welding wider rims?

[oredith]

I've been looking for wider rims (so i can fit wider & lower profile tires) for my 914.. i've got a friend that can weld on wider rims for the fuch.. but adviced me against it because he said that it's usually done for steel rims and not alloy rims.. any experienced thought?..
i thought i saw a set of fuch rims being sold on the BBS here that were 8" a while back.. any idea how they did that?..
thanks,
Jeff

[mikeyz]

In my experience, three piece wheels are bolted together ala BBS wheels, not welded. It can be done if you can find someone to do it.

Try using a search engine with a key word of Porsche wheels. It should give you a basis for a star.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Welding aluminum rims is a bad idea. So, I would think, is turning a one-piece alloy rim into a three-piece one.

Remember that steel wheels are made by welding a center section onto a rim. Alloy wheels are made either by casting (Mahle, Pedrini, most aftermarket wheels) or by forging (our Fuchs). They are not designed to be welded as the steelies are. Nor are they designed with appropriate mounting and sealing surfaces to become three-piece wheels.

The 8" wide Fuchs wheels you saw were almost certainly five-bolt 911 wheels. If they were four-bolt, someone did something very bad to them.

--DD

[Conrad W Peden]

The wheels you are looking for are the 'Minilite'. They cost a bit more but I believe you can get an 8"x15" or a 7"x15" or a 6.5"x15" not sure about the 7".

[Conrad W Peden]

Here you go. This is one of the sites I found for minilites.
www.ctbw.com/mainstreet/specs2.htm

Minilite wheels 15"x6.5" 914/4

[jamesm]

Getting aluminum or magnesium wheels
widened is possible, but the places that
do it are few and far between. The process
is quite difficult to do correctly, and
thus is quite expensive.

There was a place in SF called Kosman Specialities that used to do this, but gave
up the practice recently because they couldn't make money at it. They charged about $400 per wheel to do it.

This price is, obviously, only reasonable
if the wheels in question can't be replaced by already wider aftermarket wheels, because of styling or an unusual bolt circle.

[oredith]

Thanks for all the inputs guys... i think the fuchs are out of the question, since the point of the upgrade would be to get wider wheels so i don't slide out on 90 degree turns like the one by Fairplex (pomona show)..

my other alternative is to drill and tap the stock rotors for the 5 lug pattern, but after looking closer at the front rotors, they have ribs on the inside to support the 4 lug pattern that's drilled into them now, would drilling them for the 5 lug reduce their strength?..

any advice on how to achieve bigger rims without breaking my wallet would be appreciated.. thanks

ps. thanks conrad.. i'm contacting minilites about their rims now.. hope to get some feedback soon..


Jeff