GALAXY

I'm not sure how many people are interested in having aluminum rims for thier car so if you could just throw back a "I'd buy em" or something,lol.What do you think about rims that were just slightly oversized? It'd be like putting 19''s on a car instead of 17''s and on my RS4 3 SS it would prevent the hinge pins from scrapin the insides of the wheels.I have a unique chance to design some wheels for production and I'm looking for feedback on what people might want in a wheel whether its the finish,actual shape,or whatever...just let me know what you think.

I have a set of HGI wheels with pro-live v-rage tires and the tire is a little bigger than the rim,if the rims were made oversized I think the tire would stretch fine and probably hold the rim better with less sidewall flex and may actually work better.You may also get slightly higher top speed at the cost of off the line acceleration but it probably won't make much of a difference.

rodrigo1508

I dont know If you like foam tires but I had a similar problem with my rs4 3 and with foams it didnt do it frankly I dont remember what brand they were, but why dont you go to your track or LHS and ask somebody to borrow you a pair of foams so you can check if they work.
Personally I wouldnt use alum rims , one bad crash and bye bye rims

GALAXY

Thats more incentive to be a better driver

Dalejr08

if you are looing for cool wheel ideas i would suggest a cool rally type wheel with lots of spokes and stuff. I dont know those have all ways caught my eye.

GALAXY

Like the mesh wheels?

I think I'm gonna start on 7 spoke wheels with a polished lip and then try to move on to something more intricate.

ZipZap

I know that the "look" your going for is really the question. Super low profiles would look pretty cool.

The insert performance would be affected by a larger wheel. It would be stretched.

As far as the hinge pin issue, have you tried "offset" wheels?

GALAXY

The tires already don't even touch the foam but theres only one way to tell,test it.

raceme

yea i think if the tires are loose the inserts would be loose also n yea..how much would you sell a set for.. and if you use and offset wheel all it does is juss stick it out..and it wont stick out far enough to clear the end of the a arm.

GALAXY

I'm not sure on the price,all I get to do is design 'em.I'm guessing they'd be close to the HGI wheels though depending on what all goes into em,maybe more.

raceme

oh ok...yea any disigns you came up with yet.. i would like some nice polished ones. like crome plated or copper plated thatll be tight.

bloaddd

i can tell you that i use regular size 1/10 scale rims/tires on my mini-T and they work out just fine if not better.

ryuhito

I really want a set of wheels with a fatty lip, they look cool but everything I find is pretty much flush.ct

GALAXY

I know what you're talkin about and I agree,that would look really sweet..especially on a car with fender flares like a BMW.The only problem,and this is probably why you've never seen em,is that to have that lip you'd have to make the wheel wider which will not fit the tires.You could have like a deep dish rim that would still fit the tire but then the part of the rim that got pushed back would hit a-arms and stuff so I'm really not sure how you'd do that without a wider tire.If you can find a tire that might work ,let me know and I'll see what I can do for a rim for it.

GALAXY

sorry,I missed the 2 posts above that one.I haven't started drawing and measuring yet but I'm pretty set on doing a 7 spoke first and it'll have a polished lip a little bigger than the one in the pic.I doubt there will be any plating but powder coating is really durable and can be almost any color,even translucent over polished metal for a "candy" look,I'm sure theres a copper powder that can be ordered.

Thats cool the Mini-T uses standard hexes,I didn't know that.Would you run aluminum on something that small? They end up being slightly heavier than plastic if that makes a difference.When I get my Savage in a few weeks I'll be able to design some for that too.

ryuhito

I'm looking at one of the tires that came stock on my Evo (M3), it's the 12-point chromes, my car is in my car (heh) so I can't see the A-arm clearance, but maybe if the spokes were thinner (flatter) you could set em back a mm or two. What about the 3mm offset on the Corsa wheels? Could that help? I have those on my Evo and I run a 190mm Lexus body to boot, so they stick out like big ears already. I like it though. Just some thoughts.

raceme

oooh yea i forgot about anodizing..yea juss let us in on how everything is goin.. how sets are you making to begin with.

