Shop messed up my rim - can I still use it?
 

I've got a pickup bed trailer made out of an old 70's yota. Had a tire totally blow out and when I took it to my local shop they told me they couldn't get it off after 'trying everything' and gave it back to me. Took it home and did it myself with a prybar and a utility knife but those idiots tried (and failed) with a ginder and put a pretty good nick in my rim. It's about 1/2" long and at the deepest maybe 3/4 of the way through. Steel rim. Is this rim shot? Is it a crazy idea to fill the nick with weld and grind it back smooth? I can do that easy enough but not sure if the heat would do anything significant to the integrity of the rim. I'm pretty annoyed, I mean what kind of shop lets some kid take a grinder to your rim without calling first to get the ok?

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...174934dec.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...c3e4f609c.jpeg

Personally, and again personally, I would tack it smooth it and forget about it. Aluminum wheel yea not good but steel, I wouldn’t worry about it. But again that’s me, might be someone that can chime in as far as knowledge on structural damage etc but I’ve seen some gnarly steel wheels beat to absolute garbage still holding air and working fine.

Thanks. Buddy of mine said the same thing, I think I'll go for it. Gonna look weird anyway if I have one fresh new rim on this beat up ol hauler and I'm sick of dealing with this shop they ˟˟˟˟ed my alignment on my tacoma all up too...

Yup......NOBODY DOES THIER JOB ANYMORE, it’s sad it seems like anything I can’t do and I have to take it to someone I don’t know I expect to have to take it back at least once to get it right....it’s sad:(

You could braze that and not worry about heat hardened steel. If you weld it the proper thing to do is anneal and and normalize it. Just welding it and smoothing it probably isn't going to be an issue, just don't expect it to be as ductile should you need to hammer it back into shape on the trail after a hard hit. If you hammer adjust it and it's hardened it could crack.