I lucked out on my wheel hunt at the bone yard!
I found two 14"x7" wheels and two 16.5"x9" wheels.
On the left are the orignal samuria wheels and on the right are the bone yard wheels. I start by carefully slicing thru the welds on the back side.
Then I sliced the rim from the back side being carfull not to cut into the center much. Here it is from the outside, you have to connect the slices in the middle.
A couple whacks with a hammer and out comes the center. Here is the backside.
Here I'm cutting the center out of the 16.5" wheel, I'm leaving a small lip in the wheel. 16.5" wheel with the old and new center.
The plan is to clean everything up and carefully weld the samuria center into the 16.5" wheel. It will look something like this.
This has been a most interesting project and I'm glad to see you are back at it. I thought you might have stopped completely, but seeing some progress now is good.
Very cool idea to cut those rims to use the Samuria wheel centers.
I'm also following this project and I can only say Wow! I've fabricated a lot of stuff in my time but I wouldn't even give a thought to attempting this project. You doing a great job and us back seat fabricators are really enjoying your efforts.
I'm also following this project and I can only say wow! I've fabricated a lot of stuff in my time but I wouldn't even give a thought to attempting this project. You'er doing a great job and us back seat fabricators are really enjoying your efforts.
Thanks for the kind words and input of ideas guys! I've learned a lot off this fourm.
I welded up the rear 16.5" wheels tonight.
After cleaning up all the surfaces I used thin alum "shims" in three places around the wheel center. I then clamped the center down and put 3 good tack welds in place to hold everything.
I then mounted the wheel up on the front hub and gave it the spin test.
Everything looks good with the spin test so I added 3 more tack welds to the back side and then proceded to weld the front side.
I welded in about 4" increments going back and forth 180* to spread the heat out evenly and hopefully keep the wheel from warping.
I then fliped the wheel over and welded the tacks into 1" long welds. After cooling down I mounted the wheel for another spin test,
and amazingly the wheels came out as perfect as my eye ball can detect!
Ya mean ya didn't put a dial indicator on them. At tractor speeds a little wobble is no big deal. I have recentered/reversed wheels and trued spokes with a dial indicator (a piece of wire for an indicator works pretty good too) and hub set-up but for what you're doing there is no need. Looks good!