wheel widening; who's done it?
 

I need a set of stock rims widened about an inch. Has anyone here had a set of wheels widened? Do you know of any shops in the Va., Md.,DC., NC area that will do this? And yes, I realize that the rims will be weakened slightly by this process.

thanks, Rob

I've never even heard of the procedure. I'd think that for the cost it'd cost about the same to just get a set of aftermarket wheels?

Ain't gonna happend to a one piece wheel. You need a three piece wheel to get widening done.

Rishie

I've heard about widening wheels before, here's what I remember...

One of our local club members was reminising about the good old days one time and he mentioned steel wheels that had been stretched to a wider width. That makes sense, since steel will stretch, and the guy isn't generally a BSer, but I've never seen them.

I have also heard of widening 1-piece cast wheels. I am not sure if someone described this to me or if I just came up with it on my own, but the idea was that you cut the wheel and then weld in a ring to widen it. It seems like it would be hard to weld a ring into a cast wheel, so I don't know how possible this is. It seems like there would also be liability issues for shops offering this service. It also sounds like it would be similar in price to new, wider wheels. I've never seen one, and I don't expect to :).

As Rishie pointed out, it is very easy to widen 3-piece wheels -- just get new rim halves.

-Max

I know of several people who have done it. Typically the same shops that offer wheel repair can do widening. The most common is 1-2 inches, figure around 200.00 per wheel. This can make sense, for example, I can have my stock Supra wheel widened to 11" from 9.5" for around 400.00 allowing me to go from a 275 rear tire to a 315. Compare that to 2000.00 for a set of new wheels. There does not seem to be any strength issue as two guys I am aware of regularly road race, and drag race their cars(600-750rwhp/torque). Make some calls, quite a few shops do this. Carl Byck

Thanks guys,
You all make good points but I'm not going to give up just yet. I know that it can be done, I just have to find the right shop. I have heard of the process in which they cut the rim in half and then melt in a new ring. From what I hear, this can be done to any rim and it's not outlandishly expensive. they can repair one-piece rims with punctures and huge chunks missing, and dents, so they should have the equipment and materials to do this; hopefully.

Or if they could cut the face off of the wheel and weld and mold it to a new rim half made of the same metal. walla... sounds fine but I know it's probably not possible.

I really do not want aftermarket wheels because:
#1) there isn't enough performance gain to justify the cost of the few wheels which I would consider (HRE, maybe FIKSE).
#2) There are not many affordable rims out there, that are not played out, and/or too ricey
I have yet to see a set of wheels that complement the styling of the 3rd Gen better than the stock set of 17" wheels which I'm getting from Japan. The only other rims out there that really interest me are HREs but I can't justify their price tag.

my thoughts- If it costs me the same amount of money to modify a set of rims which are extremely classy and perfect for the lines of the car, as to buy a set of aftermarket wheels (which everyone and their mother owns; not to mention the fact that most aftermarket wheels give you the rice effect) then I think I'm going to have to go with the modified wheels. Just my personal taste/opinion.

Has anyone ever tried to get a rim custom made? Maybe I can loan a wheel-smith a stock wheel to make a mold for the face, then have him custom fab the rest. How much would this cost for two wheels?


I will do some more research and let you guys know what I find.

Thanks, Rob

Thanks Carl,

I knew this idea wasn't so farfetched. I think I have located a shop in Maryland. I'm going to give them a call and see what we can do.

-Rob

I will try and find out who the Supra guys use. Also there is a guy on the forums, na2tt(joey yee) I beleive he had his Work wheels widened.

Well hot damn. You learn something new everyday. I never asked cause I assumed the cost would be too great and would result in a loss of structural integrity. Thanks for the info.

Just weigh the cost and benefits I guess.

Rishie

rishie, maxcooper, sleepr1,

O.K. I'm going to take this thread to the next level. I am going to call Ye Olde Wheel shop in a few hours and talk about widening my rims and possibly altering the offsets.

I am going to need some help figuring out which offset am I going to need? Right now the rims are:
17 x 8 front 50mm offset
17 x 8.5 rear 50mm offset.

