Has any body here got any experiance widening steal rims by cutting the centre out, cutting up another rim and mating the two together then replacing the centre with the right off set? I would love to know some of the specifics like how you keep the hole thing true and even. I'm building a street car that has a late 60's funny car look to it and I want BIG rubber in the rear but I want to keep the steal chromies I have on it. Thanks Twig. <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
If you have access to a brake drum lathe you can do it one of 2 ways. Mount the wheel on a hub or rotor and cut as deep as possible, Then remove it from the lathe and finish the cut with what ever you have. roll a band to space the two halves and weld it back together. There is a steel ruler available to the sheet metal people that allowed you to measure a diameter and it reads out in cir***ference. This was a big help making those spacer bands. An extra center hammered in, 1/2 in the rim & 1/2 in the spacer, forced it to be round while welding. The other way is to cut rims up and favor first one side then the other, welding the 2 widest halves to gether. Hope this helps.
A lot at stake here. If you are adding a hoop into the wheel, get the welds right. Big lathe is best, but there are shops that perform this service. This is one of those things I let the guys who do it all the time handle. FYI... Some drag race rules don't allow welded wheels. These guys do great work. Its not that expensive... http://weldcraftwheels.com/
I've done several but you say you want chrome. It probably would be cheaper to get what you want from a wheel supplier. It's my understanding that the spider and rim need to be polished before they are ***embled and then they are dipped. Doable but a PITA unless you do your own polishing. If they are 15", I look for the old white spoke off road wheels. They are dirt cheap and rarely have any pits. All you want is the hoops. 12 5/8" is the standard for 15 in wheel centers. I too used a brake lathe to dial them in before welding (I had one) but with some imagination the front hub on the car can be used to check the run out before welding with a dial indicator.
I would check with Stockton Wheel. Their prices seem reasonable, and they will make the wheel to your specs, and have a number of chrome choices.
Most Farm Implement sales can sell the rim with no center. They come in a variety of widths and sizes. Welding a trailer axle to a table then mounting the hub and wheel center on it is simple. Aligning is pretty easy that way with a mic to check runout. Welded wheel rules usually are about banded wheels. I've made a bunch of banded wheels for oval trackers and never seen one fail when welded with 8018C1 3/32 rod there are a lot of mig wires with Ni also if thats what you like.
For 15 inch rims ... Speedway sells wheel shells ... in 8, 10, 12, and 14 inch widths. Just put your center in the shells ... indicate in and then weld ... simple ... I have done this a few times ... http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/218,187_15andquot;-Wheel-Shells.html
I know I don't have to say Stockton wheel ****s. So instead I'll say that you should check with Wheelkid instead. www.rallyamerica.com EDIT: Or what deuce said
Sorry, I didn't realize there were problems with stockton. I came across them when searching, but I will look to wheelkid in the future.
The info in this tech article might help with building your own: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154186 Slonaker
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