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Aftermarket wheels

Ken Ellis

Ken Ellis

Donation Time
While grinding off a poorly-conceived, poorly-executed pair of towing hooks, welded to the bottom of a new-to-me SV front end assembly by McGuyver himself (no doubt with a truck battery, jumper cables, and a nickle) I had the following thought:

What would prevent one from taking a set of Alpine hubs to their local friendly machine shop, and having a set of holes machined into them, 45 degrees from the existing holes, at the bolt circle diameter of their choice?
New studs at 4x100, or whatever, could really open up the range of available wheels and tires. The front hubs don't look 'beefed up' in the area of the existing wheel lugs, and it's likely that a small increase in bolt circle diameter would still be within safety limits. Offsets of new aftermarket wheels seem to be well-documented.

You could easily revert to OEM by removing the new studs, and replacing the old.

I was not enthused enough, however, to yank the back wheels off the car and see if the same thing would be possible for the rear hubs.

Or... do folks actually do this all the time, and I just don't get out much?
That could be.

Metallurgists? Engineers? Mechanics? I await the thrashing...

Ken in Columbus
 
D

Dan Moore

Donation Time
Hi Ken
What about taking the hubs to a machinest a having a new set made that maintain the original bearing spacing and location but move the wheel flange in about 3/4 -1" back toward center that would make the offset from front to back closer and going to a 16" rim ?

Dan
 
B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Ken, what you are saying would work fine for the front hubs. I seem to remember the rear hubs are spiders, but maybe that is the remnant of a bad dream. But anyway, if you have the coin to have 4 hubs carved out of solid steel, my previous offer to paint your trailer is now canceled. The new offer is $100/ hour. Starting when I start to pack the car to leave. Uhh, packing the car may take a day or so.

Your best buddy in green,
Bill
 
Ken Ellis

Ken Ellis

Donation Time
Bill,
Yes, the rear hubs are webbed... Just looking at the workshop manual, it doesn't look like there's any room for modification, unless you wanted to go with a smaller bolt circle diameter, which wouldn't be quite in the right direction.

I suppose one could do the math to see if slightly larger diameter studs could be installed, with the new holes sharing only the innermost point in common with the old holes, thereby pushing the bolt circle diameter larger by twice the difference in the radius of the new vs. old studs. (If my math is right.) Seems like clawing for milimeters to me, and then the ability to revert to original is lost.

My guess is it won't work. My quest for a low-bucks solution is over!
Time to paint up the OEM wheels, and carry on.

Ken
 
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