I would like to put the 17x 8.5s up front (is that wide enough?) and widen the original front wheels to 17x9.5 or 17x10 then put them in the back. from what I gather, a 17x10 inch wheel is ideal with a 42mm offset?
Should I try to have the shop add 8mm to the mounting surface of the wheel? Is this going to require longer/stronger lug bolts?
Are there going to be issues with caliper clearance?

What are my ideal tire choices going to be? I would like to be able to go with 275s at a minimum and would like to avoid lip rolling if possible. My car is putting down a considerable amount of rwhp so I need all the rubber that I can get in the stocks wells.
I only use this computer late at night so it may take a while for me to respond.

Thanks, Rob

There are shops that can do it... i don't think ye olde wheel shop is one of them

Heres the hitch:
You can only widen to the back of the wheel, in other words, they'll add the width to the inside. SO, you're stuck with whatever high offset you'll get as a result... i doubt theres an extra inch to be had inside of the stock wheels, so you'd have to use a spacer and longer studs to compensate.

I just talked to the woman at Ye Old Wheel shop and she said that they can widen the wheel up to 1.5 inches. They do this by cutting off the back part of your wheel then they weld in a wider half from another wheel. The cost is between 160 and 200 dollars per rim.

as for the offset, I beleive they can fix that as well by adding an 8mm thick slab of metal to the mounting surface.

Peter, tell me about your wheel setup...

-Rob

now that I think about it, the offset is going to increase considerably when the inside portion of the rim is widened.
The offset is going to be increased equadistant to the amount of increased width. This means I'm going to have around a 85mm offset that I'll need to decrease to around 45mm (which will make the wheel stick out 7mm further than stock) if I widen all rims about one inch?

What do you think about putting a 275 on a 9.5 inch wide rim?
what shall I put on the front 9.0 inch rims? (please keep in mind that I'de like to keep wheel diameters as close to stock as possible)

At the price you'll pay to have a wheel widened it would just be cheaper to get a set of aftermarket wheels.

I'm going to have to disagree there bro. It's only going to cost me around $800 to do it. The only other rims that I'm interested in cost around 3-4k. Plus, noone else is going to have rims like mine. ;.P

when all is said and done I will have a unique facia, spoiler and rims. I'm not trying to follow the crowd on this one.

-Rob

I know that the rim/tire fitment question has been beaten to death but my searches were inconclusive. I am definitely going to appreciate any help that I can get figuring out the prime future dimensions of these wheels. I will also need some help from the sagacious OGs picking out some tires to put on them.

I am running a progressive coil over setup and stock toe links and trailing arms.

I haven't had wheels widened, just looked into it once. I thought i'd called ye olde wheel shop andthey told me no. Hmm. I was gonna turn my 17x9" SSRs into 17x10's, decided against it.

Anyway... if you're thinking of having your stock 16's widened, you better look into tires first. Most manufacturers aren't making real wide tires for 16" wheels anymore. My friend's father in law had this problem looking for 345 section rear tires for the 15" wheels on the back of his Pantera.

I am going with JDM 17" wheels so this shouldn't be a problem. -Rob

my buddy Wes's dad had a Pantera. Those things are pretty sweet. What type of power do they put down?

my mechanic has 17x 9 inch 3 spoke Stern wheels .He wants to widen then 2 inches to the inside . With modified trailing arms and a change in the rear sway bar end mount, he said it will work . The Wheel Works in California, will widen the wheels for $200 each .Eleven inch wide rim is the max for the 275 x40x17 so3 tires he is using .

I had some steel wheels widened on my 79 RX7. The stock wheels were 5 1/2. I wanted 7's. I took them to a local welding shop. It wasn't expensive, but I didn't really care what they looked like. I was using them for autocrossing only. Wound up painting them black.

I guess the point is: If you are having the back sides done, and looks on the back don't matter, check with a reputable welding shop. It could save you a lot of money.

Adam

I think the widening process for steel wheels is different than that of alloy.

I will update everyone on the project once I get my wheels in from Japan. I'm considering either 285s or 275s in the rear. The rear rims will be 9.5-10" wide.

You mentioned that it would only cost you $800, but what about the cost of the JDM 17" wheels you are getting, don't they count? Or am I missing something?

lol. Yes the cost of the wheels does count. Thanks for the helpful input. :0)

I was wondering if you could add more of a lip to rims that already have them?