Altering the Offset???

I know the off set can be altered outwards by adding things such as spacers but has anyone done the opposite? To get my overly wide wheels to actally fit under the arch it seems that the best or only options is to have 5 - 10mm sliced off the wheel its self! Has anyone done or heard of this before?

think you'd be messing with the structural integrity of the wheel. if you're going at any kind of speed that would be a bad thing

think you'd be messing with the structural integrity of the wheel. if you're going at any kind of speed that would be a bad thing

Exactly what i said to matey that came up with the idea. He said its been done before many times, looked at the wheels closely and he said theres enough metal to take 5-10mm off with out fear of weakening the wheel. He seems very confident. Im a bit scared!

My brother tried this on his car when he couldn't get his wheels to fit. After 3 weeks he had to buy new wheels as the studs had started to pull through the material that was left and the wheels where dangerous. DO NOT DO THIS.

i actually done this on an old mk2 astra gte. it was fine on that car. not too sure i'd want to do it on the supe

I have heard of this being done, and it aways seems like a bad idea.

Is the mate who is telling you it has enough metal to do it an engineer???

I asked 'Spit and polish' if this was possible as we use them at work and offer a wide range of services but they recommended defo no.

It depends how strong the alloy is. I'm not an expert but i think this process is called CNC. Some CAD contolled milling device i think, its how one off wheels are made so it can't be that bad if done properly...

Many wheel castings are made with hubs that can take different bolt pitches, PCDs and offsets, so its possible at least from the factory.

I wouldn't want to comment any further without seeing the wheels in question.

A big lathe or decent sized milling machine will do this. most wheels are from blanks anyway, and offset is just machined to suit application. You need someone qulaified to assess whether there is enough meat there to sfaely turn off the required amount, and to check bolt hole depth. You may need different hub studs, or nuts if you do this.

I do my own, but if the wheel fails it's my problem. A specialist to trust is:

http://www.ianjemison.co.uk

I have used him for repairs, restoration and wheel purchases.

Exactly what i said to matey that came up with the idea. He said its been done before many times, looked at the wheels closely and he said theres enough metal to take 5-10mm off with out fear of weakening the wheel. He seems very confident. Im a bit scared!

The structual integrety should be fine mate, after all a same width wheel with an offset of +30 and another with an offset of +25 means that the hub part of the wheel is 5mm thicker for the latter, so theoretically you can shave 5mm off and it will be a +30, with no adverse effects.

Recall someone doing this.

Just to add mate, bare this in mind when you mill of 5mm be wary that the dish size is determined by the offset, more negative offset equals bigger dish, so by milling too much off there is a possibility that the wheels could foul the brake callipers as the dish would not have been so big for the more positive offset you get if when milled, see how much room you have now between the spokes and the brake callipers before milling off excess.

A big lathe or decent sized milling machine will do this. most wheels are from blanks anyway, and offset is just machined to suit application. You need someone qulaified to assess whether there is enough meat there to sfaely turn off the required amount, and to check bolt hole depth. You may need different hub studs, or nuts if you do this.

 

I do my own, but if the wheel fails it's my problem. A specialist to trust is:

 

http://www.ianjemison.co.uk

 

I have used him for repairs, restoration and wheel purchases.

Thanks for everyones input. Need as many opinions as possible, destroying a set of wheels and killing myself is pretty much the last thing i need.

Its a precision commercial engineering company that will do the work. They dont usually do public jobs and mainly do work for large companies such as perkins engines. They have done this as a favor to the the guy that owns the body shops as he used to have closed dealing with them in the past.

He has also pointed out that the hub is massive when compared to average alloys and as you have mentioned the manufacturer them selfs only shave the hubs to change the offset of wheels.

I dont think ive got much of a choice to be honest.

AFAIK bolt hole depth will be drilled according to offset, there are on mine.

HTH

AFAIK bolt hole depth will be drilled according to offset, there are on mine.

 

HTH

hummmmmmmmmmm so is that a 'dont do it then'?

I would advise you contact the guy in CW's link as for a defo answer he will probably have to see your wheels and make an assessment.

hummmmmmmmmmm so is that a 'dont do it then'?

Not necessarily, but depends on hole depth after machining the required amount off. You don't get this hassle with UK 17 inchers, or the lexus GS 18 inch rims! get him to make the counterbores the right diameter for the hub spigots, they are bound to be too big....

Not necessarily, but depends on hole depth after machining the required amount off. You don't get this hassle with UK 17 inchers, or the lexus GS 18 inch rims! get him to make the counterbores the right diameter for the hub spigots, they are bound to be too big....

He's confident it will be fine but will take 1 last look today to make sure he's 100%. Its going to cost me about £50 per wheel + VAT does this seems like a fair price to you?

Thanks again for your help.

Bump

He's confident it will be fine but will take 1 last look today to make sure he's 100%. Its going to cost me about £50 per wheel + VAT does this seems like a fair price to you?

 

Thanks again for your help.

For Ian to do it? Very fair, it'll be right if he does them.

For Ian to do it? Very fair, it'll be right if he does them.

No thats from my guy... Your man is based in york. A good 3 hours from here, will be very difficult getting the wheels to him!