Wheel gurus....I have wheel construction and finish durability questions. There are plenty of great wheels out there and I have seen them all BUT what I really want to know is:

In general what process is more durable against impact? Forged, cast, semi forged, etc...

In general what finish is the most tolerent against chipping, dealing with contaminents, weather etc......

My stock wheels are really poor looking after 2 full years of Minnesota driving. Minnesota kills wheels.....so much that I hesitate to spend the money on new rims...there is my problem..

I definitely like tamac style wheels from Enkei, Ralliart etc...WRC copy wheels. I appreciate any info. Thanks.

 

bumper

 

First of all, I'm NOT a wheel guru. However, in our company we do a good amount of heat treatment and work with forgings. Admittedly these are steel parts (as compared to wheels being made primarily from al alloys). Anyway, from my limited insight in metallurgy:

The cast wheels are bascially the most basic. I mean, a forged wheel begins life as a casting of some shape. Although the forging process moves dislocations about, improving strength by work hardening and reduce any porosity etc. I think in wheel manufacturing it is also used to get around the flow and cooling problems associated with the casting. Basically, you can forge a piece into a shape that would be extremely difficult/impossible to cast such as very thin spokes or some of the more complex sections. So forging can be viewed as a method to reduce weight as well as to improve strength. However, this doesn't mean that a cast wheel cannot be made very strong. If you are concerned with impact, wheels either crack or bend when you decide to drive on the the curb or something. Obviously you don't want either and when push comes to shove, you'd want it to bend rather than crack.

For a wheel to bend you need it to be ductile. Brittleness and ductility arguably has more to do with heat treatment processes than whether or not the piece was forged. It's possible to do both very well and it is possible (and easy) to mess both up.

So my answer would be that both can be made durable against impact and neither will be certainly better than the other in this respect. However, there's a good chance that a forged wheel will be lighter while having similar strength. But again, there is a flip side to this. As companies make lighter and lighter wheels, they can start doing so at the expense of strength so it is very possible that from the same company a cast wheel can be stronger (but heavier) than a forged one...

Anyway, JWL and other standards are pretty tough and you hardly hear any problems with the more reputable brands, such as BBS and to an extent Volk, either cast or forged.

As for racing wheels, do be careful as some do not carry these (JWL etc.) logos and are not 'road legal' so I'd assume that you shouldn't drive with them on the road.

 

forged wheels are the strongest. forging retains the ductility and strength by never allowing any forces to be recived by one geometry of resistance.

i hate it when people use ply wood as an example because i'm sure we've all had a situation where ply wood broke on us, but think plywood... they lay it in different directions. now think 3d. basically when you cast (entirely) you allow all the lil iron molecules to align with each other and this makes them weaker becasue it's like putting two toothpicks nose to tail and expecting them to not break.

if you guys have seen the volk foundry video you'll see that actually all wheels are forged in a way. the spin casting that they refer to is actually a type of forging, and all wheels have to go through this part to have the actual inside area of the wheel made.

that said i've almost never seen a volk wheel break, i've seen one bent after a catastrphic accident. i broke a 5 zigen gn+, i broke it, cracked it and bent it :\.

the problem is if you know your roads are ruff on wheels you might want to find something more readily available. breaking a volk sucks on the wallet and sucks even more when you find out there's a 6 month waiting period.

about finishes. there is almost no such thing as a good wheel finish from the factory. you can even see in the volk foundry process that they just spray the thinniest coat of paint on there. this will easily scratch off.

the best coating you can do to a wheel is to just dip it in automotive paint, with a good thick coat of clear. that's it, final. yes even that will scratch and if you abuse it crack and peel but it's better than the crap they put on wheels now.

in all honesty... you shouldn't worry about finish too much, it's a wheel... it holds the things that touches the ground. and it's gonna get messed up... so just every time you get new tires get a new color. get a wheel you like that you want to keep that you can be proud of and then you can change colors all the time... just get them redipped. if it wasn't so time consuming i'd rattle can it myself. NO powder coating. NO anodizing. NO any kind of process that HEATS the wheel. not saying i know any better than anyone else... but it's just NOT NECESSARY when you can sand the bugger down and spray it with automotive paint and just leave out to dry. NO REASON to heat the wheel!

remember if you get a little curb rash, they can just polish the lip for you... adds some bling and it gets rid of all the rash, will not sure gouging though.

 

+1 to what trinydex said, the only way you are going to protect the wheels is paint them ... if you don't want to deal with painting you could wax the crap out of it before winter begins. This is where it helps to have 2 sets of rim, 1 good set and a cheap crappy set you can use for winter.
If you have ever seen adds for BBS forged wheels they show a magnification of the structure/composition of the material and the forged wheels look more uniform with pockets of material squeezed closer together (denser).

 

Thanks for the reply...I assumed the forging process did what you explained..sort of a compressing and aligning process to add strength. What I didn't know was that all wheels are painted. I was hoping there was a Brand, model that incorporated a different more durable painting process, Maybe even a wheel where the color comes naturally from the material..in other words like stainless, magnesium etc.. I have had magnesium motorcycle wheels.....sounds like there is no magic bullet...thanks fellas.

PS. In general everybody speaks well of Volk. Any comments on Enkei?

 

enkei is only ok. they make motorsports wheels. that means they only make them strong enough to not take something out with it.

they expect you to break them, so they make them in more massive numbers and they're more available. they are made with a easy process so they can be churned out quick. prices are fair. problem is... they're not offset friendly.

another problem is despite the massive numbers they churn out, we see very few :[.

that said they make some of the best wheels in teh world and provide for some of the top tier motorsports. so they're definitely capable. in fact i think that enkei has the most sound philosophy.