GALAXY

Anodizing and powder coating are completely different but they can look the same some times.The plan so far is,I'm gonna get the critical measurements and hand draw it,then it'll get re-drawn in autocad and programmed into the CNC lathe.We'll do one at first,make sure its right and then the other 3 and I'll probably go test em for the weekend and see if I can find any weaknesses.After that,I'm not sure how many we'll make to start with..maybe 5 sets.Then we'll play with coatings and polishing and get pics up on the shop site and make em available for ordering.

raceme

oh didnt know that they were different.. they look the same though..cant wait till the final product comes out... i think you guys will make alot of money out of this.

GALAXY

Anodizing is pretty much dipping electrically charged parts in battery acid that has dye in it,the acid opens up the surface of the metal and lets the dye get into it so you don't actaully have anything on the metal,it becomes part of the metal.

Powder coating uses a powder thats charged with like 20,000 volts of static electricity,which is charged when it comes out of the gun.The parts are hung on a rack and grounded and you just shoot em with the powder and it sticks,it'll even go around edges and in holes because the charge pulls the powder to it.Then you bake it in an oven to melt and cure the powder to the part.

I have no pics of anodizing but heres a couple of powder coating.

drf

I remember kyosho used to have aluminium rims about 10 years back. Too expensive and significantly heavier than standard plastic. Tryin out though is a very good idea. I personally have made the thought many times but got into it. Dont be mistaken thought, in a good crash having stronger rims does not means that the rims will get out alive. Aluminimum bends easily, plastic breaks both wheels are not useful anymore.

Another thing that comes to mind is balancing.(I hope the spelling is correct) How will you be able to balance the rims properly? It is not impossible to do but the size of the rims makes it uncomfortable. Probably you will have to design a balancing machine if you are serious enough to make this worth-something not for the faint hearted!!!
Anyway, good luck with your project.

(You can try cutting the rims first using wood.Not for uding them on the car but wood is inexpensive and does not wear the lathe bits)

GALAXY

Are you familiar with CNC equipment drf? it will all be automatic,computer controlled and all of them will be exactly the same within like +/- .003" so I don't really see how they could be out of balance.Good point though.

drf

I am a bit familiar with such equipement. What I say though is based on something tottaly different from accuracy. Since you will be cutting the metal, the internal structure of it will not be consistent thus the density may not nessesarily be uniform. So if my theory is correct the rim will not be balanced. On the other hand what I say might be far too small to make a difference. (Isn't it nice when your girlfriend's father is a mechanical engineer-you get the girl plus extra knowledge!!! )
Once you have a ready rim you can go to your local hobby shop or airfield and find someone with a propeler balancer that can balance the wheel for you. The accuracy of those should be sufficient.
The plastic rims we all have, since are cast like materials keep the material structure intact so the density more uniform that a CNC made piece.

GALAXY

Carswinandwaves...this thread might be of help,I'll try to answer your question when I get home.

GALAXY

drf,Cast or "poured" metals are more likely to be inconsistant than a solid block of 6061 aluminum alloy.When you pour a molten metal into a mold,it gets air bubbles and stuff from the cooling process that will make it inconsistant.A Billet,or solid chunk that you would start with on the lathe would be a lot more uniform.

Which brings me to carswindandwaves question of ... how are they made?

Theres a few ways I'm sure depending on what tools you have but, you have to cut round stock close to size in a saw so you can put it in the lathe and have it cut the whole shape exept for what you'd see from the side if it was on the car.Then it would move to a 3 axis CNC vertical mill and have it cut the wheel hex part,flip it and then have it cut the actual center design for the rim.Then it has to be de-burred and polished but thats about it.

WonderWheels

Thanks Galaxy, i forgot to check this because i went on holiday. At school we have about 5 lathes and a few milling machines so it should be ok. Also, we do have a computer controlled lathe. I may be doing this as well but i don't think i'll be selling them unless they're good. Also, i'm not sure on the price either so i'll ask tomorrow. Now here's an idea, just copy some of your plastic rims so you already have the dimensions and designs.