Ok I need to make my rims from 56.1 mm cb into 57.1mm cb what the best way I am

taking them to a mates engineering firm but I'm skint ATM so could I do a diy job? If so how? Cheers

Take them to an engineer, unless your confident you can increase the bore perfectly.

We're talking mm here so it has to be exact

flap wheel + drill = job done

it really doesnt take long to do, just mark around the bore with a marker pen to give you an idea of how much material you are removing. the wheel will self-centre using the wheel bolts anyway when bolted up in the correct manner

g40jon you done this before? this is what i was thinking but do they really have to be so acurate?

The centre bore is just for location purposes, doing it dremel style is fine as long as you get it round and slightly bigger than required. As said above the taper on the bolts will pull the wheel up straight when tightened.

nick

yeah I've done it on a couple of sets of wheels. I've run numerous sets of wheels that have had a larger centre-bore than vw, so the wheels are held purely by the bolts and have no spigot rings to centre them.

when doing this its very important you do the wheel bolts up in the correct order to centre the wheel.

the centre bore is there only to aid incapable people when fitting a wheel. think about it. if there was any significant load on the centre bore, do you think spigot rings made out of plastic would be a very suitable!?

Correct although the bolts don't take the weight of the car either. They provide lateral pressure between the two mating surfaces and it is the frictional grip of those 2 surfaces which carry the load of the car.

No matter what nuts, bolts, spigots etc you use you should always do the bolts up in the correct fashion and to the correct torque settings. Over tightening wheel bolts can cause them to snap (Yes I'm looking at you Mr Kwick Fit man and your bleeding air tools!).

Nick

ah ok so flappy disc will do it but make sure i get some decent bolts and do them up to correct torque setting which is???

Good question, no idea. SHould say in the haynes if you have one.

Nick

ok cheers thats one for a rainy day, so is this the flap thing i need?

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/...tegoryId_165557

the centre bore is there only to aid incapable people when fitting a wheel. think about it. if there was any significant load on the centre bore, do you think spigot rings made out of plastic would be a very suitable!?

That's not true. Spigot rings are really important for getting your wheels properly centred, I doubt any human being would be able to get a wheel millimetre perfect on the hub. I had a pair of tyres changed once and one of my spigot rings went missing - I didn't notice until I took the wheel off, ended up with bent wheel studs too.

If it wasn't essential, why wouldn't manufacturers just sell cars with a flat hub surface?

Besides, the strength of a hard plastic ring sandwiched between two layers of metal is pretty high. It's got nowhere to deform into so it won't crush, and it's sharing the load with four or five metal studs.

Personally I wouldn't chance it.

Ok now I'm confused!

the centre bore is there only to aid incapable people when fitting a wheel. think about it. if there was any significant load on the centre bore, do you think spigot rings made out of plastic would be a very suitable!?

That's not true. Spigot rings are really important for getting your wheels properly centred, I doubt any human being would be able to get a wheel millimetre perfect on the hub. I had a pair of tyres changed once and one of my spigot rings went missing - I didn't notice until I took the wheel off, ended up with bent wheel studs too.

If it wasn't essential, why wouldn't manufacturers just sell cars with a flat hub surface?

Besides, the strength of a hard plastic ring sandwiched between two layers of metal is pretty high. It's got nowhere to deform into so it won't crush, and it's sharing the load with four or five metal studs.

Personally I wouldn't chance it.

well tbh we could both argue till we are blue in the face! hub-centric imo is desirable, but not 100% essential.

theres some good info to be found here on the subject of wheels

http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?...9706&page=1

Load of bollocks..

Try driving a car without spigot rings, the wheels judder.

Wheel bolts aren't designed to support the weight of the car, the centre is, the bolts are there to hold to wheel on.

Alex is right, just because they're plastic doesnt mean they're unsuitable.

Well I'm in no rush to fit them but I want them sorted for when I do lol so I will price up having them bored properly and rebalanced, they may hopefully do it with tyres on as the have only been balanced today! If it's cheap enough I'll let them do them as it will save me reeking to buy a flap wheel and save me some time I can drop em across the road from work then pick em up! Cheers guys! If it's expensive I'll try it myself the rims only cost me £50!

Edited 29 October, 200916 yr by Pepe

Unless you're confident you're able to get it perfect DON'T try it yourself! I wouldn't have this sort of work done unless it was on a lathe or something that could do the job perfectly. It's worth paying for that, surely?

theres 2 conflicting stories one is sayin you can do it diy other saying do it precisely but how come i can get spacers that will make the centre bore obselete?? enough people use the universal spacers with no probs so it depends on the price, i dont know what to think tbh

Universal spacers are fine up to a certain depth, because the wheel can still locate on the spigot. I'd never in a billion years fit non-hubcentric spacers over about 5mm.

Think about it, if you do the widening by hand how can you guarantee you're taking as much off one side as the other. A tiny bit more pressure on one side and your wheel will never centre up properly ever again. And what are the chances, especially as you've never done this before, of getting all four right?

TBH it's entirely up to you, but I'd prefer not to take a chance on the small detail of my wheels staying on the car.

Edited 29 October, 200916 yr by Alex

Load of bollocks..

Try driving a car without spigot rings, the wheels judder.

Wheel bolts aren't designed to support the weight of the car, the centre is, the bolts are there to hold to wheel on.

Alex is right, just because they're plastic doesnt mean they're unsuitable.

This is incorrect. The centre does not hold the weight of the car. VW Type 2 vans do not centre on the hub and neither do classic minis. They use the taper of the bolts (or nuts in the case of the mini) to pull the wheel up centrally. THis is why you hand tighten them at diagonal opposites before lowering to the ground and torquing them up.

He weight of the vehicle is support by the frictional grip of the two mating surfaces of the back of the wheel and the face of the hub, this frictional grip is huge due to the lateral force applied by the wheel bolts/nuts pushing the faces together.

As a quick science like experiment get two bits of paper and rub them together between your thumb and forefinger while applying as little pressure as possible. They should slide past each other. Now try doing this gradually applying more pressure with your fingers and the two pieces of paper lock tight together. This is how your wheel grips the hub surface and not only supports the weight of the car but transfers the power to the road in the case of the driven wheels.

Nick

Edited 29 October, 200916 yr by horney

ok so loads of people have said the centre bore would sand/file out 1/2 mm (either side making 1mm) but i am awaiting a professional price, then based on the amount of other work i have ie smoothing 8v front plate recess, spraying wing mirrors, etc ill make my descision

Load of bollocks..

Try driving a car without spigot rings, the wheels judder.

yep, my mate fitted some non hub centric spacers to his caddy van at edition, after five mins on the motor way he had to pull over and take them off because he said it felt like his wheels were gonna fall off.

Load of bollocks..

Try driving a car without spigot rings, the wheels judder.

yep, my mate fitted some non hub centric spacers to his caddy van at edition, after five mins on the motor way he had to pull over and take them off because he said it felt like his wheels were gonna fall off.

Badly fitted or using the wrong bolts/nuts.

My T25 van juddered when I bought it and I thought the (factory fitted steels) were out of balance. Nope. The last woner had not done the nuts up in the correct mannor and the wheels were not centered correctly.

nick