Sectioning rims

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Rod Petrie
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Sectioning rims

Post by Rod Petrie » Sat Oct 26, 2019 12:21 pm

The rear rims on my TT are almost completely rusted away. I was able to find a couple 20" rims but one has a section that has several holes in it. I heard a couple of guys mention sectioning them. Does these mean cutting out the bad area and welding a new piece in? Of course it is the flat area and not the part that the tire bead seats to. I know a rim flap will help protect any rough area left behind after welding.


Wayne Sheldon
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Re: Sectioning rims

Post by Wayne Sheldon » Sat Oct 26, 2019 4:37 pm

Simply put, it depends upon how bad the rim is. Sometimes, if the bad area is only in the "flat" area between the inner and outer bead areas, a piece of (roughly 1/8 inch, maybe a little less?) flat steel plate can be shaped and welded in. If the really bad area includes the areas that the tire bead presses against, especially if it includes the "channel" that the ring seats in, then the entire rim should be cut across and welded to a section from another similarly ruined rim. Serious damage often resulted to rims that sat for too many years with one spot sitting in the soil and mud.

REMEMBER! TIRE PRESSURES ARE "PER SQUARE INCH" AND THAT 45 PSI TIMES 100 SQUARE INCHES EQUALS 4500 POUNDS OF EXPLOSIVE FORCE!

Welding should be by someone with at least a fair amount of experience and skill.

However, the rims are usually made from a fairly mild steel, and generally weld very nicely. If you examine many tire rims from that era, you can quickly see that the rim material was extruded out in a straight piece. Then rolled and cut to size. They did not throw away the end piece. Rims can easily be found with factory welds where one end-piece was welded onto the next and continued on into the next completed rim. These welds have been confirmed a couple times by rims being somehow crushed (off the wheel) and the weld can be broken and examined (I actually had one such rim myself years ago!).
With a little care, three bad rims may be able to be remade into two good rims.

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Henry K. Lee
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Re: Sectioning rims

Post by Henry K. Lee » Sat Oct 26, 2019 5:59 pm

As adding to Waynes super good advice, after sand blasting the whole rim as dim dar metal termites can show themselves else where. I use a piece of copper plating to weld up pin holes on the opposite side. This acts as a heat shunt preventing blow out and gives you excellent fusion as what Wayne was stating.

Hope this Helps,

Hank


Allan
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Re: Sectioning rims

Post by Allan » Sat Oct 26, 2019 8:37 pm

I have resorted to this a couple of times to rescue Hayes wire wheel felloes. After sitting in the dirt some 8" had to be cut out and replaced. I veed out the joints on the outside and filled the V with weld, and then followed the joint with a weld on the inside. The inside was left unfinished as it is not seen, while the outside was metal finished flush.

Allan from down under.


Topic author
Rod Petrie
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Re: Sectioning rims

Post by Rod Petrie » Sun Oct 27, 2019 8:45 am

Thanks. That reaffirms my idea.

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