I've been looking into this alot lately and I've decided that I want to widen my steelies, does anyone own a shop or know of one who might be able to do this? Basically all I'm looking to get done is add a lip to each rim, maybe 2-3.5".


While I'm at it, i might as well ask about stretched tires. Are there any benefits to them? Who around here can give me the info I need to purchase them and get them done? How many millimeters should my section width be if I want a nice stretch? ex. my rim is 229mm (9"), would 205 give a good stretch or would id need to be closer to 225?

Some of it may sound dumb, I'm just now looking into this stuff for the first time.

Thanks in advance.

 

Ray @ total performance

 

Thanks BluR. Any other suggestions or information?

 

"Stretching" tires originated with people who had wide wheels and couldn't afford to buy properly sized tires. It later became a style fad. There is NO performance benefit, in fact, if done to the extreme that is faddish (like putting a 205 on a 9" wheel) can be down right dangerous.

Every tire manufacturer publishes specs on their tires. Included in these specs is a "design width" specifying the width of wheel that the tire was DESIGNED to work with. You'll get the ultimate performance from any particular tire by putting it on the specific wheel width it was designed for.

Tire specs also include an acceptable range of width that the tire is "approved" for. For a 205, this is typically 5.5-7.5".

TireRack.com has specs for almost all of the tires that they sell, for others, you can go to the manufacturer.

Widening steel wheels is not worth the cost unless you're trying to maintain some particular vintage look or something. Cheaper to buy a good set of low-end alloy wheels of appropriate width.

 

Thanks for the info, the "stock" look is what I'm going for, thanks though. repped.

 

If you're gonna do it, do it right. There is a steel wheel manufacturer called Diamond Racing. (not local, but very well known, and very experienced in the ways of building wheels) I believe they used to do wheel refurb where they would take your wheel centers and put new one-piece "shells" on them. That would be the hot ticket.

 

If a shop has the proper rig to spilt the wheels and re-weld them, I see no reason why they can't do it 'right' and have them balanced properly. If you look on VW Vortex, there's a few threads on who widens steals around the country. I tihink there was a shop in Miami that did it.

Stretched tires? Part of it was for broke people, and part is becuase your tires can't extened past your fenders in parts of europe. As long as it's not a super extreme stretch, you should be fine considering the amount of people across the pond running stretched tires just fine. www.wheel-whores.com has quite a bit on info on Banded Steels, Tire Stretching, and running really wide rims on cars.

 

Most pople hit the internet and buy them already widened
from the factory.

If you get some types of BBS aluminums, you can get a center section
that is of the width and offset of your choice, and removable if you
want to change it.-Bob

 

I've been looking for a site that sells custom made steel rims,but none of them seem to have the lip that I'm looking for. I'm still looking for someone who may be able to lengthen my steelies' barrels, PM me if you can please or post info here, thanks.

PMed ray, waiting for a response.

 

theres a few sites listed on the mustang forums that widen rims. Though your not gonna get more lip. they add in a strip behind the hub