Anyone widen 5.5 fuchs to 7 or 8?

[carnitasboy]

I am interested to know if anyone has widened their stock fuchs to 7 or even 8 inches. if so, who did you use to do it?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Lindsey Racing has done the five-bolt wheels, machining out the center section and bolting them into a three-piece wheel. You might see if they can do the four-bolt wheels as well.

--DD

[carnitasboy]

Thanks.

So that leads me to another question; What is everyone doing to get wider tires on their 914s? Are they going to the 5 bolt and then there are many more options? What are the options for a 4 bolt?

Maybe a new thread needed?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

People generally go with five-bolts to get a selection of wider wheels. Most 4x130 wheels have the wrong offset for our cars, so you either wind up going to five-bolt wheels or you have some wheels made. (It's cheap to have steel wheels widened.)

Don't forget to flare your fenders for decently wide rubber!

--DD

[blitzer]

This place sells wider aftermarket wheels for 4 lug 914s.

VTO Performance, formerly Pack Racing

[Joe Ricard]

Definately go with 16" wheels. the selction of decent rubber in a 15 is pretty slim.

I had Bogarts made for the race car. 15 x 10 they will eventually move to the front and 16 x 12 for the rear.

[healeykit]

I had 6" fuchs widened to 7R by this guy

eric vaughn machine: aluminum wheel widening and narrowing

He does great work give him a call he's very knowledgeable.

[racer]

Originally Posted by carnitasboy

Thanks.

So that leads me to another question; What is everyone doing to get wider tires on their 914s? Are they going to the 5 bolt and then there are many more options? What are the options for a 4 bolt?

Maybe a new thread needed?

Might try minilite or superlight.. both make a wider wheels that fits pretty darn well.

http://www.minilitewheels.us/
http://www.superlite-wheels.com/index.html

[carnitasboy]

Thanks all. Those are some good options. I do like the thought of going with a larger (16/17") wheels and some low profile tires.

[BigD9146gt]

carnitasboy,
As a machinist/welder, i have been approached many times to do aluminum rim modifications. the only way my boss would take the project on was if there was no welding (not even a disclosure saying you will only use the rim for race purposes is worth anything). i used to machine 16x6 fuchs centers out so a client could mount 17" bbs rims on them, retaining the classic look.

personally, i would love to visit a shop like the ones above and learn a bit more about their process in weld/treatment of the rims they modify. eric vaughn has some nice looking stuff, and even factual evidence that his rims "...run regularly at high speed, such as Bonneville Salt Flats, at 200-400+ MPH with confidence." My concern are potholes, crappy paving jobs, and the higher-lateral loads that the go-fast-in-a-straight-line/Liaka-in-a-rocket Bonneville boys don't really see. every weld-modified rim i've ever heard of, to be properly done, needed the weld area to be heat-treated or cold worked hardened... that is, it it wasn't an 18wheeler rim which are massive to begin with.

Taken from- Frequently Asked Questions in Aluminum Welding | Lincoln Electric

1. Why is my aluminum weld much weaker than the parent material?

In steels a weld can be made as strong as the parent material, but this is not the case with aluminum. In almost all instances, the weld will be weaker than the parent material.

To further understand why this occurs, let's look at the two classifications of aluminum alloys: heat treatable and non-heat treatable. The latter category is hardened only by cold working which causes physical changes in the metal. The more the alloy is cold worked the stronger it gets.

But, when you weld an alloy that has been cold worked, you locally anneal the material around the weld so that it goes back to its 0 tempered (or annealed) condition and it becomes "soft". Therefore, the only time in the non-heat treatable alloys that you can make a weld as strong as the parent material is when you start with 0 tempered material.

With heat treatable aluminum alloys, the last heat treatment step heats the metal to approximately 400° F. But when welding, the material around the weld becomes much hotter than 400° F so the material tends to lose some of its mechanical properties. Therefore, if the operator doesn't perform post-weld heat treatments after welding, the area around the weld will become significantly weaker than the rest of the aluminum - by as much as 30 to 40 percent. If the operator does perform post weld heat treatments, the proprieties of a heat treatable aluminum alloy can be improved.

The following is a guide as to which series of aluminum alloys are heat treatable and which are not:
Heat treatable series: 2000, 6000, 7000.
Non-heat treatable: 1000, 3000, 4000, 5000.

I have even machined a set of the fuchs with bbs rim halves for my car; fronts are 17x8 and rears are 17x9. looking at professional rims from a manufacturer (bbs, fikses, forgeline, etc), they would be much stronger than the modified fuch center that i have chosen. however, i have not put overwhelming rim halves on them, nor have i welded them like lindsey racing offers (who has shown failures... on the track). depending on what your application is, your rim mod should take into consideration what your driving style/local roads are like.
cheers, don

[carnitasboy]

BigD, Thanks for the input. I had forgotten about having to heat treat the Aluminum after welding. I have heard of guys having to modify their bell housings on Alfa's to fit a different engines to the stock transmissions or vise/versa. And they had to heat treat them after welding. I am not sure how much it costs to heat treat Aluminum. But that would just add to the cost of the rims. So probably not for me. That, and I am not really a fan of the Fuchs either (I know, tisk, tisk). I Just wanted some wider rims that looked decent. And I think the Fuchs look decent but I think that I will head down the path that others had posted about.

Thanks for all the feedback.


By the way...This is my favorite sign to see on the road.