Rim Widening

[Stuart]

All –

 

I would like to take a set of stock Kronprinz 4.5x13 et35 and widen them to 6x13 keeping the face the same so I can use stock hubcaps.  Instead of new barrels, Stockton Wheel says it will add 1.5” of material to the middle of the existing barrel section of the rim.

 

 Doing this will move the inner edge of the rim and the tire closer to the shock tower both front and back.  

 

How can I know if I have room for that addition if it all goes on the back side of the rim?  If it ends up too close, can I use longer lug bolts and spacers?      

 

Thanks,

Stuart

[SmoresTM]

Is the additional inch and a half only moving the inner lip of the wheel closer to the shock tower? No movement to the outer lip? If so, I would pop your wheels on and measure how much room you have to work with. Then, if insufficient, start stacking washers on your wheel studs to work as a makeshift spacer until you do have a sufficient amount of room to for the wider wheel and tires. Measure the total distance the stacked washers moved the mounting pad of the wheel away from the hub and, voila, you know the size of the spacers you will need. 

 

A fair warning, 2002 factory studs are pretty small so you may need extended press-in wheel studs depending on how much spacer you need. I've seen people use E9 studs as well as some studs from other manufactures, but IE makes it easy and sells two options (one IE, the other APR). Both are rather long though, and may ben more than you need. I installed the IE extended studs on my car without too much trouble, and was very happy with the amount of thread I had to work with. I'm running 8 and 15mm spacers though.

[Conserv]

Stuart,

 

I believe ‘02’s can accommodate roughly (very roughly) 4.5” of backspace: the distance between the seating face of the rim’s center disk and the rear lip of the steel rim. A tire extends somewhat beyond the rim.

 

With a wheel (tire and rim) bolted onto the car, how much space do you have between the rear face of the tire and the front strut, and any other steering or body components? The front and rear of the car will be somewhat different.  That clearance will give you a sense of how much you can add to the back of an ET35 rim, before relying on wheel spacers.

 

Adding 1 1/2” to the back of an ET35 rim is sub-optimal because the stock 4.5” rim is so “tight in”. Even a 5” ti/tii rim, ET28, is an improvement. But why can’t they add the banding to the outside of the rim? Or, could they add a band and move the center disk inward? If one were having a set of 6” wide steel rims custom made for an ‘02, I’d guess that ET25, or so, would be a reasonable goal, and....it would give you a bad-ass deep-dish appearance. Whoa! ?

 

10mm wheel spacers will turn your ET35 rims into a rough equivalent of an ET25 rim (before you add banding to the rear), but you will need to swap out your lug studs, an additional 1 1/2” might not fit, and...you won’t get a bad-ass deep-dish appearance!

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited March 23, 2019 by Conserv

[TobyB]

Dat ain't gonna fit...

it'll be about an et70 6" rim.

 

Let Steve talk some sense into them and have them put the band in the middle...

 

t

 

[Conserv]

5 minutes ago, TobyB said:

Dat ain't gonna fit...

it'll be about an et70 6" rim.

 

 

LMAO. That’s a great way to put it, Toby!

 

If 1 1/2” = about 38mm, you nailed it: it would be a 6” ET73 rim.... ?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[Conserv]

Stuart,

 

Maybe something is getting lost in the way Stockton says they will add the band to the “middle” of the barrel, which you are interpreting to be solely the backside of the rim (“if it all goes on the backside of the rim”).  Ask them what offset they would expect after the banding is done. I find it hard to believe they’d add it all to the backside...

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Conserv

[MOJOJOY]

I think they band the barrel and you have the choice offset wise where to weld the center. My wheels were rebarreled and not banded. 

[Stuart]

So what ever I do, I want to still use the standard hubcap on the face and have a 6x13 rim.  The face needs to look like this with the pictured hubcap when it's all said and done:

 

 

Possible or not?

 

[TobyB]

Not.

 

without 30mm or so spacers IF you don't want the barrel to overhang the hubcab about an inch.

 

(personally, I think the overhang is an awesome look, but I don't stretch or poke if I can avoid it)

 

t

[Mike Self]

 

Even the 5" factory tii rims have the extra half inch (vs the 4.5" carbureted roundie wheels) to the outside, so the edge of the hubcap is not flush with the rim as you've shown here with the 4.5" rim.  So I'd expect another 1/2 to 3/4" (total, 1 or 1 1/4 inch) protrusion if your 4.5" rim was widened to 6."  But that would look cool IMHO.

 

mike