TECH WEEK...Changing bolt pattern of a wheel.

I drive a rough looking but great driving 69 Buick to work. It looked horrible with the stock 14" rims , I had a set of 15" Keystone 5 spokes but they were the wrong bolt pattern. The Buick is 4 3/4" bolt circle and the 5 spokes were 5" bolt circle. I am way too cheap to buy another set of wheels or pay a machinist to modify these so I had to figure out a way to do it myself with simple tools. Here is the fixture I came up with......

1....First I cut a circle from some half inch plate. Diameter was 8 3/4".



To cut the circle a bent center punch and a small pair of vice grips work well. A clean cutting tip is a must.



2....Next 1 sprayed a little fast drying black paint on there ( pro's use dykem) and with a pair of dividers laid out one circle at 4 3/4" and one at 5".



3....Next I divided the circles into 5 and center punched 4 on the 5" circle and one on the 4 3/4" circle.



The 4 marks on the 5" circle are drilled out to accept wheel studs and the single mark on the 4 3/4" circle is drilled to accept an 11/16" drill bushing. For those not familiar with drill bushings, it is a hardened insert that is pressed into a drilling fixture so you can run a drill through the hole hundreds of times without hogging it out.



4....Here is how the fixture looked after the studs are installed and the dill bushing is in place. The plan is to bolt the fixture to the back of the wheel and run an 11/16" drill bit through the drill bushing to elongate the original hole. It will have to be taken on and off twenty times so to cut down on time I installed two of the mag lug nuts and cut the heads off so I would only have two to tighten.





5....Next I bolted the fixture to the rim and it was time to drill. I was curious if the drill would try to grab , before starting I made sure the bit was sharp and and only used light pressure and plenty of cutting oil and the drilling went very smoothly.



Rather than remove tires I decided to try drilling 2 wheels by hand and had no problems at all. Disclaimer.....You guys better remove the tires because I know you are going to end up upside down with your nut sack tangled around the drill and the cord around your leg.



6....Before....



After....



Before....



After....

 

Nice job!

 

Never thought of doing that. NICE!
Thanks!

 

Dammm nice as usual Kevin....car looks great.

 

Awesome!! I have done something similar to change six bolt Chevy mags into six pin sprint car wheels.

 

Awesome tech, I dig the new look on the Buick too!

 

Kool tech!!!

 

BWAA HA HA HAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

MAN, i've had a crap week and this just hit me the right way to make me spit Dr. Pepper all over my screen- Thanks for the laugh!

 

Superb.....

 

This tech is as good as your last wheel tech on narrowing wheels.

 

Very cool!

This has got to be the quote of the month! -"I know you are going to end up upside down with your nut sack tangled around the drill and the cord around your leg."

 

That was a classic thread, this one is right on. Kev, that Buick look's far from rough. Those wheel's made the car.

 

That is the good side of the Buick, it is a real solid car though, only 86,000 miles when I got it from the son in law of the original owner. He is a friend from work, I needed an inexpensive car to get me to work and back and paid $2,000 for this. I would really clean up nice but I have enough projects already so I think I will just keep driving it.

 

awesome kev, i may try that to go from4.5 to 4.75

 

Good Job and Nice details!

 

Great tech Kev! The Buick looks a ton better. Now you'll probably get stopped because it looks like a muscle car instead of a Granny car.

 

Damn good job of making something work ! Thanks for all the pictures and the details on how everything came together .
Yes I can see some tiny person on that drill when it locks up and they can't get their finger off the trigger quick enough and they just keep spinning around and around ! Better yet all the long hairs with ponytails really need to be careful . The only reason I though of that is because I had a very long ponytail that I cut off for Christmas and donated to Locks of Love again .
Thanks just painful thinking about it !

Retro Jim

 

Great tech, I can definitely see myself using this on some old aluminum wheels I have laying around.

Would it be dangerous to go from 5 on 5 to 5 on 4.5" or would you only go one side up or down? Would it make a difference if there was enough meat on the wheels? I have a set of those Kelsey Hayes Star Mags that are 5 on 5 and I think the only pattern I'd ever use them on would be 5 on 4.5".

Last fall I bought an almost identical '69 Skylark, same color too but with a black vinyl top, looks real good with the 5 spokes on it.

 

I don't think it would be dangerouse to go to 4.5 but the washer may not cover the old hole.

 

Cool tech! And yes, the nut sack tangle around the drill made my day too! Reminds me of walking into a shop years aog with Elpollacko and finding one of the guys working there wound up into a '55 F100 rear fender from the same drill... Trapped!!!

 

Nice work Kev. Is the Buick drum/drum? It looks like this was an easier solution than redrilling the axles/drums.

 

Bloody brilliant Kev! It's so simple yet it's often the simple plans that go undone - I think it's human nature to over think most things. I'm subscribing so i have this to refer to next time I need a bp change.

Steve

 

Yeah Kev! haha. I laughed at the tangled nut sack thing too!

I've fucking near killed myself using a small corded 3/8 drill to make some 1/2" holes in 1/2" plate...bit stops dead and the drill moves just as fast as the bit used to be going. I had a 1/2" drill bit snap once when it bound up, making me freak and let go of the drill....the drill hit the ceiling spinning like a top and came flying back down at my head with the razor sharp broken bit playing Russian roulette with me. Luckily the butt end of the drill made contact with the top of my coconut...think it actually caused more damage to the drill...no jokes.

That big corded drill could snap your wrist like a candy cane!

I've since switched to using my heavy duty cordless 3/8 drill to make big holes in big material. I just set the clutch mechanism so that if the bit binds up hard, it just disengages. Way safer for us "drillologically challenged" builders out there.

 

Kev how did you go about dividing the circles into 5?

 

Ya, me like.

 

The Master strikes again!
My nut sack and I thank you for the cool tech!
Ha haa haa

 

Ok, Kev, but how the fuck do you just mark out 5 positions on a circle? 6 yes - but 5????
Do tell.

Great job by the way.

Mart.

 

I have a feeling my plate wouldn't be cut so nice or so round - damn nice work

 

Great tech and a sweet Buford too...they ride like a dream.

 

Funny how having been at your shop makes this tech that much more interesting.
Thanks