Machining wheel hubs down

[MrX]

Does anyone have experience with any local machining shops? I'm looking to machine my wheel hubs down a few mm to go from a 25 offset up to 30 offset

[m10-power]

Originally posted by MrX
Does anyone have experience with any local machining shops? I'm looking to machine my wheel hubs down a few mm to go from a 25 offset up to 30 offset

Really bad idea

[eglove]

Yep. Bad idea. Get some new wheels or roll or pull your fenders slightly for that 5mm clearance

[DeleriousZ]

If anything, you'd want to shave the deck of the wheel down. Even that is a bad idea though. Add camber, reduce tire size, or pull fenders more!

[msixty]

Buy a beltsander and do it yourself.

[rage2]

Originally posted by MrX
Does anyone have experience with any local machining shops? I'm looking to machine my wheel hubs down a few mm to go from a 25 offset up to 30 offset

So ghetto... how are we even brothers?

[MrX]

Originally posted by rage2

So ghetto... how are we even brothers?

I guess I'm just not the type of person that finds pleasure in wiping my ass with $100's.

So I decided to look into this more because I know it can be done, I have seen it done, but I don't know all the facts behind this process. I just want to know the facts to both sides so I can make an informed decision. There are tonnes of opposing viewpoints on this topic but basically what it boils down to is 1) type of process used to make the wheel and 2) if there's enough material left to mill the hub.

To point #1, cast wheels are not recommended to go through this process. So basically I know I won't be doing it. Why?? Because inherently casting is a cheaper production process that tends to leave wheels with some imperfections in the structure of the metal. Additional milling can create stress fractures in the wheel which obviously isn't a good thing. On the otherhand, 1, 2 or 3 piece forged aluminum wheels can withstand a bit of post production milling. The process of creating these wheels starts with a solid block of forged aluminum which is then milled/machined into the manufacturers designs and customer specifications. Custom offset requests by customers and specific bolt patterns is usually accomodated by milling the aluminum back pads of the wheel to the desired spec from factory and drilling the correct bolt pattern to finish.

To point #2, there must be enough material after milling to maintain the overall structural integrity of the wheel. This means a minimum of 7mm from the base of the lug hole to the mounting surface of the hub. Although this is an approximation and is contingent on the design of the wheel.

So to get to some facts to help me understand how this all works, I contacted HRE and Adv 1 (yes Rage2, your wheels included) just to see how this all works.

After talking to their service and repair managers, both manufacturer state that they offer custom offset configurations on their wheels and stated that they can alter the wheel backpad for their customers. During intial production, wheel offset is achieved by milling down the block of aluminum that starts off as the wheel hub to the desired amount. In post production, wheel offset can still be changed through additional milling, but is dependent on the above 2 points. They got into much more technical details, but basically still boils down to those 2 points. So apparently, this is a pretty standard service for them. Their recommendations stand at 2-3mm max milling, but it is not uncommon for them to mill out 5mm of material for customers post production to suit their specific vehicle application.

[rage2]

I actually prefer to wipe my ass with $50's, because I don't like my asshole smelling like maple syrup.

[heavyD]

Ha ha ha. Too late for April fools so I assume this is real? Why not just roll your fenders? Nothing good can come from removing 5 mm of material from a wheel hub.

[m10-power]

lol 5mm is nothing, why bother. align the car, roll or pull the fenders. dumb idea to mill the wheels, big issue with the wheel bolt hole thickness, 5mm is huge here.