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Old September 22nd 03, 05:53 PM
Bob Kuykendall
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Earlier, Bob Leger wrote:

...I have no spare wheel, and am
in search of one...


I've messed about with stuff like this a couple times.
I once made a set of custom wheels for my Triumph spitfire
by welding over the holes in a set of Chevy Vega wheels
and boring new holes on a milling machine. And I once
cut the centers out of a set of Volvo wheels and had
them welded into mondo-wide rims. Based on my experiences:

First, you need to determine what the bolt pattern
is on your current wheels. You can get close using
a regular old ruler or dial caliper. This diagram shows
how to measure the bolt circle:

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/boltpatt.htm

Note that you're measuring the circle that passes through
the centers of the holes. For odd numbers, that can
be a bit tricky.

One thing you can do is take one of your wheels off,
and take it to your nearest tire store; like maybe
a Canadian Tire outlet. They will usually have a set
of gauges that they can use to figure out what bolt
pattern the wheel has.

Once you know the bolt pattern, you can use the Internet
to find all the cars that use that bolt pattern. Then
you can go junkyarding for a set of equivalent wheels.
This list will get you started:

http://www.mrt-wheels.com/boltpatternref.html

Some things to pay attention to:

* Diameter - Stick with whatever diameter the original
wheels were.

* Width - Use the same width, or perhaps only slightly
wider, than the originals.

* Backspacing or offset - Be careful that you get wheels
that have similar backspacing as the originals. Otherwise
you might have clearance problems with the trailer
chassis or fenders.

See this diagram for wheel nomenclatu

http://www.eaglewheels.com/wheelsection.htm

I hope that helps.

Thanks, and best regards to all

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24