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Thought about this yesterday while hunting down some wheels for my Brumby.

This idea has been around for a while- people have been doing it to old school cars and hot rods for decades with great success. Basically it's removing the wheel centre (by grinding down the welds and using a special press) from the rim and pressing/welding it back into a larger/wider rim. The newer rim features a 'step' so that the centre can still bond to it, and you end up with a standard looking wheel that can accept a better range of tires. Afterwards, the wheel is checked for balance and roundness (in case heat has 'ovalled' the rim) and painted/powdercoated to suit.
In the case of MY and L Series Subarus, the wheel centre could be installed in a 14" rim and the offset could also be changed if needed. There is a shop here that does this service- I'm yet to approach them about it- but I would be certain that most states have somewhere that does the same thing.

Has anyone tried this, or has a similar idea?

Cheers
Ben

Back in the 70's to make "fatties" this was very common, they'd take the center out, split the rim and weld a 1" or 2" band between the halves to make them fatter then put everything back together so nothing really new.

nothing really new means same as 'old school' - you are both talking same idea but dgen may have missed the point of using larger diameter rim on same old centres retaining factory look.
I'd say it most likely a labour intensive exercise and cost wise better to just go new rim of choice - but if you are in that game - worth a try or just for something different hang the cost ? Those sort of rims say 15" to suit a 13" factory centre may not be readily availablei

I paid $150 per wheel to have the steel rims on my Valiant widened to 7". I did this so i could retain the factory hub caps and keep the car looking stock while having some nice fat 225 tyres. I've been happy with the rims for 8 years now and would not have done it any other way.

I'm not denying that it's been around for ages- I'm interested to know if anyone has applied the technique to Subaru wheels with good results.
It would seem that Sunraysia wheels are made using the same practice, but then have the PCD and hub spigot drilled as well to suit their application.
Hypothetical question- If someone was able to get a shop to do a run of say, fifty wheels- five per person- on a group discount basis, would there be enough interest?
Steptoe, from what I remember (I approached a shop a few years back to do some Kingswood wheels) the rims are designed to only increase by 1", so 13" into a 14", 14" into a 15", etc.

Is it still legal?

i think it is still legal but it needs to be from a proper engineer

4wds and what not, im thinking of making some beadlocks for them though

Welded wheels are ok, riveted ones (there's a few shady operators that still do this) are a big no-no. I would recommend that you get them done by someone who's been in the biz for a few decades and has pumped out hundreds of them.

Engineering wise, I guess it's like certain lifts- if you get caught you get caught.

spike wrote:i think it is still legal but it needs to be from a proper engineer

4wds and what not, im thinking of making some beadlocks for them though

I'd love to see that - a set of bead lockers would be really handy in the sand with low pressures and the same for the slippery rocky stuff I've encountered in the Cobaws...

let us know how you get one with these

Cheers

Bennie

Thought about this yesterday while hunting down some wheels for my Brumby.

This idea has been around for a while- people have been doing it to old school cars and hot rods for decades with great success. Basically it's removing the wheel centre (by grinding down the welds and using a special press) from the rim and pressing/welding it back into a larger/wider rim. The newer rim features a 'step' so that the centre can still bond to it, and you end up with a standard looking wheel that can accept a better range of tires. Afterwards, the wheel is checked for balance and roundness (in case heat has 'ovalled' the rim) and painted/powdercoated to suit.
In the case of MY and L Series Subarus, the wheel centre could be installed in a 14" rim and the offset could also be changed if needed. There is a shop here that does this service- I'm yet to approach them about it- but I would be certain that most states have somewhere that does the same thing.

Has anyone tried this, or has a similar idea?

Cheers
Ben

But why?
What's the appeal of a set of ugly "maybe round and true" custom steel wheels?
Alloy wheels are lighter and more likely to run true. They're available in 14" & 15" new and used or if on a budget there are steel wheels available.
Of course if you want 20th century brakes you can step up to 5 stud and and almost endless choice of wheels.

brumbyrunner wrote:But why?
What's the appeal of a set of ugly "maybe round and true" custom steel wheels?
Alloy wheels are lighter and more likely to run true. They're available in 14" & 15" new and used or if on a budget there are steel wheels available.
Of course if you want 20th century brakes you can step up to 5 stud and and almost endless choice of wheels.

Agree totally brumbyrunner, just put a Crossbred Performance kit on and you get the choice of wrx or liberty wheels and disks all the way round.

El_Freddo wrote:I'd love to see that - a set of bead lockers would be really handy in the sand with low pressures and the same for the slippery rocky stuff I've encountered in the Cobaws...

let us know how you get one with these

Cheers

Bennie

Curious to know how many tyres you've rolled off the rim Bennie. To want a set of mechanical beadlocks I guess it's a bit of a problem. You know for under $200/rim (last time I checked) you could always use pneumatic beadlocks and still have road legal wheels.

brumbyrunner wrote:Curious to know how many tyres you've rolled off the rim Bennie. To want a set of mechanical beadlocks I guess it's a bit of a problem. You know for under $200/rim (last time I checked) you could always use pneumatic beadlocks and still have road legal wheels.

