a few nights ago i was driving home from work, i had to take a detour home because there was some highway work going on, now this particular road that i drove on has almost no lights at all, so it can be hard to see.

Unfortunately, it was raining that night so it made it even harder to see. to my luck, i ended up hitting a huge pothole filled with water. immediately after, my car began to shake violently, i instantly knew it was a bent rim. lastnight, a found a posting on craigslist about a guy sellling some 17" rims and they fit my car, he was selling them for $200. so i went checked them out, and bought them, they seemed fine. i drove with them for the day, and they worked great.

woke up this morning to find that two of the wheels were completely flat. i took them off and noticed 1 rim had a crack in the spoke where it meets the lip and another one had 2 cracks on the back of it, they are very small, but noticible. i dont have the cash to replace them, so my question is, could you weld the affected areas? i've heard about people doing it and succeding, but im a bit skeptical

 

You could weld it but I wouldn't recommend it. You don't really know if the crack was from a bad casting. The weld can actually make the surrounding areas weaker too

 

Rims are consumables.
If they are cracked in one spot, they are bound to crack in another. If the rim was cast it may not be weldable.
Just chuck them and get a new set of wheels or used set of stock wheels.

 

If you're too low on money, you might need to use 2 of your old wheels and your 2 newer ones for a bit... A bit ghetto, but I'd do that over taking chances with weld mending wheels