Another Stock Steel Wheel Widening Thread

[MJKFabrication]

I just finished this project and thought I 'd post up a variation of a method for widening stock steel wheels. This is what she looked like before, I put the 80 series alloys on it, it came from the previous owner with a new set of 4 stock, welded, disc brake steelies on it. I put the alloys on it until I had a chance to tackle the widening project.

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I purchased a new stock welded steel wheel from my local Toyota dealer for the spare and got 5 new 8" x 15" wheel shells from Speedway Motors P/N 278S508, $36.99 each plus shipping. The wheel shells have a 12 5/8" I.D, disc brake guys check your backspacing prior to welding these up.

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I took a trip to my local U Pull and Pay and got a front hub off a Montero Sport (6 x 5.5") and a spare tire carrier off an Isuzu rodeo. I welded the hub to the tire carrier, mounted a bottle jack to the carrier and fitted up a dial indicator to complete my new truing stand (I sold this idea from Texican's thread)

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I cut the centers out of the stock wheels with a 4" grinder with a cutting wheel by cutting along the weld on the backside "ears" then by cutting the wheel from bead to bead, then popped the centers out (they actually fell out).

I took the Montero outer hub to my local machine shop and had them chuck the hub up in the lathe and then had the wheel centers turned to 12 5/8". I then pressed the newly turned centers into the new wheel shells (3.25" backspacing), turned them on the truing stand and adjusted them with the bottle jack on the backside and a rubber mallet on the frontside until they were true. i then tack welded the frontside of the wheel in 4 places, flipped them over and TIG welded the 4 "ears" just like they were from the factory. it took about 45 minutes per wheel, the first one was fun, the rest were really boring. I painted them with Rustolem Grey and mounted up a new set of 32" x 11.50" x 15" BFG AT KOs.

Stockton Wheel quoted me $185.00 per wheel plus the shipping of my centers to CA then shipping of $45.00 per wheel back to FL. I was able to complete this project for less than half of that in 2 weekends. Here is the run down;

5 New wheel shells = $225.00 w/shipping
New wheel (Spare) = $110.00
Machine shop fee = $100.00
Junkyard Truing Stand = $50.00
Paint = $12.00
Total = $497.00 ($99.40 per wheel)

Here are some "after" pics, I love the way it looks now and wish I would have done the project sooner.

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[cruiserpilot]

That looks really great! I have always liked the look of wide stock wheels.

 

[bobm]

What is the final width and how did they balance?

Thanks Bob

 

[JohnnyC]

Sounds like you can start up a new buisness MJK Wheel Werks

Nice job on keeping it Toyotaish

 

[MJKFabrication]

What is the final width and how did they balance?

Thanks Bob

Outside bead edge to bead edge was 8 1/2",
they all balanced just fine. Got each of the wheels to .02" to .04" of true, I put the dial indicator on each of the centers first before pressing the wheel shells on to see how true they were, that was the range of each of the stock centers.

 

[woytovich]

FYI I just had 5 stock wheels widened at a shop here on Long Island (typically the "Home of the Overpriced Everything"). They charged me $100 per wheel, I supplied the used stock wheels, they supplied the donor wheels for the outers and the labor.... I went to 7" wide to fit 33x10.50 BFG MTs by the way.