I needed a wider wheel for my modified and after checking a lot of 16 inch steel ones I found one that will work . It comes on late ,as in 2000 or so Chebby pickups and the spares are painted while the others are chrome. I paid $55 for two with used tires on them. The part of the rim that the wide five insert attaches to is offset so reversing is a snap. If I can figure out the picture thing were going to give this a whirl. This should be a pic. of the stock wheel .
This is the rim with the old center cut out. The center is really not just the center as it also is the bead part of the rim for one side. Check out the wheel when you get one and you will understand. I cut one with the plasma cutter and it was pretty ugly so the next one was just with an abrasive cutoff tool. You can see where they have been welded together at the bottom of where the bead sets.
I then put the center in ,it just taps in with a hammer ,fits really good and put it on a front wheel with a dial indicator to check runout. I got it within 30 thou. and tack welded it from the back.Now you may want to weld the valve stem hole shut and relocate to the front, I didn't as the stem is easily accessable from the back on my car.
Ok ,just remove it and weld, this is the way mine looked with a coat of primer and two of silver.The drums will be a contrasting color ,don't know what yet. The beauty rings off the old rims will fit on these fine also,I don't think I'll use them anyway. Hope this helps someone,I am not berry gooder at splainin" things sometimes. I just think it's time I gave something back. Thanks .
Good post dude, cool that you're clinging to the old wide 5's too! Would be interesting to see what WIDER wide 5's will look like with some old Firestone deluxe champs in a bigger size would look like. I bet it's pretty cool
Excellent post !! I was going to split my 4" wide rims and weld in a rolled band. This is gonna save me a TON of work. Thank you, thank you, thank you, JOECOOL !
Very nice, I have some 16 inch Audi steel wheels that are waiting for the same treatment. How long dit it take you to separate the wide 5 centre from its rim ? Did you grind the rivets and punch them out or drill them out ?
I ground the rim side of the rivets off and punched them out ,the centers would not come out though ,without cutting the wheel. The ugly part is the centers in the new wheels ,I found a local guy with a lathe big enough to cut the centers but he wanted $35 a piece to do them so I took the grinding route.
You might want to rethink this. Remember, the heat from the brake will radiate to the valve stem. I've lost track of the number of pressure loss situations caused by faulty valve stems. Ozone and heat will attack the rubber stem or rubber gasket on a metal stem. If you have to flex the stem to check pressure or add air you'll create a potential air loss situation. Now, how do ya' think I know this ? Also, good tech article. I'm in the middle of installing old Ford 5 on 5.5" centers in some 15" x 8" rim shells right now.
Old thread... Does anyone have the pics of this tech thread? Or anyone have a pic of what Chevy wheels he used? Cheers eh! -Shiny
I didn’t use Chevy wheels but I did a tech thread using Chrysler minivan wheels. Maybe some one can find it.
The wide fives are the same size as the modern 16" large ID wheels, they're very common, almost any 16" wheel from the 90s or newer will work.
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