I didn't know about pneumatic beadlocks! Are they single use or reusable?

I've rolled enough off a rim to want a solution to the problem. Its usually brought on by the need for low tyre pressure, speed and relatively tight corners for low tyre pressures...

The worst bit is getting enough mud stuck between your tyre and rim to let it go down, requiring a tyre change then later removing the bead from the rim to properly clean out the mud.

Fun fun

Cheers

Bennie

I assume you've only bought up this topic up is because like most people with this shit 4x140 stud pattern you've discovered there aren't a lot of options. Fitting a crossbred kit just to get a set of wheels seems a bit extreme. Hence why customising a set of "ugly" steel wheels actually becomes a consideration.

If you want it looking original then some custom steel wheels with an extra 1" or so width and more negative offset would probably look really good. E.g. brumby sunraysias look alot better than L series sunraysias, and the only difference is offset. Been 13" then they shouldn't be a whole lot heavier than 14/15" alloys, and if you're worried about wether or not they're balanced/true then whoever is doing the job isn't doing it right. Shit even some plain 13" steelies with hub caps would probably look good with extra offset and some fat tyres. Even better i don't think anyone has done it which would make it unique.

Cheers,
Rhys

Venom wrote:I assume you've only bought up this topic up is because like most people with this shit 4x140 stud pattern you've discovered there aren't a lot of options. Fitting a crossbred kit just to get a set of wheels seems a bit extreme. Hence why customising a set of "ugly" steel wheels actually becomes a consideration.

Probably on the money here Rhys. When I was talking to Ric from the Vic subi club on the last snow trip he was telling me that he had his rims made back in the 80's and cost a couple of hundred each. They're still going which shows the build quality - they were a set of custom 14 inch rims with standard offset, much like the idea behind the Scorpion 14 inch rims (which I would LOVE to "stumble" across a cheap set of them).

As for the cost of the mods to these rims, or to make a new set from scratch - you will probably find it more cost effective to go with the Crossbred kit anyway, loads of improvements in braking performance let alone the rim options.

Better start saving my pennies for a kit myself!

Cheers

Bennie

Venom wrote:I assume you've only bought up this topic up is because like most people with this shit 4x140 stud pattern you've discovered there aren't a lot of options. Fitting a crossbred kit just to get a set of wheels seems a bit extreme. Hence why customising a set of "ugly" steel wheels actually becomes a consideration.

Read my mind
Peugeot wheels are hard to come by (even several dedicated Pug wreckers I've contacted don't seem to have them), Scorpions look fantastic but are near impossible to get. Desert Rats must be done in batches as I'm waiting for a phone call to say when they're available again. I couldn't justify a Crossbred kit purely because it isn't in my budget, and I've just done all four brakes too- the need for bigger brakes to pull up what is essentially a stock EA81 vehicle seems like a pointless exercise IMO.
I like your idea of using the multi spoke Subaru steel wheel as the centre- powdercoated in the original white would look trick.

I noticed in my searching that Suzuki ATVs use a 4x140 stud pattern- run some inboard brakes and the biggest ATV tires you can find... Think I'm going overboard now

Just noticed you're in bendigo. I bought 5x 15" Pug alloys from a Peugeot mechanic in Ballarat who happens to rally old Peugeots with the 4x140 stud pattern. I paid $100 per wheel which i considered very reasonable. If you like i could go in and ask him what he has?

Cheers,
Rhys

well weve made adaptor plates before, not sure how 'legal' they are but for 150$ each so about 600 for a set, they give you a range of wheels whatever pattern you want.
im not sure how much a crossbred kit costs but might be an optiion

I'm not big on adapters or spacers or anything that goes between the wheel and hub. ADRs will tell you that if a vehicle wasn't factory fitted with any such items, it's illegal anyway.
I've noticed the Yanks love to do six stud hub conversions- belt out two studs opposite each other on the hub, fill in the holes then drill and stud four new holes, giving you the popular 6x140 PCD. As tongue-in-cheek as that sounds, I haven't found any documentation that relates to the legalities of doing such a thing as yet.

Venom wrote:Just noticed you're in bendigo. I bought 5x 15" Pug alloys from a Peugeot mechanic in Ballarat who happens to rally old Peugeots with the 4x140 stud pattern. I paid $100 per wheel which i considered very reasonable. If you like i could go in and ask him what he has?

Definitely won't say no to that! Even if he has some 504 steel wheels it might get my interest. Let me know how you go.

technically wheel spacers arent illigal if theyre bolted on