I'm looking to get 2 wire wheels narrowed and can't find anyone to do it and the one place that will do it wants $250 per wheel. To me that is just nuts. There has to be someone out there that does this reasonably. Any idea's? I have a decent set of wires but the fronts are just too wide. They are a Chevy bolt pattern and I can't find a wheel with the same amount of spokes to match it. A whole new set of wheels in an option but at $1200 it isn't going to happen any time soon.
There might be a lot of shops/people who do this but few that will take the liability. $250 is a little rich but not out of the ball park. Is it the front or back side of the wheel that you would like to have narrowed ? I have had a lot of wheels made wider which is about the same cost due to having to cut another wheel plus whatever you have to add/use for the donor section to make it wider. Good luck and post a shot of the wheels that you are wanting to get narrow. Will keep an eye on this thread...
$250 at machine shop rate sounds like 2.5 hrs per wheel, that's pretty efficient I would say. $100 just isn't much money anymore.
Think about what's involved ? 2 cuts , trueing up the surfaces, welding, finishing, retrueing the rim, stress relief ??? It doesn't sound out of line but it sounds like more than you want to spend.
This is why many shops wont do one off parts anymore. You guys are not even including changing the tooling around and set up. Too many customers that cant do it think they should dictate the amount it should cost and the time it will take
They are front wheels but I want to narrow the back side. Seems like there is plenty of room to do this. I will post a picture. Sorry if I upset all you guys. I just think someone that is set up to do this kind of thing should have it down to a science. Your right I have no idea whats involved...
There was a feature in a Rod magazine 20+ years ago on this procedure. Wheel was cut, section removed with the second cut, two halves mated and trued, then gived a 100% weld bead, while it was setup in a lathe. Welding on a lathe takes a LOT protective covering to protect the bed. You may be better off buying blank rims the width you like and having them punched and the wheels relaced. Bob
You are dead on. Problem is, I dont know of anyone that is set up specifically to do this, other than specialty wheel shops, ad even then. Unfortunately our cars are a dying (although not to us) breed. The days of going to any regular wrecking yard and finding old cars is over. Sadly, so are the services of modifying these cars. In days of old, many mechanics shops had a distributor machine,,,, whens the last time you saw one in use? Even for many shops, try getting a simple pair of early ford kingpin bushings honed. It used to be EVERYONE could do it, nowdays you are lucky if your town has a single shop that can do it. What you need done, wasnt even done all the time "back then" so finding a shop to do it in years past was still a challenge, now fast forward 40+ years. I have narrowed quite a few rims for myself over the years, and you should see the looks on most modern hot rodders faces when I say I did it, you would swear they thought I was claiming to walk on water. There just wont be a lot of shops even willing to try it, let alone shops that have ever done it before.
How much do you want them narrowed? Are you wanting less back spacing? I have been widening and narrowing steel wheels for over 25 years. Yes I have done wire wheels before. I have never done any Chevy's but it should be no different. I have done Buick's and Ford's. It is really hard to give you an honest opinion without looking at them. The owner of the Ford's wanted the fronts to be 15x4 not 16x4. So I welded the hub with all 32 spokes into a different outer shell. That took 3-1/4 hours each. The rears he wanted a different outer shell so he could have the safety bead since he was running a tubeless tire. The Buick's I just widened.
I know that pictures can be deceiving but it doesn't look like you have an extra 2" on the front side to remove.
Sorry what was I thinking (suffering from turkey overload ). I changed my last post. I would be removing the material in the back of the wheel so backspacing will change.
Jim, I just went back and reread you original post. I must have not read it very thoroughly the first time. I see you do want it taken out of the back side. Sorry about that. It will change the backspacing 2". Now to the "problem" with doing this. The back side has a taper to it. From the "dropped" center, this is where the spokes are attached, modern wheels are made this way so the tire can be mounted without being a split rim. Once the back side "bells" towards the edge where the tire actually rides it is tapered from that bell to the safety bead. It does this so the tire does not drag all the way to the safety bead and so it will dismount with little drag. With that being said, taking 2" out I believe will allow the outer ring you are left with to actually fit over the inner part of the back of the wheel. I am just guessing from experience. Your wheels should be made of 10ga (.137) material. I am pretty sure the back of the wheel tapers more than that in 2". If it does you will have to put the back side of a narrower wheel on this. A narrower wheel has a shorter bell with less taper. I know this is a long drawn out explanation but I have done this before on steel wheels. If it does not taper enough to fit the ring over the back side of the wheel then it can be reattached and welded with no problem. It is very time consuming to try and "shim" it if it is to big plus you are trying to weld a very large gap. If you are serious send me a private message. I am sure I can do it for you. Bill
I had Wheel Kid put new 4" rims to mate up with Chrysler Imperial hubs... It wasn't cheap but they are beautiful and I believe safer than trying to narrow a set of rims and deal with trueing adjustable spokes
Something is funny about the spoke pattern in the top photo. Looks to me like between about 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock the pattern is inconsistent with the rest of the wheel.
Here is a pair that a friend of mine machined and I welded. They were 16" Kelseys machined down, and V/W 15" outer lips added to both sides. It was a lot of work, but they will be unique when finished and installed. BTW I hadn't finished welding when the pics were taken, when done they were welded inside and out.
A friend had a set of narrowed wires on his car. He ran them for years. One morning he went to take the car out and had 2 flat front tires. Both rims had split at the welds. He was glad they had split in the garage! I know it has been done for years, just saying it can happen.
if you do it yourself where i come from you cant tell anyone its illegal to have the weld the whole way round the diameter of the rim.
I'd have to say that's the particular guy who welded them and not the process of narrowing them. You'd be further ahead to think of it like this : " everything particular guy has welded is questionable way before every narrowed wheel is questionable"
What I thought was odd was that they were prob about 10 years on the car no leaks or shakes and overnight the both crack. I didn't look at them afterward to see where the break was.
Jim, you just need to charge more for your resin parts, then you can pay whatever the wheel places want to charge. Good luck
There's a place in Detroit that'll do any kind of wheel work you want - narrow, widen, change back spacing - aluminum or steel. They do beautiful work too. They did my rear wheels on my T coupe and a buddy has had muscle car rims widened. It's called "the Wheel Shoppe" (appropriately) 18011 14 mile Rd. Fraser Mi. 1 810 415 7171.Shipping might end up costing you more than the work though.
I wish. Always wanted to get some stuff from you, but ive not really been doing any scale rodding since buying the Hudson, and now i went and brought a 34 Chevy, that needs lots of love and cutting wheels. Theres always next year.....
I agree with the post recommending Wheelkid. His Dad pioneered the now famous 'lip-laced' wheels covering most makes; you may recall his beautiful Kelsey-Hayes types with adjustable polished stainless spokes? I would ask him about a narrow nippled outer rim, and simply replacing the wide outers?
Just an update. I have some new wheels on the way. The cheapest I could find was about $250 a wheel to have them narrowed and the cost of these was about $265 and they are new and powder coated. That's including shipping so it was more cost effective to just buy new. I sold my old ones for almost half the cost so for me it was a no brainer. Thanks for all the input and help.
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