Help...Wheel dilemma

["Osman Parvez" <oparvez1@nycap.rr.com>]

The car : 89 200q

Okay,
        Many thanks to those people who have assisted me thus far in my
wheel problems. I'm down to the wire now, and a new/old problem has
resurfaced. I'll try to pare this down to the basic minimum:

THE PROBLEM: 
I had my oem wheels (from 89 200q, basket style, BBS look) refinished.
During the refinishing, my friend called me and told me that one of the
wheels had a crack. He assured me that the crack was small and that it
could be repaired. I thought he repaired it (i.e welded). He didn't, and
sanded and resprayed the wheels anyway. I found out today. The wheels look
great, but the crack looks like a major problem.
Needless to say, when I saw them I practically screamed. 


The crack itself is right on the outside lip of the wheel, all the way
through (I can see the other side of the wheel). It goes down the lip and
ends where the lip straightens out. God knows how long it's been cracked,
but it could explain the slow leak I've had for many years in one of the
tires. Anyway, it doesn't look like it would crack any further being in a
relatively low stressed area of the wheel. 

 OPTION 1: REPAIR
Does anybody know of a way to salvage this wheel besides sending it out to
a "professional refinishing shop"?  Used wheels run ~$125, and I could run
into a nicely corroded wheel and have to sand and respray them again.
That'll end up costing me close to $275 WITHOUT the labor!  I could always
just replace the wheel and then not refinish it but I'm scared to see what
condition a used wheel will come in. How bad will the paint look. 

It looks like a super epoxy would prevent the wheel from leaking air from
the crack. Any recommendations? I discussed welding previously with Igor
and he explained many of the cons to me. However being such a small crack
I'm not sure if that would be a huge problem. 

I don't believe that a safety issue comes up here because of the location
and size of the crack. If it did crack further or the "plug" didn't hold,
the worse I can expect is a slow leak (I hope). 

OPTION 2: REPLACE  em' all.

In the past I've looked into Compmotive wheels and their costs. They run
approximately $185-195/each. AND they take 4-6 weeks before they get here.
Tire rack claims to have many wheels that fit. The ones that looked the
best were a set of Borbets that run $145/each. Since my tires are looking
kinda shoddy as well, I could probably get into a package deal (with some
D-40's) for under $1200. 

I could go all out and get a set of 17" Compmotives with D-40s for under
$2000, but I think I'm stretching myself a bit too thin there cash wise.
They look fantastic on Audidudi's car, but I'm a bit weary of spending that
much right now with me going back to school in the fall. 


CONCLUSION: 
     I need to make this problem go away by the end of the week. I was
hoping to drive this car out to PP, and I've got a long list of stuff to do
to the car before that. Worse come to worse, I could slap my summer tires
on my winter (steel) rims and run to PP that way an then deal with the
problem when I get back. 
If I can't resolve this by Friday, I'll probably do that. 

I'll be calling discount tire direct and the Tire Rack tommorow morning and
obtaining price quotes. I like the way that the Momo silver arrows looked
on Igor's car, so I'll get that quote from Discount Tire. I'll get a quote
on the Borbet's from the Tire Rack. 


If anybody has any BTDT's on any of the above issues, wants to disagree
with anything I said, or has *anything* remotely useful to say.. please let
me know asap. Jeff if you want to sell you Compmotives, I'm a distressed
buyer right now. If anybody is parting with their Fuchs, or has got a nice
condition oem wheel kicking around (in pearl white) and wouldn't mind
parting with it.. give me a holler. 

Sorry for being so long-winded. Please accept my TIA for now if I'm a bit
behind in getting back to you. 

P.S. Jeff G, you are right. Ya get what you paid for! 

Osman Parvez
Albany, NY
89 200q, TAP Chip, 171K
92 Miata, auto, 6K, For Sale