I managed to bend the rim on my Cobalt by hitting a serious pothole. It is a stock steel 15" rim. It is still holding air with a slow leak, and the bend is similar to this pic:



Can something like this be pounded out?

 

Can try taking a big pipe wrench and slowly working it out...

 

For sure you can straighten that. If you have the tire off you can hit it with a hammer and undo most of the damage. You can also grab it with a large adjustable wrench and bend it back but the wheel has to be held down soild (I do it with it hooked into the tire machine still)

 

Thanks guys! I`ll give it a try and post the results. I would imagine either way I will need to get it rebalanced. It is really vibrating.

 

Yeah it will have to be checked for balance, I wouldn't advise you to drive on it any more than you have to for now, that's not very safe and with the bead area compromised like that if you hit another hard bump in the same area of the rim it could cause the tire to instantly deflate and could cause you to lose control or cause a lot more damage. Fix it asap.

 

Ok, I just took it out for a drive after trying to get it straightened out. Man, even those stock steelies are no joke. With as thin as the metal looks, I thought it would just take a couple wacks with the ballpeen. I ended up pounding away at it with the metal mallot. Turns out there were three bend (not as bad) on the back side of the rim as well. After about 20 minutes, I put it back on and took it for a drive. The vibration is almost completely gone now, and isn`t really noticeable now until like 50 mph. I think I will need to get it balanced though to be perfect as someone else has mentioned. Thanks guys!