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Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:18 am

Well, time to get these wheels cleaned up and painted. I'm running the OG 14" wheels on my 67 dlx. Don't wanna replace cause of the OG status but..2 of the the wheels have some pretty good dents on the outside lip, and 1 has some pretty good curb rash. Any hints on straightened these? Blowtorch and hammer? As for the curb rash, sanding? Thanks

Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:29 am

Depends on where the dents are located on the rim. I'm going through the same search now and what I found so far is that they use a machine for straightening of bent up outer lips but the 2 shops I found in SoCal cant do it because their adapters wont fit a bus rim.

2 other shops in CA will only do it if they can cut outer portion of rim away from center portion and then re-weld a new outer replacement section. Problem is, after that your rim is no longer original as you said you want and secondly, a "replacement" outer section for some earlier style bus rims arent just laying around ready to swap.

In your case, it would be cheaper and easier to buy a nice used and original 14" bus rim instead of trying to repair the bent one. They are available all the time in the classifieds and at shows and usually pretty cheap or at least cheaper than a repair would cost.

If anyone else has or knows alternatives to fixing a bent and dented outer rim section, please post info. Thanks !

Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:48 am

In Hot VW's a few years ago there was an article about it. One of the processes that the expert used was a hammer and dolly. He heated up one big ol' area with a torch that was completely flipped over and brought it back to perfect.

Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:43 pm

BarryL wrote: In Hot VW's a few years ago there was an article about it. One of the processes that the expert used was a hammer and dolly. He heated up one big ol' area with a torch that was completely flipped over and brought it back to perfect.

Anybody know the issue date of the article or any other leads for this type work in California?

Judging by lack of responses to thread, I cant imagine that most bent rims just get tossed. Seems like this would be a somewhat common problem and lots of info available when trying to save a scarce rim. Original post was about a 14" rim but I'm trying to repair a March 54 Barndoor rim so its worth saving. Any info would greatly appreciated. Thanks !

Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:51 pm

look for a pro like
http://www.cascadewheel.com/services.html
otherwise build a fixture and true it with oxy a hammer and a dial indicator

Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:01 pm

slow36hp wrote: look for a pro like
http://www.cascadewheel.com/services.html
otherwise build a fixture and true it with oxy a hammer and a dial indicator

Any idea what they charge to true up 15" bus rims?
I've got about 20-30 which are slightly "off".

Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:20 pm

I'm also in the same boat. I have a couple 15" rims that have some big dings on the rim's face around the outer lip. I don't know if they were dropped, or if someone ran over some curbs or what.

I'm also in So Cal, so if I find anyone in my area, I will post here.

Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:29 pm

I did a search on here and didn't find much of anything on this subject. Surprising, you'd think this is a common problem. Thanks for the info guys.

Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:31 pm

slow36hp wrote: look for a pro like
http://www.cascadewheel.com/services.html
otherwise build a fixture and true it with oxy a hammer and a dial indicator

Has anyone used this shop for bus rims? There are lots of pro shops that do in CA but the problem is that old bus rims don't fit or work on their straightening machines and they say they don't do enough of them to justify having an adapter for their machine. Its a different adapter than tire mounting or wheel balancing apparently.

I found that lots of high end restoration shops send their vintage steel wheels to Stockton, CA for repair but that is the shop that cuts your entire outer section and re-welds in a new section. I prefer old school hammer and dolly teqhnique if at all possible and not breaking the original welds on my 3/54 rim.

www.stocktonwheel.com

Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:39 pm

hvw or trends did a article in the last few yrs restoring jackmans if recall showing the process and naming a shop in ca. that does wide 5

Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:42 pm

If Stockton wheel can't fix it, then nobody can.