making wider rims

Has anyone looked into having a rim "widened"? Stockton Wheel in CA. can take the center out of a stock wheel and weld it into a wider ring of any width. At $135 each plus shipping, it's pricey but interesting.

Any one know of other sources?

 

Back in the day it was common to make sand buggy wheels by cutting the rim in half and welding in a piece of pipe. They'd als cut the centers out of Ford pickup wheels and make wide Jeep wheels. Re the process, that's fine. Common practice. Don't know of anyone else that does it at retail though.

Stockton has a mixed record. You might do a search here for earlier comments. I recall that Mike Boyink had a frustrating experience with getting wheels from them.

 

Weld wheels here in Kansas City used to do it years ago. Insurance liability probably has something to due with availability, and Stockton's price structure.
Might check with the local dirt track fellows, used to be a common practice for circle track.
Here is a nice how to write-up.

www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2006/02/Steelies/

 

Lots of answers here:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182382

 

back in the day, Dukes here in Riverside would do it for about $20 a wheel
that's how most guys ended up with 8" of even 10"
I still have my widened 10" rims that were factory 6" to start with.

I would also stop and check with any wheel/tire stores in your area.
They sometimes will work with you ordering custom steel wheels.

 

thanks. I've talked to a few places and am getting closerMarsh Racing Wheels has 16" shells, as they're called, for about $52 each. The inside diameteris slightly smaller than the stock center so the centers would need to be machind down. Then there's the question of how much they can be machined without getting too thin.

Any thoughts on the ideal wheel width for a semi-original look but a nice tire size?

thanks again.

 

That's tempting. I think you're about an hour away. Anything else to do in the area to help justify a day trip?

I was thinking 235's were too wide for 5" rims.

 

Anyone on the east coast do custom wheel work? I want to get a stock looking set of 16" wheels to fit over my disc brake dana 30.

 

I'm not a mall kind a guy but it looks like you're close enough for a quick trip. Plus you're on this side of Orlando, the 9th rudest city in the country from what I heard on local news yesterday. I'll send you a PM when I get the time.

thanks