Truck wheel ring straightener

[Frank S]

sometimes accidents happen. In the case of an aquaintance's 1940 ish truck such an event took place He is doing a mega buck bolt by bolt better than factory restoration, and this means some parts are very expensive if you can even find them. the tires alone are over $800.00 each plus shipping and there are 10 of them, they will only fit properly on the original 4 piece rims which consist of rim inner and outer bead rings and outer lock ring. Somehow the truck got knocked off the stands the wheels were on it but not the tires on 1 axle the wheel hit something on the ground and was damaged He searched for a month for a replacement bead ring that was in good enough shape to serve as a replacement.to no avail at least not one in a price range he was comfortable with we are talking over $600.00 just for a rusty bead ring that may or may not be round or one that wasn't so beat up from years of use that it would cost hundreds more to get it back to serviceable condition. I saw a thread on another forum where he had posted about it with a dozen in my opinion half backed or non experienced answers. So I just flipped out a post and said just send it to me before you manage to break it into a couple dozen pieces 1 dozen OK not 2 dozen.Then I forgot about it. the next morning I get a phone call. Frank do you remember me? You welded up that 1936 Atomic 4 engine block for that had a 3 ft long crack for DR. Piske. about 30 years ago. I was the one who told you it couldn't be done. Yea I remember, what you got, I asked. It's my wheel that is bent that you said send it to you before I break it. if you think you can repair it give me your address.
the ring arrived by UPS AIR 2 days later,Friday about noon,

bent in 2 planes and egged on 2 sides

after a little heat never enough to get it hot enough to change color and a lot of massaging with a very small hammer less than a pound it is beginning to take shape

I just happened to find a 23.780" steel disk to use as a shaping die or anvil if you will.

I used flat bar strips to force the ring over width 90° to the bent areas.

its round now but still .090" out he could have lived with .125" out or round

But I wasn't satisfied so I welded a half round to my table then made a cam type lever stretcher so I could hook the ring on 1 side then pull the other by rotating the cam on a1" bolt in a hole in my table

after pulling and massaging with a hammer several times I boxed the ring back up and sent it home at .020" probably as round as it was the day it was forge rolled total time with making the lever cam under 4 hours If I had wanted to make a 160 mile round trip I could have sent it back the same day I got it.I wasn't about to try and get it powder coated his guy in California can do that.