Hot Rods Has anyone ever had custom aluminum wheels made?

Well making one off design wheels is going to be expensive in any manufacturing process. I suspect with the advancements in CNC Machining a wheel machined from a forged billet (as gimpyhotrods mentioned)could be the cheapest, simplest solution. In addition the wheels would have predictable mechanical properties for strength and less possible defects.

However another option not mentioned yet is 3D printed sand molds for casting. The process uses CAD models converted for shrinkage, draft, gating, etc. to 3D print one time use sand molds. This eliminates the need for patterns, core boxes and other tooling. This process is used for rapid prototyping of eventual production castings. However, casting produced in this process would still require machining.

 

Didn't @CTaulbert cast his own magnesium wheels on his dark green '33 5W?

 

^^ yes

 

For this exercise, I'd look at one of these methods:

1) Machine the wheels from billet
It'll be costly to buy billet blocks, and you'll also need to pay someone design time to produce the CAD models. This is the best way to get something truly one-off.

2) Modify existing wheels
This may limit you in wheel width and backspace possibilities, but it's a whole different price range to narrow a wheel vs machining one from scratch. ET has some 16" wheels that may be good candidates to work with? I think Scott was recently on a vacation, so keep trying ET. I think Eric Vaughan is still narrowing wheels too.

 

I would focus on having a set of wheels modified.

I believe that, while still not cheap, would be the most cost-effective.

 

I would be very interested in who narrows wheels.

 

Any qualified machinist with a big enough lathe, and a TIG welder could.

Finding one that doesn't have liability concerns might be a bigger challenge.

 

I would be very interested in who narrows wheels.

Eric Vaughn, Monrovia, CA

 

We did do 4 custom machined wheels in the early 90's. We machined the centers to press fit into 2 piece hoops where we bolted everything together with grade 8 button heads and silicon-ed the seam on the inside. I had them on a roadster for a short time until I saw some pictures of a wheel made this way that had blown apart and caused severe damage to the truck. Sold them at a swap meet in the late 90's.