2000 Cobra R Wheel Damage

[SeikenFreak]

Not sure there is much general traffic through this section but whatever. Maybe the seller is on this forum.

I just picked up a set of 2000 Cobra R wheels for use on track with their own set of tires, thus I am not too concerned with appearance.

All four are curb rash'd to hell on both the inner and outer lip. I'm guessing this is from the improper tire size and when you lay them flat, it rests on the lip and not the tire. Someone was probably dragging them around a concrete floor for years. Ugh. But again, I'm not really bothered by the rash.

The real issue is that one of the wheels has two dents in the lip, and a second wheel has what looks like used to be a dent and then someone attempted to knock it out with a hammer and broke the lip off a bit. You can see on damaged wheel #1 where the person tried to knock the dents out with a hammer and kept smacking the wheel and gouged the finish. A real pro.

We deal with a wheel repair business through the dealership I work at and had someone look a them. Unfortunately, I wasn't there at the time so one of my co-workers showed him the wheels and damage. It sounds like wheel #1 could be repaired but they said no to wheel #2 (the one with the separate lip.)

Is the damage here purely cosmetic? Should I be concerned? Is wheel #2 really un-repairable or would they just be afraid to fix it? It sounds like I could have the wheels cleaned up for $80 a piece. Is there something I could do maybe?

Thoughts please.

Wheel #2

Wheel #1

 

[JoeAsheville]

Short answer for a track wheel...NOPE.

 

[PC03GT]

I have a full set of R wheels in good condition. If you're interested let me know

 

[SeikenFreak]

Short answer for a track wheel...NOPE.

Can I ask for the long version? Not sure I see what the big deal is. It seems cosmetic to me but I'd like to know why or how damage like this could affect a wheel. I can't imagine it being bad enough that a bead could pop.

I'm almost certainly going to be using these wheels as I don't exactly have the funds to buy the tier of wheel I wanted right now and definitely don't after buying these. These were a better but more expensive option than some kind of replica wheel but cheaper than a new set of Enkeis in this size.

It's just a matter of whether it's worth investing money to repair them or not.

 

[JoeAsheville]

The (slightly) longer version is: I, personally, would not trust my life on damaged equipment. Maybe you value your life less than mine...maybe not.

If you can't afford good equipment to go racing, perhaps the ambition should be shelved until better parts can be had.

The separated piece is bad enough...but it takes a tremendous amount of force to deform a wheel at the root of a spoke, such as wheel #1.

Again...there is no way I'd trust the structural integrity of those wheels for track use, much less street use. I'd hang them on the wall to impress my buddies, or simply recycle them...

 

[2000GTSTANG]

Those are repairable. If you dont mind shipping them, these people will do an awesome job of repairing.

I had a chunk taken out of the lip on one of my wheels and they replaced the section and it looks like it never happened.

http://weldcraftwheels.com/

 

[SeikenFreak]

The (slightly) longer version is: I, personally, would not trust my life on damaged equipment. Maybe you value your life less than mine...maybe not.

If you can't afford good equipment to go racing, perhaps the ambition should be shelved until better parts can be had.

The separated piece is bad enough...but it takes a tremendous amount of force to deform a wheel at the root of a spoke, such as wheel #1.

Again...there is no way I'd trust the structural integrity of those wheels for track use, much less street use. I'd hang them on the wall to impress my buddies, or simply recycle them...

Fair enough. Though I'm not sure the wheel structure itself is damaged, I see no cracks or bends on the barrel or spokes anywhere. And the lip dents haven't actually dented the barrel in, just bent that small lip bit. But obviously not everything can be seen by the naked eye.

And I'm already (and only) doing HPDE tier events, on replica wheels no less, and I'm no super car driver or anything. Wanted to do a square setup though and get tires that don't suck so I'm putting together a separate set. The potential upgrade path is if I decide to put on the 14" Brembos then I'd need to get a different wheel.

And I probably value my life less than you and yours ;-)

Anyone with wheel repair experience out there?

 

[tomshep]

I would never run a damaged/repaired in that manner cast wheel. Especially on track. Save your funds and keep looking.

Tom

 

[flattrack53]

Even if the wheel is repairable I would not run it on the track... Your just asking for trouble!