Can I Hammer Straighten A Bent Wheel?

There are some who would run screaming at the mere mention of a hammer to correct a bent wheel, but in the olden/good ol’ days/days of yore etc when wheels were still made of 100% steel, hammering them back into shape was a perfectly acceptable method of straightening. And depending on the skill of your mechanic (or you, as the case may be!), you might actually end up salvaging your wheel at the end of the beating. 

But steel has its limitations, and time and technology have brought us alloy wheels, composed of a super-resilient combination of aluminum and nickel. ‘Both relatively soft metals,’ I hear some voices from the rear saying. ‘Should be easy to hammer back into compliance.’ While this would seem to be true on the surface of things, the reality is that the repeated impact of a hammer on this high-tech metal alloy can have shattering consequences - literally. Even if your wheel doesn’t break apart, the impact of the hammer can cause a myriad of hairline cracks that will decide to spontaneously combust one day when you’re innocently driving down the highway, leaving you with three wheels and a concussion, if you’re lucky.

So what’s a beleaguered wheel-owner to do when its winter and the road looks like a small army of gophers developed steel helmets? There are ways to bend a wheel back into roadworthiness, but they require skill and specialist machinery.

At Salt City Wheels, we’ve been getting the kink out of vehicular thinks since the dark ages (back when two-tone paint was a novelty. I know - that long). Our experienced wheel repair professionals are experts in wheel straightening. No matter how crumpled the wheel, how bumpy the ride, how mangled the rim, our wheel repair artists have the know-how to iron out the bends and salvage your wheel. To top it all off, our service is 100% mobile, so we bring all this expertise to you in our mobile wheel repair workshop.

Oh and on a side note, we won’t completely ruin your wheel in the process, either. Many tire and wheel repair shops seem to use blunt force trauma on wheels, leaving deep gouges, scratches and scuffs that require a specialist repair in their own right. We are gentle, deliberate and skilled in repairing ALL wheel damage, and will make sure your wheels come back to you in tippety-top condition.

If you’ve had a brush with a pothole and need your bent wheel straightened out again, give the professionals at Salt City Wheels a call at 801 425 3044 today. We’ll have you running on all fours again in no time.