Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg Jones
So for the less than savvy like me can you describe the procedure for widening a wheel? Just curious how you do it.
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Greg, The cheap and nasty way to do it is to cut the rim all the way around in the well, then weld in a strip to widen the rim. You now have:
(a) a wider rim
(b) two welds running all the way around the wheel and the possibility of one of them failing with potentially disastrous results.
(c) a wheel that is off centre ie, the centre line of the wheel no longer lines up with the front end geometry. This causes all sorts of problems from increased wear to tracking issues.
To overcome the off centre issue, it is possible to put in two equal strips of metal, one each side of the centre line. Now you have four welds running around the wheel and double the potential for disaster as mentioned in (b) above.
It's not hard to see why this practice has been banned here since the '60s.
The better way to do it is to have a new rim made and have it welded to the existing spokes (in the case of the Model A with its welded spokes). I have pulled the spokes off the rim several times on original wheels so I do not recommend this way either.