Thread: Hub boring by hand?

I'm picking up some Honda 14" steelies tomorrow for $25, and I was wondering if anyone's ever bored these out by themselves..

What did you use? I saw that people have used carbide burrs and talked about rotary sanders, but that was for an alloy wheel.

thoughts?

(I'm crazy-cheap on this one...no machine shop recommendations, please)

I think you may have your hands full on this Louis. Especially with steel rims.

You might be right. Even so, I can resell them back on craiglist for at least that much.

I might try it on a spare steel wheel I have lying around, first.

My research has shown that boring out the hub/lip of a steel wheel can cause stress cracking in racing applications. If you don't get it just perfect, you'll also have balancing issues galore. . If however you want to try for the sake of trying, a die grinder seems to work best.

I won't be racing at all on these. Maybe just to and from the track, so at most 600 - 1000 miles a year.

Can the wheel be spaced out t prevent the hub from contacting the wheel? Maybe that's the easy answer (as long as the spacer is no more than 5mm).

I don't know if this is possible, but what about hub centric spacers the fit on the car but the outer part is centric to the wheel.

I know that's not even close to what you want to do. (Costs monies!)

that would be the best solution. the hub of a steel wheel is a BIG part of its strength. i would never ever ever ever bore out a steel wheel, not to mention balancing would be impossible afterwards. i suggest long studs and a 10mm spacer, 5mm will not get you out far enough.

cliffs notes; DONT BORE OUT A STEELIE! HORRIFIC IDEA!

If you do bore it out, be sure and keep the surface as cool as possible. If you work harden the center you can cause cracking in sever cases on the surface that can propagate/migrate. If your going to try doing this have water on hand and keep it wet. Use a grinder meant for harder metals.

The balancing affect shouldn't be terrible, since the material is so close to the axis of rotation it shouldn't be a problem. However, I am not speaking from experience.

Best of luck.

Dudeman

Why not just buy some B13 wheels?

to balance the center needs to be perfectly round and dead center, they have attachments that can center the wheels via the stud holes, but they really dont work well on steel wheels.