Is this normal for a cast AL wheel

[Ro Jo]

I recently bought a single 15" (Shelby authorized ) 10-Spoke wheel from Tony Branda. It had a couple of areas on the inside of the wheel (covered when the tire is mounted) that were peened with what looks like an air hammer. Is this normal? It looks dangerous to me but I haven't had many cast aluminum wheels. (pics attached -hopefully)

 

[Ronstang]

I'm no structural engineer but for what those cost I would consider that a stress riser that could adversely affect the rims performance down the road (no pun intended). Did you call and ask Branda?

 

[Ro Jo]

It is normal but...

I sent an email to Branda but I didn't want to invest in a phone call (I'm in Germany and it could get expensive). I'm still waiting on their response.

I emailed Vintage Wheelworks the same time I posted this thread and they explained that the reason for the peening was to stop air leaks and it was normal. They went on to say that they use a different foundry from Branda and their wheels have, at most, one peened area per wheel.

Vintage was very prompt and professional - I plan to go to them for a full set and use the Branda wheel as my spare...or maybe an end table...

 

[Ronstang]

Good info, it was hard to really see in those pictures but it didn't look good. Now we know and hopefully others will benefit. I have a full set of those rims on my Shelby and never saw anything like that when I had the tires replaced....but mine are original and almost 40 years old so who knows.

 

[Ro Jo]

I sent the pics to Vintage - (I couldn't on my initial contact because I was using their web-mail interface). I don't have their permission to post their reply but basically they said that the peened area should be much, much smaller than what I've got and the the max depth should be 1/64th in, with no material removed. So, according to their criteria, I have a bad wheel.

Still no reply to my email from Branda. I guess I'll be calling them after all. Updates to follow.