I recall reading some info from Converted about how he uses Ford hotwire mags with redrill holes. Now I have a set of Globe Batharst wheels from an old XD or whatever it was and on the back they have the space for redrilling the Datsun PCB, quite handy dontch think?

Problem is though that the tyre shopssay they dont have the facilities, they claim it's an "enineers" job so I call an engineer who would redrill them but he won't touch it with a fourty foot pole unless.......the uneeded holes are welded up.

Now I'm no "engineer" (and frankly I don't want to start any fights with engineers even though I know they're not all right) but surely welding my alloy wheels will weaken them more than if I had the holes plugged with solid steel dowls. I'm also aware of electrolisis between different metals but would that be reactive enough to massivly corrode the area of contact within a few years?

There are two things to consider when you answer this post guys :

1. I'm not selling the wheels
2. I'm not paying for torture-slow alloy welding if it's going to cost me more than the wheels ($300) as it is the redrilling would cost $200 for all four,plus hardly anyone around here does alloy welding.

Anyone care to shed some light on this for me?

It's not in the wheels initial design.
Welding is bad, not welding might be worse depending on wheel design.
Definitely not good for use on street.

I'd do it for my car, but not for anyone else. Not even for friends. Liability is a reality. I'd rather give a friend money towards buying new ones, rather then weld them up.

It was a false economy to begin with. IMHO.

There are companies that do it, theres a few down here (galaxy products, Adelaide wheel and rim) Both companies manufacture wheels and make custom products for wheels. there would almost definatly be places up there that do it but you may have to travel. Tyre fitting shops generaly only want to sell wheel and tyre packages and for safety reasons dont want to get involved in custom set ups. try someone like ROH wheels or someone like that, if they cant do it they will be able to tell you where to go.

Cheers. Adam.

The thing I left out though is that these wheels are for the Coupe which will see limited street use as I'd most likely have it on club rego to get to events and tuning sessions

I understand. But there are too many people ready sue businesses. Put you and your livelihood in the shoes of the engineer/wheel guy. Then add the stupidity of 'joe average', and you might agree.

I had a thought about the welding a few minutes ago but I'm not sure if they do it that way. It would involve using an alloy dowel and tack weling it to the wheel once it has been really pressed in.

The reason they want to weld the unused holes up, is that they want to restore the original designed amount of material around the fastening points. While this is a novel idea, you might want to go and read up about welding aluminium and it's alloys, to see what a mission it is to do properly.

You have all kinds of problems with different metallurgical properties and mixtures of different metals to get the desired properties for a given application. I doubt that these materials are sold in rolls of welding wire and/or sticks, so your going to compromise with some filler that is not the same metallurgically, and you're going to fuse them together. They have different cooling rates, and the original metal's properties changes when it is heated to the point of melting, and you end up with microscopic cracks and faults, which is not something you want in a wheel.

Not even in a wheel that's going to see limited duty. Read up about it and maybe you'll change your mind, and possibly save a few lives.

Quote:

Logic tells me this will only weaken the wheel even further, because you are now pressing a dowel into a hole "to small" for it. This pressure is sitting there waiting to be relieved, and the moment you drill the new holes, and even if the have been pre-drilled, the pressure will by diverted towards there, as these are the closest relieve points. You once again end up with hairline fractures and/or faults, which is not good.

Just my 2c, as I wouldn't even have though of re-drilling alloy wheels. Steel wheels is a different beast altogether though.

my mags are the same, they have been re drilled and the pre-existing holes have been filled, with a plug by the looks of it. I haven't had any problems, you can actually see the old holes, in theprocess of fixing them now.
on the lefthand side just above the existig nut, you can see a bit of paint flaking the best pic sorry, Ty