Cracked alloy wheels, bent rims, curb rash and bead seat leaks. Welded, trued and finished so the wheel runs round and holds air, usually for a fraction of what a replacement costs.
4.9 50 reviews from Cleveland customers
Rated with the BBBArc Wheels Welding LLC, since 2023
Black ownedIndependent shop on Cleveland's southeast side
A cracked wheel is the repair people are most surprised to learn exists. The usual sequence is a pothole on a Cleveland side street, a slow leak that keeps coming back, then a tire shop saying the wheel is bad and quoting a replacement. For most alloy wheels that replacement costs several hundred dollars and the repair does not.
Wheel repair is the single most common job through this shop. Cracked alloy rims, bent rims, curb rash and bead seat leaks. The wheel gets stripped and inspected first, because what the crack is doing on the inside matters more than what it looks like from the outside. If it is repairable you get a price and a timeframe. If it is not, you get told that instead, which happens often enough to be worth saying out loud.
Four failures cover almost everything that arrives on Corlett Ave.
Cracks at the inner barrel and behind the spoke face, usually from a pothole or a hard curb hit. The crack is ground out to sound metal, welded with controlled heat so the surrounding alloy does not lose temper, then dressed and checked. This is the repair that most often gets quoted elsewhere as a new wheel.
Flat spots and bent lips from potholes. The rim is straightened and then measured for runout, because a wheel can look straight and still shake at speed. Bent and cracked together on the same wheel is common and gets handled in one visit.
The slow leak that keeps coming back after two trips to a tire shop is usually corrosion on the bead seat rather than a bad tire or a bad valve. The seat gets cleaned back to clean metal and sealed so the tire holds properly.
Gouged and scraped faces smoothed back and refinished. Cosmetic rather than structural, and worth doing when the rest of the wheel is sound and you want the set to match again.
Steel wheels bend more than they crack. Straightening and welding both, on daily drivers, work vans and trailers.
Bring a wheel somebody else already welded and we will tell you honestly whether the repair is sound. A bad weld on a wheel is worth knowing about before it fails at speed.
Two things stack here. The freeze and thaw cycle opens potholes on residential streets faster than they get filled, and road salt corrodes the bead seat and the inner barrel where you cannot see it. A wheel that has been corroding for four winters cracks from an impact that would have done nothing to a new one.
Low profile tires make it worse, because there is less sidewall between the pothole and the rim. If you run 18 inch wheels or larger on a Cleveland daily driver, a cracked or bent rim is close to a matter of time rather than bad luck.
This shop is at 12212 Corlett Ave, off Corlett between East 123rd and Union, a few minutes from I 77 and Harvard. Wheels come in from across the east side including Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Warrensville Heights, Shaker Heights, Bedford and Euclid.
In most cases yes. The wheels that come in here are usually cracked at the inner barrel or the back of the spoke face, and both weld well when the alloy is prepped properly and the heat is controlled. The cases where we say replace are a wheel cracked through the barrel in more than one place, a crack running through a spoke into the hub face, or a wheel that has already been welded badly by somebody else.
It depends on whether the wheel is cracked, bent, or both, and on the finish. Rather than give a number that turns out to be wrong once the wheel is on the bench, we quote from photos. Send a picture to 216.309.1567 and a real number comes back, usually the same day the shop is open. Quotes are free.
A properly repaired wheel is. Two things decide it. Heat control, because too much heat softens the alloy around the repair, and truing, because a wheel that is not brought back to round will vibrate and leak at the bead. Both are part of the job here rather than an extra.
Yes. Bent rims from potholes are as common as cracks in Cleveland. The wheel gets straightened and then checked for runout, because a rim that looks straight can still be out enough to shake at highway speed.
Many wheels go out the same day. A wheel that needs straightening, welding and refinishing takes longer. You get a timeframe with the quote rather than after we have your wheel.
Yes, both. Steel wheels are more often bent than cracked and are usually a straightening job. Alloy is where the welding work is.
Most quotes come back the same day the shop is open. Free, no obligation, and if it cannot be repaired you will hear that straight.
