i noticed another thread posted by a member the other day about re-drilling the rear axles for a 5x108 bolt pattern.. after some thought i was thinking about doing the same..but in a 4x100 pattern...this would of course open up a new world of wheel choices to us fb owners...now i'm thinking the rears would be pretty simple but i'm not to sure about the fronts... i'd also feel more comfortable about thisbecause there'd be alot more material left supporting the studs then in the five lug conversions i've seen...what do you think guys??...chime in with any thoughts/oppinions/ or ideas....

 

I just found the wheels I liked and had those redrilled, but you are right 4x100 would be the shizzniz

 

We would be forcing ourselves into primarily front wheel drive offsets if we went the 4x100 route, but otherwise a good idea.

 

Redrilling for the 4X100 pcd shoul not be a problem, if you weld fill the old holes and redrill on the same radian lines.

 

would it be possible to install an 86+ rear axle to the first gens?

 

No, the FCs have irs, 1st gens, and all earlier rotary models have a solid axle rearend.

 

I think it would just be cheaper for you and probable a better idea is you just swap in GSL-Se components. But if you do drill the back in 4x100, then you could just swap the GSL-Se front suspension so you would have 4x100 at the back and 4x114.3 at the front most wheels with the 4x100 have both those patterns on there anyways so it wouldn't be a big deal. The only other worry about this is that with this setup your brakes won't be balance anymore though.

 

i'm thinking that re-drilling would be cheaper then the se swap route..also for the simple fact that finding used se suspension in any sort of decent condition usually comands a pretty big price tag... i'm sureany decfent machine shop could redril everything for a reasonable price..the only kicker would be the fact that everytime you need new rotors you're going to have to redrill them as well....damn my wheels are turning thinking of a new set of 16x10's in a 4x100 for my widebody...mmmmmmm

 

I was thinking of redrilling my rotors so I can fit my honda rims. I called every where to see if they do that and no one does and I called 20 places and 13 told me I should not do that because it will make the car vibrate and the wheel will wobbel alittle. It is a not a good idea so I am going to make wheel addapters and all that will do is push the wheel 1 inch out

 

i think they may have been blowing smoke up your **** there...changing the bolt pattern wouldn't make the wheel wobble the only thing that could cause that is if the wheels where not hubcentric...in other words the inner ring inside the wheel mounting plate has to fit snugly around the colar on your rotors...also you couldn't just drill your rotors and press lugs into them you have to drill the hubs/axels....if done right i don't see why it couldn't work

 

That was my thread you were talking about. It isn't a big deal to do the rears, but for the front you would have to redrill them every time you change the brake rotors. The rear rotors are real easy to redrill, the hard part there is the axle shafts themselves. I would suggest having a good machine shop redrill your rear axles and brake rotors to the 4x100 pattern, then convert to GSL-SE front brakes. That way you can use dual bolt pattern wheels, which usually come in 4x100 and 4x114.3. I personally don't think the flange on the rear axle shaft is strong enough to support the 4x114.3 pattern as it just gets too thin at the edges. Even the stock 4x110 pattern is close to the edges.

Either way you do it, you will end up with more choices than you would ever want for wheels. But the prices for a machine shop to do your axles will vary. They are usually quite expensive, somewhere around $100 an hour I think. A good machine shop should be able to do both rear axles in 2 hours, probably less.

 

if you drill them out correctly you wont have vibration problems

just an idea

remove the stud from the surface your going to redrill, stick it in a machining lathe and cut a tiny groove thats the exact diameter of the new wheel pattern diameter, than use a vertical mill to drill in the exact hole pattern, if you do it right you'll be golden

i feel lucky owning an fc, so many wheel patterns, in fact i have 3 sets of wheels ^_^

 

i was just searching a little more and found that i can get my much desired work equip so3's in both a 4x100 and 4x114.3 pattern so me-thinks that i just might go the se fronts redrill rears route....mmmmmm...works

 

This is exactly what I did. I machined both the front and rear surfaces flat on a lathe, then blue inked the front surface and cut a tiny groove in the surface. From there I actually just marked the location of the first hole, then used a straight line dimention to find the other 4 holes. From there my dad used a drill press to drill out each hole. He has more experience than I do with a drill press so I let him do that part, but I was the one that set up the axles in the lathe and machined the surfaces.

Thats great you can get the wheels you want in both patterns. That is definately the way I would go. But since I converted to the TII brakes up front with the respeed kit, I went with 5 bolt in the rear. The fronts will have 1" thick adapters on them to convert to the proper bolt pattern and space out the wheels from the struts.

 

yeah...now i just gotta figure out backspacing and if i can get a 15inch tire that'll be wide enough for a 10 inch wheel...damn mazda why couldn't they have made this a little easier??

 

I assume you have a widebody from your username and the fact you think you can fit a 10" wide wheel on the back. I'm not sure on what tire you can get though. 15" is a hard wheel to find tires for, heck its getting hard enough with 16" in the small diameters that these cars need.