[Brad96]

I wanted to run wider tires in the rear of my V1. I read a lot online about Weldcraft. There's plenty of discussion about whether welded aluminum wheels are strong enough, which I think is a valid concern. But, I couldn't find any info about tolerances. Like, are the wheels still going to be straight and round after they've been cut apart and welded back together? I'm planning to run my car pretty fast, so misshapen wheels could be a concern.

Well, I finally bit the bullet and sent two stock 18x8.5" 7-spoke wheels off to Weldcraft, to have .75" added to their width. When they came back, I mounted them on the car without tires and put a dial indicator on the inner rim, to see how they did. In the radial direction, I measured .031" and .028" TIR (maximum - minimum shown on the dial). In the axial direction, I measured .024" and .033" TIR. To put that into context, the modified wheels are "straighter" and "rounder" than some of my unmodified OE wheels that I measured before selecting these two to ship out.

So, I'm impressed. I didn't address the question of strength. But, in terms of tolerances, these guys do great work. Just thought I would put this info out there, in case anyone else has wondered the same thing.

 

[FTSS]

As measured by a friend and fellow car club member, the tolerances measured by Hunter's equipment at their headquarters were tighter than oem for the pair of factory wheels I had Weldcraft widen 1 1/2". As for strength I would hazard a guess the welds are stronger than surrounding material. Great outfit.

 

[TA Coupe]

I have a 93 lightning and on that Forum a lot of people have had their stock wheels widened as much as 2in and I've never heard of anyone having a problem with them and some of them are using them with drag slicks which I think would be the hardest on the wheels of anything.

Roy

 

[Brad96]

Thanks for the replies. Regarding strength, my simplistic understanding is that it's much easier to make the weld as strong as the parent material when working with steel, versus aluminum. But, I'm greatly encouraged by the fact that, in all of my internet searching, I haven't found a single case of a Weldcraft-widened wheel failing during use. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to stress my wheels as hard as some others have done.