" crowd What might work well in a pickup truck that never gets driven faster than 80km/h can turn into a huge problem when you hit Ferrari speeds. Remember, the centrifugal force rises with the square of the velocity. I wouldn't take any chances....
My points precisely! It gets absolutely ridiculous here at times. I had the very same happen to me, my wheel is not quite as soft as yours, and the distortion I received was more pronounced than yours from what I see. It was 97% repaired but I am going to replace all my rims anyway. The Challenge rims are soft and should come back into shape. If not you'll buy a new one. Big deal. At least you won't be rebuilding the car for $10K!!!
A question to the wheel repair experts out there. Even if X-ray inspection shows no cracks after repair, how do you verify the fatigue strength has not been compromised after the cast aluminum material has undergone plastic deformation twice? I'm curious to know the technical answer.
Not trying to hijack OP's thread, but I am looking for a source to refinish my 5-spoke OEM 430 ball polished wheels. One has curb rash and 2 more were poorly refinished by the previous owner. Any suggestions?
Must say I'm bewildered that with 5+ engineers in agreement their advice isn't heeded. Sooo I guess the value you put on your car AND life is equal to an $1100.00 rim?
Things are over engineered to an appropriate level precisely because too often people ignore recommended service and maintenance procedures. Safety factor of 2 or 3 are regularly built into products to account for that, as well as possible variations in production processes, design oversights, unforeseen circumstances, etc.. For example how many people use a torque wrench to tighten wheel lug nuts to specification? Many over tighten to more than double the spec, but they don't shear right off because of built in safety factor. Good luck to the OP with his wheel repair, I hope it turns out well for him. However I would never do that or recommend it to a friend. A couple of years ago at at a track in my 360C I felt a funny wobble through a high speed corner. After coming into the pit lane we found 60 % of a rear wheel's spokes had cracked during the session. They were obviously fatigue cracks from previous bumps, although there were no physical deformation of the wheel. I was lucky that time. Had I stayed out one more lap I would have been into the wall big time. I won't count on being lucky all the time.
They repaired my 1986 Audi Sport Quattro factory magnesium wheels that were virtually square. Cannot endorse them more highly.
"IF" repairing wheels is such a BAD thing, how come there are so many specialists around the world doing it? "IF" it was so bad and wheels were falling apart all over the place they would all be sued within an inch of their lives.... the fact of the matter is repair is a viable option in a lot of cases. "New wheels are not a guarantee of perfection..." In my early years racing on speedway we used Halibrad wheels and they were for ever getting bashed around, repaired and x rayed. Quite often we would find porosity or inclusions in the wheels from the factory. Admittedly this was 1960's technology and we have come along way since then but I would be very surpried if in all of Ferraris history a wheel has not escaped the factory that has some sort of defect.
