I had my Halibrand wheels milled...

Flipper · December 21, 2011, 08:41:14 AM

...to work with stock wheel studs.

When I bought them (used) they came with centers that were 1.5" thick. There were no threads on the wheel stud beyond the hole in the wheel. They were only held on by the threads in the lug nut shank....nothing in the head of the lug nut.

I fixed that. I had pockets milled into the wheels to get full thread engagement. I now have little windows where the lug holes hit the center hole, but that is minor compared to failing lug nuts at highway speeds.

before

after

with nuts

rumrumm · December 21, 2011, 09:52:14 AM

Mmmm-boy! IMO, thinning out the mounting area on a cast wheel looks pretty scary to me. I would question whether those wheels are safe. Why didn't you use longer studs?

phat rat · December 21, 2011, 10:05:08 AM

IMHO Longer studs would have made more sense and been less costly. Also wouldn't have ruined resale value further down the road. I agree with Rumrum on less strenght in the wheel center. Maybe we're wrong but I wouldn't want to run them on my car and find out.

Flipper · December 21, 2011, 10:06:30 AM

Quote from: "rumrumm"Mmmm-boy! IMO, thinning out the mounting area on a cast wheel looks pretty scary to me. I would question whether those wheels are safe. Why didn't you use longer studs?

They are still .800" under the lug.

I have another set of latemodel Halibrands that were made for "tuner" lug nuts. These wheels have less meat under the lugs than the set I modified.

phat rat · December 21, 2011, 10:12:01 AM

The window into the center is what I wonder about

Flipper · December 21, 2011, 10:18:19 AM

Quote from: "phat rat"The window into the center is what I wonder about

The way I look at it, is that there is still .800" under the lug. If I milled the whole wheel center down to .800" would it still be safe? The material above the .800" line is there for looks.

That being said, I do plan in filing the edges of the new windows.

wayne petty · December 21, 2011, 10:25:51 AM

LUG nuts.... and various tire shop supplies...

this company ONLY sells as far as i know.. to its dealers... which are most tire shops...

but looking up the part numbers and walking into almost any tire shop in the country with a list and pictures for the tire guys.... may get you instantly without much fan far... the exact lug nut you need.. or they will special order it for you...

here is the link to one of the lug nut pages...

http://whtknight.com/cgi-bin/prodtype.cfm?subcat=19

they also sell LONG knurled wheel studs...... they have them that are threaded on both ends also...

http://www.whtknight.com/cgi-bin/item.cfm?subcat=166

Flipper · December 21, 2011, 10:30:35 AM

I am using mag wheel lug nuts.

In the as manufactured state, only the threads in the shank had wheel stud in them. The beefy part of the nut was empty. I was concerned that the head would pop off at the wrong time.

Charlie Chops 1940 · December 21, 2011, 01:43:59 PM

You should be fine with .800" thickness under the lug nut/washer. I have had a number of Halibrands and similar wheel that have been either factory cast or milled off to .750". A lot of late model aluminum wheels are countersunk, like your wheel now is, for taper face lug nuts with around the same amount of meat (I don't happen to have any handy to measure).

Charlie

2buck · December 23, 2011, 01:05:57 PM

I don't see any problem with your modification. There is still adequate material between each lug hole and surrounding area.

Flipper · January 01, 2012, 01:18:28 AM

With the knock-off center caps

and the tires that will go on them. 215/50/17 front and 285/60/18 rear. The Dodge should have a pretty good rake to it!

Flipper · January 15, 2012, 10:32:05 PM

I finally found the right valvestems.

The lugs fit like I planned.

The socket just barely has clearance

With tires