Need help finding one crappy chinese wheel
 

I bought these from a guy and he told me they were inexpensive wheels. I thought they looked good in the pictures and they came with 6 decent treaded tires. For $500 I thought I was getting a good deal and he had a friend deliver them to me at a race event. He was suppose to race that weekend but couldn't make it. They weren't as good looking as they were in the pics, but I figured I'd just paint them. No big deal, what can you expect for $500?! Well fast forward 9 months and I finally get to the point where I'm ready to powder coat them. I take them off my box and start to prep them for the sand blaster. On the back side of one I find a small crack. Damn it! I take that bad wheel to a metal fabrication shop around the corner. I usually bring stuff there that I need tig welded. The old man there tells me that he can attempt to weld it but that being it's a cheap knock off, it probably is made out of crappy aluminum too. So that being said, I come home and start looking for a replacement. I've searched for awhile now and can't find an exact match. I thought it couldn't hurt to ask one of you guys if you might recognize this wheel and where to find one? It's a 18x10 ET48 BBS LM replica
I'm not looking to turn this into a "replicas suck thread!". Yes they suck and I don't plan on tracking with these wheels. They'll be fine for cruising around the streets. I'll throw on factory wheels when I DE my car.
Thanks Woody
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps8ymdzhu6.jpg
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...psxphhkxbg.jpg
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...pssfr90pdr.jpg

I am going to search the internet under cheap crappy knockoff wheels for you. I will let you know.

I'm in a fast train and can't upload pics, just tried and it failed twice. Bad connection or something.

Try to access the link below. Just rang the chap a min ago and he certainly can get you the wheel in pcd130 but he can't sell you only one. Got to buy the set (4). Good news is they are $65 each (phone price). Include shipping and you are looking at a $300 min wheel. I can sell the 3 left over to my aluminum recyler for about $50~70 max.

How desperate are you mate?

LINK:
17

Looked on ebay and through the catalogs of most of the knockoff wheel companies I could think of and couldn't find an exact match. Lots that are 99% similar, but none with the JWL marking on the face like yours. FWIW, that points to them being japanese made, not like that really helps narrow things down much though.

They have single units/blanks if you are able to dead center your own PCD. Gets better tho... $30 lolll

(availability unconfirmed, no phone #, QQ only)

http://gd1.alicdn.com/imgextra/i1/12...!129753673.jpg

ps: no JIL or TUV stamps on these locally... those with stamps were meant for the US smuggling market only.

Funny Craig!
[QUOTE=Nine8Six;480574]Try to access the link below. Just rang the chap a min ago and he certainly can get you the wheel in pcd130 but he can't sell you only one. Got to buy the set (4). Good news is they are $65 each (phone price). Include shipping and you are looking at a $300 min wheel. I can sell the 3 left over to my aluminum recyler for about $50~70 max.
How desperate are you mate?
QUOTE]
I'd spend $200 at this point. Anymore than that and I'd roll the dice with welding the crack. I tried that link but my Chinese isn't so great. Only thing I could make out was the box that said 17 18 or 19.
I'm pretty sure the JWL markings are fake. The bolts around the lip are real, but the wheel is a one piece cast. The bolts are super light. They almost feel like plastic they're so light. I even bit down on one just to check.

I found 18x9.5's that were close but no cigar. I think that's a date stamp of 04/07 on the back. Probably a special batch made up at one time that's no longer made.

I used to TIG weld repair cracked aluminum wheels for the local wheel repair shop, and they were pretty selective about what kinds of cracks they would repair (based on what their insurance allowed). That said, the crack you showed in the location it is (out on the lip) does look repairable. Basically, anything outboard of the safety bead would be repairable by this reputable aluminum wheel repair shop.

Whether it is economically viable to do so, I can't answer. It does take some special skills and technique (even beyond just "normal" TIG welding skills and setup) to do these. The wheel repair shop I believe would also straighten them before or after the welding. (In fact, some times the crack would happen while they were straightening). They would always heat up the area they were working before they straightened. They were experts at refinishing, although you might not need it if the crack is just on the inner lip.

All the paint in the area of the weld needs to be removed before welding. Good luck!

These look pretty close:

New design replica alloy wheels BBS LM classical-in Rims & Accessories from Automobiles & Motorcycles on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

Try ESM Wheels or Miro for a new one, probably not worth the cost of fixing based on what a new one goes for.

Based on the marking on the face that looks like a Miro.

I had one of these cheapos welded once. The guy did an excellent job. About 24 hours later in between moving the wheel from the welder to my wheel guy for mounting the aluminum did a funny thing.
It shape shifted so to speak and what was a round weld looked like a irregular droop.
And recent a wheel I had welded cracked along the weld and of course started giving me vibration and began to wear out the tire unevenly because of the hippity hop at speed.

p.s.
I think you're better off selling the three good wheels you have on Ebay. Maybe someone will buy them as back ups for their complete set.
The differing wheel weights might be more than wheel balancing weights can even out. Unless it's the same company making all of these.

Another option would be to find a couple of wheels that are a fairly close match to what you have and run a matched pair on each side of the car (one side what you have now, the other side new pair). Unlikely anyone would notice.

Thanks guys for your help. I took the tire off today and there was no manufacture stamp but there was an inspection stamp of 2004. I dropped it off at the weld shop and told the guy to give me until tomorrow before he starts on it. A lot of those wheels don't come in the Porsche bolt pattern and if they do, it doesn't have the same back spacing or width. 10 inches wide with a et48 seems to be nonexistent. I'll be doing some more searching tonight. Thanks again everyone. :cheers:

Woody, welding this cast AL is very feasible mate. Some of the hardest welding I understand and scaring anyone but very doable (your welder knows that, he is just lazy mate). The area simply needs to be brought down to its bare metal (i.e. clean x1,000!). Pre-heat 'both sides' as opposed to one and refill as quick as possible.

I'd use a radial blade to slice off the crack (2~3mm wide groove) and grind the surrounding area real good with a SS pad. Fill up, grind the excess and voila (45min max)

Luck with whatever you end up doing there mate

Look familiar? (I thought I saw something like this before...)

Aluminum wheel crack repair

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...psvamurk9b.jpg
All better now and off to the sand blaster. I found out they were sold by Giovanni and are no longer sold through them. Giovanni use to sell them back in the day when 18's were considered big. I'm going to powder coat them gloss black and use them until I find something better. Thanks everyone for your help:cheers:

a recipe for disaster...?
 

Itsnotanova,

Please don't take me wrong but it seems that a lot could be at stake here.

* a Chinese made wheel..
* a Damaged Chinese made wheel ...!
* a welded (repaired) Chinese made wheel, and powder coated (where the end user may never knew that it was repaired )To be installed on a sports car..?

I am not implying that you will not disclosed but if the wheel changes hands two more times later, would the new owner ever know..?

I have heard of many scary stories about wheel failures on the track due to unknown cracks and wheel fissures...

No offense taken and valid points. The cheap Chinese repaired wheel scares the hell out of me too. That's why I'm not ever going to track with these wheels. I've decided that I only plan on using them to see if I like black wheels on my box and work out the bugs from an Carrera engine swap. After I find replacements, they're going to the scrap pile.