Drilling hubs to fit other patterns?

[altered7151]

I am considering machining my hubs to fit a 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern to accomodate a much wider variety of drag wheels. Has anyone done this and with good results?

[lametec]

Sounds tricky and possibly dangerous.

How about finding some 5 x 4.5 hubs and adapting them?

[lowrango]

on trucks, i've seen it done over a 1000 times. as long as the person doing it knows what there doing you should be fine"thumbs up

[altered7151]

Well I'm used to work for a mahine shop and all we did was custom hubs and disk-brake setups for Nascar and World of Outlaw cars, so the guy I'm gonna have do it has been working on this stuff for over 40 years, so I feel pretty confident that if he feels its unsafe he will let me know, so I'm not super worried about that. I know Stephan Beauregard did it on his charger but I'm not sure how he went about it as far as bolt pattern or anything.

[Vigo]

why not use some grand caravan spindles?

[crazy1eye]

Quote:

Originally posted by Vigo why not use some grand caravan spindles?

If you can get those to fit, that would be perfect, there 5 x 114.3(5 x 4.5")

If not, I figured on buying a RWD wheel with a flat center section & a small axle nut hole & drilling them 5 x 100.

[altered7151]

Quote:

Originally posted by Vigo why not use some grand caravan spindles?

Do you have any experience with those? Like how much will they have to be modified to fit? My main reason was cost, If I can go to a 5 x 4.5 I can save about 200-300 on wheels over the bogarts since I can do the machine work for free. But it thing starts looking like its going to cost me that amount or more, I'll just buy the bogarts. I have a feeling I would have to buy the hubs for the grand caravan and they aint gonna be cheap.

[Vigo]

all i know is that short wheelbase vans got 5x100 and long got 5x114.3 between 88-95, and im pretty sure all other pieces interhcange.. in fact, after 91, it MAY be possible to keep the spindle and just replace the wheel bearing/hub, which is held in with 4 bolts i think. next time im at the yard ill try and swap between short and long to find out.. wouldnt that be so cool?

[altered7151]

That would be cool if they did interchange. I think I have given up the idea of drilling them out. I sat down with a set of calipers and did the math to find out the drilling holes for 5 on 4.5 would only leave about .005 between the outside of the hole and outside of the hub, which means it would have to built up with a weld on the outside of the hub, which then means you'd have to machine the inside of the rotor hat to clear the weld buildups, sounds like alot of trouble to save a little money. BUT, if those hubs do change over that would be awesome.

[contraption22]

Bogart and weld make drag wheels for 5x100... its pretty much THE most popular fwd 5 lug pattern. What more do you want?

[altered7151]

Quote:

Originally posted by contraption22 Bogart and weld make drag wheels for 5x100... its pretty much THE most popular fwd 5 lug pattern. What more do you want?

Well I guess my main concern was cost. For a set of bogarts I'm pushing 1000 by the time they are shipped, and the welds are only made in 13inch wheels and I already have a set of 15 inch slicks, so if I used the welds I would have to buy a new set of slicks which once again puts me over 1000. I ordered a set of the new centerline impulses, 15 x 7, 12lb for 133 a wheel. They'll be good for now, who knows maybe I'll pick up a couple sponsors and buy some bogarts later"thumbs up

[contraption22]

weld does have 15" FWD drag wheels. Brian Slowe just got a set.

[altered7151]

Man I'd love to know what they are, I spent like 1/2 hour on the phone with the weld guys and all they could come up with was the 13" sport compact drag wheel, but then again weld customer service isn't exactly known to be the best.