Chad68

iTrader: (1)

How visable are the welds, when the wheels and tires are installed?

haulass350

iTrader: (4)

Two words...Bad ***!

atlsupdawg#2

baileyrx,
Cool bro.. I don't know if the G35 17's are staggered sizes like the Z ie. 7.5" fornt 8" rear. If so, did you actually widen the front 7.5's and move the 8's up front? This is what I would end up doing if I went this route.

Also, what are your driving impressions so far?

EDIT: Just reread your post again...DUUUHHH!! My bad

NA&CH

iTrader: (74)

I was saying if I saw those tires after looking from the side. I would shat myself

eat rice z33

iTrader: (11)

rofl this is exactly liek cutting your springs to lower yoru car. jesus christ what the **** where you thinking!! I guess youv have never experienced component falure while racing a car around eh? last thing you want to be worried about is your rims crakcing or breaking apart!!

InSaNeZ

iTrader: (9)

Looks amazing!
Congrats!
BTW they have been welding rims together for a long time now, it's safe.

titanjc

iTrader: (11)

Those 315's look INSANE from behind!!! Great job!!!

taurran

iTrader: (18)

I'm conisidering doing this with some stock 17" 350z wheels I just picked up. I'd like to run some fat ET street radials on them, but 8" just won't cut it. Thanks for sharing this info.

edit:

I've also been looking around for other places that will widen wheels. So far I've found a chain of shops called Wheels America that has multiple locations that will widen wheels. The closest one to me is in Miami.

Here is their site:
http://www.wheels-america.com/

JimRHIT

iTrader: (6)

Wow ... glad to see you have been around all this so called "racing" for so long.

Thanks for the great input.

He has done what THOUSANDS of racers have done for years. Why should he spend a crazy amount of money buying larger wheels when he could just do this. These wheels are perfectly safe and reliable. How about you research this method ****************.


OP,
Car looks sick ... would love to see some side and 3/4 shots.

Chris@DTD

iTrader: (1)

jcarp

i've done this to a few wheels but the only thing that you have to worry about is that once you heat it and weld on your wheels they are not as strong as they are from the factor so watch out for pot holes. but widening the factory wheels kick a$$.

Wired 24/7

iTrader: (2)

Unless a really shoddy job has been done, it should be fine.

There was a discussion about this before, someone widened the stock 05 Ray's wheels on the 350z.

In my opinion as an engineer, there's 2 things to think about.

1) The welds, if done properly, are going to be stronger than the surrounding metal.
2) The welds are not directly experiencing significant torque from the axle. The only way to break off a weld would be to hold the inside of the rim while twisting the outside. This would never occur in the real world. The outside (street facing) part of the rim transfers momentum and torque to the inside (wheel well facing) part of the rim. That is a VERY LONG weld to break from the kinds of torque that an automobile can deliver.

Conclusion: Safe unless it's a seriously **** job.

jcarp

we weld up cracked wheels at my shop ones that hit pot holes and get bent and cracked. alot of times i see them get hit in the same spot and crack right next to the weld and on a few accasions i've seens then weld its self crack right down the middle. looks to be safe but just be carefull not to be doing stunts. i've seen factory wheels crack in 2 from hitting stuff.

Wired 24/7

iTrader: (2)

Same thing can be said for practically any wheel. "I've seen X wheel get bent / cracked after hitting a pothole"...even forged rims people are complaining that it got bent hitting a pothole.

The fact that you've seen the welds get cracked is a bad sign, but it's no worse than cracking a spoke (which I'm sure many people have seen several times)

jcarp

yeah like i said just be careful i've had to fix many forged wheels bc they are so light they are suppose to be better but seems that they bend easier.

failsafe306

iTrader: (38)

I'm thinking about doing this to my Track Ray's. I found a place called Weldcraft, I think they're in Michigan. If I decide to have them widened, I will have them x-ray'd to make sure the welds are solid before mounting them on the car.

Jun

iTrader: (45)

they can widen wheels? Their office is 2 minutes from my job. I'll pay them a visit and ask them how much to widen my OEM wheels.

350zDCalb

iTrader: (21)

how does one do this without rubbing the inside of the wheelwellsl ike crazy?

especially the fronts? running 275's???? i have 255's in the front, have rolled my front fenders, and it still rubs on turns

any ideas?

taurran

iTrader: (18)

I think most people are using spacers when doing this. I have a full set of 15mm eibach spacers on order that I hope will do the trick. Then agian, I'm not going to widen the fronts. I just need some meaty rears.

350Zteve

iTrader: (6)

Its all in the offsets. I run 265's front and 295's rear. No rubbing, no spacers, no fender rolling.