Bent Rim.....will is still work?

[UfoTofU]

My brother who lives out in CA was nice enough to go pick up 4 VX rims with tires for me.

I've had three deals that fell through in the last couple of months, 2 guys decided to keep theirs and 1 guy flaked after I drove 4 hours to meet him.

They all look awesome aside from the crappy paint job.

Did notice a bend on the backside of one of the rims,

Let me know what you guys think. It still holds air, would it be OK to put on my car as-is?

[budomove]

I run vx's with no bends, but one of my stock steel 13" rims had a similar bend that made the car pull to one side. aluminum will produce stress fractures sometime later if you attempt to bang it out, so I would just run it and see if you notice it pulling you. As long as you don't see any stress fractures around where the bend is I think it should be safe.

[budomove]

On second thought, I don't know.

Although it could potentially last 30 years, aluminum can also do unexpected things, and it would suck if it just cracked apart while you were driving.

[Dagul]

It doesn't look too bad, but it could potentially cause steering wheel vibrations if you run that rim on the front... You can try your luck with a wheel repair place or looking for another VX rim at a local scrap yard...

[Gary Palmer]

If it was a steel rim, I'd say straighten it out. With steel you could do it with a sledgehammer and a steel. However, I'm not sure about the aluminum. I'd go with Clencher's suggestion, just leave it alone and try running it on the back. If you don't get some ugly handling issue's, it won't be to much of a risk, their.

[Gary Palmer]

Re-consideration. What you could do, I think, is take the wheel off of the rim, use a block of 2 x 4 and a sledge hammer. You can mount it on one of the back rim's and use the a block on the ground to mark the alignment and then bring the bend back into alignment. I'd still run it on the back, after your done, just in case, but I think your going to get wobble and vibration issue's if you just use it as it is.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

Aluminum does not like to be straightened, once it's bent leave it bent, or you will most likely brake it, the more you move it back the weaker it will get.

[UfoTofU]

Thanks guys, taking all of this into consideration I think that I am going to track down another one.

The peace of mind will be nice as well.

[brelandt]

My parents own a Avalon with nice 16 aluminum rims.

My dad hit a steel pipe that feel off of a 18 wheeler that did not bother to stop and blew his front tire.

When he pulled over to change it he found that a section of the lip about 1 inch long and about 1/4 deep gone! It's gone, completely missing. You can almost see the bead of the tire!

Had a new tire installed and balanced without any isssues.

He has been driving on it for 2 years now and nothing has happened.

[Hockey4mnhs]

i feel so sorry for you you just want some vx rims.