ELAN M100 S2 WHEELS

[roy666]

Hi all.. just trying to source a wheel for my S2.. hit a pothole and badly bent inside rim. I know these things are like rocking horse dung.. but any ideas, pointers would be great!

[HJ2]

Are you sure it can't be repaired?

[roy666]

well, I have not looked at that yet... but I will phone up a few alloy wheel repair places and find out. How much damage cab be repaired?

[HJ2]

Sow us a piccie then!

[stonefish]

done the same to mine and had to go main dealers to get one

[Jeemy]

I've had some success using a pin hammer and a block of soft wood to tap alloys back into shape. It comes down to two things afaik - getting it to look right, and getting the tyre to sit right. How it impacts on safety is something I am unaware of.

With my van there was an outward buckle to the cosmetic edge of the rim (as opposed to the bearing edge) which I tapped in quite easily and by the time it got a mild sand and spray it was un-noticeable. When I had the tyre changed after the damage occured, they told me, and I don't know how they knew this (Kw*k-F8T), that the damage was cosmetic only but needed to be pointed out. I returned after my "home repair" to have the tyre reseated and checked and they said it was quite OK, including to bear the increased load of a van.

With my previous Audi I tapped a piece of kerb damage outwards after having the tyre removed by a local firm off the vehicle. I then filled in the edges with alloy putty I think its called, and once hard, sanded smooth and then sprayed and lacquered the wheels. These were kept off the vehicle and sold on with photographic evidence of the repair - basically I managed to cover the cost of 3 wheels when the set would have been useless for sale unless I'd repaired the damaged one. Being clear, they were a set of 5 not 4 - I forget what they call it when the spare is a real wheel instead of a wee black steel thing - so the repaired wheel became the spare.

What I am unaware of and what concerns me, is how likely the alloy would then be to suffer from a stress fracture in the case of impact or an accident. I've been warned that even with wood as a buffer, the whole wheel could crack when you try to hammer it even off the vehicle; and what worries me more is that once there is already a slight buckle, thats then pushed back the other way, how structurally sound the whole composition of the wheel, during driving, is after all that direct impact to one section.

This would be something you'd have to decide case by case for yourself.

I'd say that a slight buckle to the cosmetic edge of the rim would be OK in most cases to repair, but I would be very concerned, not that I've ever seen it or had experience with it, with any kind of stress fractures or cracking being repaired or covered over, and being put back on the road.

[cliff]

Hi Roy,

not sure where you are but a company like this can probably help.

http://www.wheelspecialist.co.uk/

http://www.wheelspecialist.co.uk/index. ... ge-repairs

They just refurbed my Alfa wheels and did a great job.

[roy666]

Thanks cliff.. I'll give them a go.

[HJ2]

I had my bent wheels repaired several times (Dutch and Belgian roads... )

Usually they remove the tire, put the wheel on a lathe, heat it up locally and push it into shape with some sort of bearing on the carriage.
Of course you cannot repeat this endlessly as the material brittles every time, but you can repair quite a big dent! (that's why I asked for a photograph so I can estimate if the repair is possible, based on my own experience (so I am not a repair man myself !)

You'll probably get it sorted at one of the addresses as per above.
Good luck and share the results with us!

[roy666]

just trying to upload an pic.. hope this works

[HJ2]

If there are no tears or bits missing, , it looks repairable to me!

[steve matthews]

Repairable

Steve -w- 2 repaired S-2 wheels

[rip]

That's quite a dent. You may find that some places will tell you it can't be done...but some places are better than others.

[roy666]

ok guys, I'm gonna give it a go. Think I'll use Pristine wheels... they just came across better than Wheel Specialists.. and the deal is a little bit better.. I'll let you know how I got on.

[nicowalker1]

how did you get on?>