Saw something odd today with my slicers....

[RonPorter]

The white '89 came with a set of directional slicers and worn-out tires, so I had the tires removed and had them laying around.

As some may know, now that the LGT is gone, I needed something for the track, so I decided to have the slicers widened to 7.5" by Weldcraft in Livonia MI, get them powdercoated, and run some sticky summer tires.

Dropped 'em off last week. Got a call today, saying that two of the wheels are fine, one is out-of-round, and the other has a weird problem he had never seen before.

Headed down there. They set up the out-of-round one in their lathe, and it obviously had smacked something in the past on the inner rim.

The 4th one was the odd one, and James at Weldcraft said he had never seen this before. The rear of the rim ran true, but the front lip, as well as the first step-down inside the rim had LATERAL runout! It means that the rim was 6" wide in most spots, and anywhere from 6-1/8" to 6-1/4" of width in others.

This has to be a factory defect, as there's no way to do this on the road.

I would suspect that if anyone has weird problems with a slicer, or one that seems to leak, this could be the issue.

I had them scrap those two rims, and I saved the two good ones to sell along with the centercaps, but it was rather strange.

Anyway, the guys at Weldcraft seem like a good conscientious bunch. Their work ain't cheap, but they stay very busy, and i would definitely use them in the future.

Oh well, on to Plan B....just buy an ordinary set of aftermarket rims, and be done with it!!

 

[silverknight]

weldcraft does do good work. i know some guys with marauders had their stockers widened by them. i'm trying to find some nice track wheels for my car too. debating between 7.5 or 8 inch.

 

[RonPorter]

weldcraft does do good work. i know some guys with marauders had their stockers widened by them. i'm trying to find some nice track wheels for my car too. debating between 7.5 or 8 inch.

I was rather impressed. They normally have a 2-week backlog, but now before race season, it's out to 4 weeks. It's a true "shop", and they have wheels of every type and description EVERYWHERE!! I've heard nothing but good things about them:

http://www.weldcraftwheels.com/

 

[Off Road SHO]

Ron,

You could probably do that kind of "width change" with the improper use of a tire machine. With the pneumatic pressure that modern tire shops use to speed up the process, I could see them changing the width. They hardly look at the wheel tire combo when they're balancing them, so they wouldn't notice anything as long as it balances out.

Tom

 

[SHO Continental]

Ron if I lived closer I'd give you a set of slicers, just because I want to see some 7.5" wide slicers.

 

[St Louis SHO]

Ron,

You could probably do that kind of "width change" with the improper use of a tire machine. With the pneumatic pressure that modern tire shops use to speed up the process, I could see them changing the width. They hardly look at the wheel tire combo when they're balancing them, so they wouldn't notice anything as long as it balances out.

Tom

Negative Ghost rider...

 

[K-Dawg]

Damn, I was hoping to see this project go through.

 

[wingtip80]

Take the two rims, rwd sho with fat tires in the rear

 

[jelloslug]

You could pick up a set of 16" T-bird "Sport" wheels (same as the later Super Coupe wheels but with open centercaps). They are the correct offset and they are 7" wide.

 

[RonPorter]

I'm glad that Weldcraft checks out all the wheels before starting work. I had considered finding another pair, but with the 130-mile cross-town round-trip to Weldcraft, I didn't want to be running around if other wheels ended up being bad.

Tom, that is a possibility, but man, that woould have to be some serious pressure to expand out only the front part of the rim, as the rear lip and step-area (for lack of a better term) ran true.

Yeah, I was interested in seeing 7.5" slicers, also. Keep in mind it's $200/wheel (same if you take them out to 8", which would probably work fine on a Gen 2, maybe with a thin spacer), plus any cost of powdercoating or painting.

OTOH, they would be unique, and would most likely still weigh less than any aftermarket wheel of the same size that costs under $250 or so.

 

[RonPorter]

You could pick up a set of 16" T-bird "Sport" wheels (same as the later Super Coupe wheels but with open centercaps). They are the correct offset and they are 7" wide.

Yeah, but I don't care much for those wheels.

From past experience, 7.5" is perfect with a 215 tire. If I wanted to do some fenderlip trimming, 8" (for the same price) would work, and that would be gperfect with a 225 tire.

On my LGT, I had two sets of 17x7" wheels, alternating with two sets of 17x7.5" wheels. The difference in steering response was noticeable with the extra 0.5" of width, using the same 215/45/17 tires.

As it is, there are reasonably-priced 16" & 17" wheels out there in a 7.5" width and a 42mm offset. Having a mounted and balanced set of new wheels & tires delivered to my door has an undeniable convenience (BTDT a few times before).