Originally Posted by
intensem1
It has been done, this is what i found when searching few weeks back.
Its totally illegal, after much searching and phonecalls, I came to realise that no one in Australia would do it.
Every shop I called would say the same thing. If it fell apart, I could be killed (expecially if hurtling along at 120+MPH).
A performance shop in Sydney was able to orchestrate the work for me though. I had to go through them, and from there I now know the wheels were shipped to Labrador, Queensland to be done.
(You might be able to work out who might have done it, as I since have, but am not going to name the place publicly).
I specified that I wanted to extend the 8" wheel to 9".
I could have gone as large as I wanted. I was thinking about 9.5" but didn't want to have clearance issues.
As the process only affects the inside of the wheel, not the hub placement, you will need some spacers. I had custom spacers machined up.
As my inner edge was now 25.4mm closer to the strut, I had 15mm spacers made, and then had to subsequently machine the right hand side in to be a 12.5mm spacer to stop rubbing.
Guards were rolled aswell.
As stated elsewhere, it was about $700 for the widening and shipment of two wheels. (this included the costs of two 17" wheels being cut up aswell - remember you need 4 wheels to make 2 wider ones).
About $700 for two Mickey Thompson 17" 275's and I think $80 for custom spacers. Plus associated fitment of rubber costs aswell.
Not exactly a cheap process. You could probably get two second hand 17" 3-piece simmons and then have appropriate offset in the width youu want made for the same money.
I however wanted to be stealth, so chose the same alloy rims that I drive around with everyday.
The alloy rims are precision welded on both sides of the rim, and in reality should be bloody strong.
I only got them for drag racing, so figured that in a straight line, they would be reasonably safe. I definitely wouldn't do circuit work on them - but I am a bit of a worrier
The performance shop reckoned they would be fine to use as a daily driver, but the roads in sydney are so bad, i'd never chance it.
I do however (on my two trips to the drags) put them on at home, and don't need to worry about changing tyres.
So what did they do to heat treat the wheels back to the original specification ???
Cast alloy ( and likely all alloy multi piece ) wheels are heat treated to give them the necessary strength, once welded , you kill the heat treatment in the weld HAZ, basically engineering in a weak point. The company that has done this would want a damned good lawyer, as in case of any event the owner of the vehicle, modifier of the wheel and the engineer who oversaw the process ( if there was one , doubtful ) would be up for some serious charges to answer, specially if a death has occured.
I have seen factory unmodified cast alloys break completely around the rim. ( into 2 round sections ) the guy was trying to sue GM for damages..
Fine if you need to modify the wheels, but do it in a safe engineered way, a wheel can be replaced a hell of a lot easier than a life...
Lots of MK 1 Scirocco's...
If it aint a MK 1 then it must be a donor car ??
Cheers,
Grant...
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