Workin on my widened rims

[offroadchev]

Been workin like crazy every day after work and the whole weekend and lovin every minute of it. Im so excited to see these big tires go on. Got all my rear hubs flipped and ordered new wheel bearings while i was in there. The pass side intermediate axle brake retaining sping was broke so was the shoes and cylinder dust shield and 1 inner wheel seal was bad not too bad I think.Got 5 rims cut and welded. Im doing the back first them Ill turn the truck around and do the front, cause of parking restrictions. I actually had to take down the neighbors fence to get an axle out lol. His dogs were inside though lol. Im going to clean all the rims really good and have a frien of mine powder coat them for me . He thinks he can powder coat camo oooohhhh aaaaahhh.

 

[Pappa-G]

Very cool! How hard was it to do the rims? I might endup going that route w/ my 5 ton.

 

[yeager1]

Looks good. Are you widening all 6? or just the front two?

 

[BFR]

looks good. How are you removing the rivets?

 

[scottc]

How did you cut the rims?

 

[FireFighterHill]

Arent you worried about them being untrue, or way off balance?

 

[gimpyrobb]

We are MV nuts, we are already way off balance!

 

[nk14zp]

Look's good.When i do mine i think I will cut up some dayton rims to add width.

 

[Blythewoodjoe]

For those interested there are several threads documenting this whole process and there is more than one way to do this. It would be nice if we had a forum for just such mods because so many of us are doing this and having to re-invent the wheel every few months because the threads are buried 100 thread down in the hot rod deuce section.

And the dayton wheels are much easier to use, in my opinion.

 

[rosco]

Great Project! What welder model are you using? Your neighbors must be good Folks, and understanding!

Lee in Alaska

 

[gringeltaube]

............................................. It would be nice if we had a forum for just such mods because so many of us are doing this and having to re-invent the wheel every few months because the threads are buried 100 thread down in the hot rod deuce section.
.........................................................................................

100% agree on this!

Suggested a tire & wheel "sub-forum" for the Deuce Mod. & H. R. section some time ago...

G.

 

[offroadchev]

It wasnt that hard just time consuming. Im 5'9" 135lbs most of these parts are heavier than me lol. Lets see I grinded the rivets with a cut off wheel. Im doing 7 rims gotta have a spare. The rims were cut on a flat steel table with 6- 2" round metal plugs to keep it from moving. A plasma cutter head was clamped down securely while the rim was spun slwoly enough to get the slag out. We ground them flat beveled both the rim and the ring and layed them on a cart. Measured with calipers to find the high spot tacked there. Shimmed with feeler guages to get it all within about .005 then tacked every 3 inches mounted on axle to make it easier to weld good. welded 3 inches and spun the rim to distribute the heat and let it cool. Torch the center off let cool. Weld the inside in 3" intervals. No pics of in process welding sry. When we spun these they looked true as hell, no more wobble than the rim had not concerned with weight balance until i get the tire mounted. Welder is a millermatic 251 w/alum spool gun.

Credit must be givin to Sermis for this is a variant of his method. Thank You Sermis.

 

[NORTHWOODS]

I have to say that i am impressed, I can not wait to see the finished wheels!! COOL!!

 

[DUECE-COUPE]

i think you can use 11 in dayton rims for this. get deuce rims that have the centers riveted in, after you remove the rivets and the centers, clamp the rim down to a solid flat surface and drop in the center., and then spot weld. put it on the rear axle, and with the truck jacked up, put it 2nd and watch for wobble. if you like what you see. weld it in. if not mark and relocate the center. $300 plus shipping seems a bit steep for me. it might take some finessing, but you will then have a rim with close to the right back space.

 

[Blythewoodjoe]

$300 plus shipping seems a bit steep for me.

I hope you mean that's a lot for your budget. I made a set a couple of years ago and spent close to $100 on tube and flap per wheel. $300 is about the going rate for large truck wheels. I saw someone else call $300 for a wheel a rip off in another thread. Price new LARGE truck wheels and you will see what I mean.

 

[OD_Coyote]

Those wheels look great, can't wait the see them when your bud gets them powder coated!