Salutations:
Right - alloy wheel repair is an interesting process.
I had the rims into a retail tire place with a wheel straightening service and was told that they didn't want to chance breaking them given the outside lips on the rims were equally dinged. Fair enough and very much appreciated honesty on the shop's part. Apparently the donor machine drove over something hard with low tire pressures or short profiles.
The concern was that if they broke in the press - they didn't have the facility to weld them. So, I tracked down a commercial welding shop that does wheel repair. The welding shop does a little off-road racing and were comfortable with the idea of welding the rims in the event the press broke an edge.
Interestingly - the problem really comes down to the way the rim is built. NG900 three spokers have a 'thick' short outer lip as opposed to the inner rim - which is a much longer and thinner section of alloy. This means that while the press will most certainly flatten it out - if they don't get the heating process right they stand a good chance of cracking it along the spokes.
Anyway - it was advised that I should be prepared to do some decorating at the end of all of this - assuming that the welds (if any) are not too ugly
- can anyone advise on a coating that would keep the shine up if I polished the rims. If not - can anyone provide any experiences with good alloy wheel paint? Wonder if they would/could benefit from some bright colours?