As above please, hoping to crack on with my BBS refurb next week and need some filler. Never used it before so advice and tips please :)

is it not best to put blobs of ally weld in n then smooth then back?

^ dont think marty has the tools to do that. my advice marty is to speak to tom with the ratty black coupe. he has some buddies up at cowley who can weld alloy.

my experience of metal filler on alloy wheels is that its pretty whack and a bit of a pikey repair, which wont last anyway. unless your using it to fill imperfections, in which case regular filler will work fine. repairing the outer lip of a will with metal filler doesnt work, it'll just fall off the next time the tyres are changed.

If you prep the wheel correctly metal filler or chemical metal will work fine! and if the tyre fitter fits the tyres correctly you should not have a problem.

OR

Durafix Aluminum Welding Rods

Edited 28 April, 201016 yr by cheddarcheese

^ shame its not welding in the slightest. just a brazed joint, so there is no bond between it and the base metal, so probably not much better than chemical metal.

I've tried the chemical metal stuff to do a cosmetic repair on an outer lip the was pretty much taken off by a curb (the bit where the wheel wieghts are attached) and as soon as a tyre lever was used it fell off, much to the suprise of the guy removing the tyre ( i was fairly certain it wouldnt hold up, but i figured it would be funny to see his reaction and yes i did rough the alloy up before applying it, in some silly hope it might key better to it.

if there are massive chunks missing out of the wheel i see no other sensible option other than to get it welded up properly, and if the damage is cosmetic i dont see any benifit of using metal filler over regular car body filler

agree with jon there

minor nicks and marks , car body filler as its just cosmetic

any chunks out of the rim and it needs welding

Like i said jon if the tyre fitter knows how to fit tyres correctly you should not have a problem with chemical metal i have seen lots of bad curb marks filled with chemical metal and that have had no problems when fitting tyres!

And no surprise your fix did not work if you had taken a large chunk out of the side wall. was there a solid wheel lip around the hole rim most chemical metal wheel repairs are done on the face of the wheel to smooth curb scratches and small chunks on the out side edge of the rim as long as there is a solid lip where the tyre side wall sits against.

and the original question was what filler to use to refurbish rims not repair crash damaged rims!!!!!!

Edited 29 April, 201016 yr by cheddarcheese

Been as we are on the topic (sorry to hijack mart)

Yay or nay to chemical metal to fix that?

should be fine using chemical metal as its the outside edge of the rim no contact should be made with this area when fitting tyres. i had the same style curbing on a set of bbs alloys i did with a friend!

thats similar to the damage on a set of wheels i bought, already 'crash damaged' as cheddar put it.

i would try a get it welded if possible. with my set i only used chemical metal to make the damaged wheel look less messy till i sourced a new wheel. I had only paid £40 for them, so didnt think it was worth repairing, seing as it was just a minilite, which can be had pretty cheap most of the time of ebay etc.

Like i said jon if the tyre fitter knows how to fit tyres correctly you should not have a problem with chemical metal i have seen lots of bad curb marks filled with chemical metal and that have had no problems when fitting tyres!

I'm guessing the chemical metal was slightly higher than the rest of the remaining lip, so the little metal arm that you use the tyre lever against must have caught it. i guess you could blame the tyre fitter for it, but tbh i wasnt that bothered anyway

Like i said jon if the tyre fitter knows how to fit tyres correctly you should not have a problem with chemical metal i have seen lots of bad curb marks filled with chemical metal and that have had no problems when fitting tyres!

I'm guessing the chemical metal was slightly higher than the rest of the remaining lip, so the little metal arm that you use the tyre lever against must have caught it. i guess you could blame the tyre fitter for it, but tbh i wasnt that bothered anyway

The tyre place i use have plastic caps that can be used on the metal arm thingy to protect the rim any decent tyre fitter should use the plastic caps as standard nowadays as alloys can be very expensive to replace on some of the newer cars.

Also it could be a good idea to use a dermal with thin cutting disks and make some angled groves to allow the putty to have something extra to hold to maybe?

Edited 29 April, 201016 yr by cheddarcheese

Its more than just brazing,though. Brazing may be no different than chemical fillers on steel,but in this case its possible to melt the surface of the aluminium object before adding the rod to it (I've done this myself,pretty much any blowtorch will melt aluminium).

Therefore,it is in fact a weld due to the molecular mixing - its just that its only skin deep. But how deep does it need to be? Especially in this case? My only reservation is putting that much heat into one part of a wheel.

Also it could be a good idea to use a dermal with thin cutting disks and make some angled groves to allow the putty to have something extra to hold to maybe?

Bloody good idea that.

I'm gunna be sorting mine out on Saturday.

Will take um back a bit with the grinding stone on the dremel, as it wouldn't be so aggressive as a flap disk on the grinder.

I'll then have a go at doing the above (cutting disk and grooves) with the dremel

Carboard taped the inside of the lip to get it nice and straight and then stuff it with chemical metal.

Never used chemical metal before, I'm guessing it apply's and hardens the same as normal body filler?

And Dremels, possibly the most useful power tool I have ever owned/used. Amazing little things. I'd have been stuck so many times if it wasn't for mine.

Never used chemical metal before, I'm guessing it apply's and hardens the same as normal body filler?

Follow the instructions just the same as normal filler. give plenty of drying time so the repair goes rock hard before sanding!

Will probably leave them over night, reckon it will be hard enough then?

I'm going to take a million and 7 pictures whilst I'm doing this. Then maybe do a thread for the FAQ bit on it providing it all works and survives the tyre fitting stage.

Chemical metal hardens quickley within ten mins, you will have to leave a good hour or so to fully harden before sanding though, also its a bastard to sand when i did my wheels, even with a metal file on them

get to your local building site and steal some mitre bond!!!!

i refurbed my mates cupra r alloys with that and after being painted u cant notice a single thing. and very easy to sand into shape when its hard and when it sets hard.. IT SETS HARD!!!!

sorry bit behind , whats this metal filler then ? I've got a set of wheels need abit of filling