banded - how to widen a rim

Here's a little experiment I did a couple days ago.
A good "How To" post!

50's stock ford rim

Since I'm making the 40 a resto-rod,
I'm trying to find radials for 16" rims.
The tires need minimum 5.5 inch wide rims,
and all the old rims are only 4.5 inch.

prep

I had seen an old friends dad do this trick on his '58 pickup,
so this was the perfect opportunity to try it.
This rim had a little bump in it so it was a good donor.

pieces

After some careful cutting I had the lip removed.
Then a strip of 1/8 x 1" flatbar was curled up.

clamp

Here you can see how important those nubs were on the welding helmet!
perich brothers (and sister): pedicles

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Alabama Shakes - Hold On

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The toughest part was matching the ends.

clamped

Than the lip was tacked on...

lipped

I took a little too much faith in depending on the roundness of the rim.
Next time I'll have a rear end to spin it on to double check.

tacked

The rim was carefully TIG welded both sides.
This took the longest.

banded rim

The rim seemed OK.
An air check with some soapy water still needs to be done.

widened ford rim

Here you can see that dink on the top of the rim.

spin tested

I took it home and spinned it on the rear end hub,
and dang it was almost perfect.
The bump in the unmodified lip just needs to be hammered out.

helper

So now it looks like I'll have to do at least one more if not the other 3.
I may go 1.5" wider at the rears though.
Is it worth the 3 hours per wheel?
To me yeah it's better than spending over $500 on repop rims.

TP