I recently sent my stock 90 wheels to California Chrome to have them chromed. I got a call today from them that said all 4 were out of round. 2 not so bad and 2 moderatly. I ask how that can be since they would spin up to 120 mph with out a problem. He said it just happens over time and they would be glad to fix them for 75 bucks a pop.

I told him I was on a budget and this whole deal was getting real close to what I could have bought a new set for. What is the Guru's take on fixing out of round wheels? Can these wheels be brought back if they are out of round and is this normal with aluminum wheels? Thanks

Check them when you get them back? Can't be too bad if you could not feel anything.

sounds like a way of getting another $300 out of you.

I did notice that when I stripped them down to send in that two of them were heavily weighted with stick on weights on the inner part of the wheel. That may be how they are working on the road. It can be a problem I'm finding out on deep set tall wheels. Thanks for the input.

The easiest way to check for run out on a wheel is to spin the wheel on the hub while visually referencing some fixed point. I will place a jack stand beside the suspect wheel with a bar clamp attached and oriented towards the wheel. You can then observe run out on both axis by moving the jack stand/clamp assembly in front of the wheel and to the side. Not that this helps much since the wheels are already off at the chromers, but wheel deformation can occur over extended time and use. I have no data as to how often, or at what point one might expect an issue, but your observation of the big wad of stick on weights certainly supports the idea of wheels that would benefit from being trued. If anybody wants photos of how to check the run out, just leave me a PM and I'll post some this weekend.

Spring is almost here Gurus, shine 'em up!

My race wheels are a little out of round from racing.

not bad though, can only detect it on the balancer.

I figure that if they were weighted by the tire balancer and they ran fine with no wobble or vibration then the runout can't be too bad.

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au contraire
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Although I don't do tires for a living I have access to hunter equipment at work....since I'm a perfectionist I can usually get a tire/wheel balanced but at times it takes a while. I've seen wheels that noticable wobble or have more vertical runout than a clown bike's wheel on the balancer, but with some creative wieght placement work ok on a car.

For example..... a guy hit something with his car and the rear tire went flat. He took it to a garage and they inflated the tire and balanced it. He was talking about an annoying vibration at speed.... Our mechanics threw it on the balancer and balanced it...Long story short still vibrated....I went out to the parking lot and noticed a rear rim with a flat spot. He was going on leave needed to get to Tennesee that evening, I jerked around with the balancer, rim and tire for about an hour and he drove on that rim/tire for about six months (he said that there was NO VIBRATION) However, to get it dynamically balanced I had weights located in multiple locations and a couple of the weights were LARGE. (I broke the beads moved the tire around on the rim a couple of times too) He finally paid to get it fixed and he told me that there is a difference now that the rim is actually true. (car was/is a Z4)

So long story short if there are large weights (either the balancer was lazy and didn't try to rotate tire position on the rim...or you have issues either with the rim...the tire or both. If the wheels are true and the tires are good you will feel a difference over balanced warped rims ....


In my opinion if you trust the place enough to have them chrome your wheels you should trust them enough to spring for the trueing.



Sorry for the long post..
MIke

Thanks for the info mike. I talked to them today and felt they were being honest. They said they would true all 4 wheels (they need to do that before they chrome them) and would only charge me for the 2 that were out the most. (the ones that had the stick on weights) So for $150 they said they would make them all good.

It's only money, I'll print some more if I run short. Just like the gov't.

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Hopefully you will see a diiference (feel actually)