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Hi Everyone, I have a '54 F-350 that I bought with the original "widowmaker" 17" split rims on it with the 6 bolt, 7.25" spacing hole pattern. I wanted a one piece modern tubless type rim so here is what I did. I started with five rims from a 1988-1998 Ford F-350 or 450 with the ten bolt pattern that has a 7.25" spacing. I bought them for $50 each used. I welded 8 of the holes shut and sanded them smooth, leaving two of the original holes. I then turned a bushing on my lathe to fit snug in the hole of the original rim and used it for two purposes. I used it to align the split rim on top of the new rim by inserting it into the two remaining holes, then I used it to center punch each of the four holes that needed to be drilled with a center punch through the center of the bushing. Pictures below. Once each of the holes were center punched I drilled the four new holes in each rim. Last I countersunk and stamped the original holes. After powder coating and mounting tires, I installed the rims with the lug nuts facing tapered side in on the original holes first to center the rim, and the other four I installed flat side in to hold the rim on. The tires I mounted are LT235/85R16 DELTA TRAILCUTTER AT4S E, all five mounted and balanced for $850. I think they look good and they work great! I hope this helps someone with the same "widowmaker" issue.
Looks really good. Why only use two original hole to align the wheels, do you bevel the new holes to be like the originals?
I think a procedure like this was mentioned in past posts and the fear of weakening the metal by the heat of the weld was mentioned. I am not welding or metal expert so I'd like to see what some with real experience and knowledge would have to say. I thought if you did a CAD drawing of the rims with the proper hole spacing would work. Rickston Wheel used to have a video on their website that showed they used a CNC machine to drill the holes in their blank 19" rims, I thought it would be vey easy for them to enter the location of any bolt patter into their machine.
Looks really good. Why only use two original hole to align the wheels, do you bevel the new holes to be like the originals?
I think a procedure like this was mentioned in past posts and the fear of weakening the metal by the heat of the weld was mentioned. I am not welding or metal expert so I'd like to see what some with real experience and knowledge would have to say. I thought if you did a CAD drawing of the rims with the proper hole spacing would work. Rickston Wheel used to have a video on their website that showed they used a CNC machine to drill the holes in their blank 19" rims, I thought it would be vey easy for them to enter the location of any bolt patter into their machine.
Hi, I am an engineer that works primarily in welding. It is my opinion that that this process is more than adequate for the application. The face of the rim being modified is 1/4 thick and all but part of one hole landed on virgin material. Also I don’t plan to load it down to it’s rated capacity or drive it much over 55mph, so it should work just fine.
As for CNC, I agree that it would be the way to go, however most of us don’t have access to a machine with that capacity. I only tapered the two original holes as they are true and will center the wheel concentric to the hub, the other four holes could be off slightly and shouldn’t be trusted for centering.
Knowing that you are an engineer dealing with welding really adds integrity to your post, I appreciate that. The main concern I have is since you were able to use two existing holes for your truck that helped a lot. For use with older trucks with the five bolt pattern it would be harder to properly lay out accurate hole placement. It would nice to have a CNC machine to drill them out but I would think if a CAD drawing would be made with precise center points of the holes marked it wouldn't be too hard to make rims for the five hole pattern doing it manually. My main concern, like I mentioned, is the fatigue of the metal from welding but you said it would be minimal and that is what I wanted to hear from someone who knew for sure.
Nice 54, Wyatt! I assume you have several John Deeres to go along with the truck. Can you pull a trailer with your JD on?
I just sent the bumper / hitch to powder coating. Built it to pull my 10,000 trailer with my IH W-4 tractor on it. I am a John Deere snowmobile collector and have built a few customs.
Last I countersunk and stamped the original holes.
Please explain this above statement. Your donor wheels are hub piloted F-450 wheels. Your stock 1954 F-350 came with stud piloted, or “ball seat” type mountings. From your pictures I believe I see that you used the original Budd lug nuts. Does your above quote say that you chamfered the hub piloted original lug holes, and newly created holes, to work with these lug nuts? The Budd type nuts have curved ball faces which fit into the ball seat lug holes of the original wheels. Merely chamfering new lug holes will not mirror the ball profile. If my understanding is correct, I’d suggest that the torque of the nuts be regularly checked. Budd specified 450-500 lb/ft of dry torque. Stu
This is great info! I did chamfer just two of the holes, the original ones. The ball seat type nuts should center in the hole. The other four lug nuts are installed flat side to the rim.
I jut got done building a set of wheels for my 64 dually from the 10 lug wheels. I did mine on a Toke rotary table on a #2 Bridgeport mill with a jig that I made. It was indexed from the center and the table rotates 360*s , so every 60* a hole was drilled and was countersunk. I fitted them on a frt wheel assy and they run true. I`ve been going to post pictures but have been to busy at work. I still need to get tires. I did weld all the holes and have all 6 lug holes redrilled. No problem, no warpage. I can add more info if anyone needs, I`ll get pictures up in a few days.
I did weld all the holes and have all 6 lug holes redrilled. No problem, no warpage. I can add more info if anyone needs, I`ll get pictures up in a few days.
We always like pictures and details. The more ideas and suggestions the better.
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