Morris Minor Owners Club

Has anyone done this or heard of a pal doing it, cut a standard wheel in half down the middle, weld it back together with a spacer to make it into a wide pickup/van wheel of 5.50/14 4pcd, cos ESM list the wide wheel but its always sold out, and on ebay they go for silly money.[frame][/frame]

it's called 'banding' if it helps. i've seen a few done, some better than others. you need to, ofcourse, make sure that it's alligned perfectly!

Done something similarly dodgy to change the offset.

We got it balanced in the end but never seen so many weights.

Would be slightly worried about it coming apart on the road.

J

As previously stated its called "banding" and there are loads of how-to's online. That said it can be a rather dodgy way of widening a wheel and should only be attempted if you are an expert welder. I for one certainly wouldn't even try

It would be easyer to rehoop the center and use a rim from ,say an MGB.This should give you a 5.5"x14"....
Getting it to run true is the trick though.....

If you get a jig made up you could spit them out pretty quick

It is more usually done (as GAS points out) by removing the rim complete from a wider14" wheel (Vauxhall works well) and fitting it to the centre of the Minor wheel. I have one ready for welding - but chickened out at that point......... 'wanderinstar' did make himself a set like this and was pleased with them. The alignment and welding will obviously have to be both spot-on and to the very highest standard. The question then remains - is the Minor wheel centre strong enough to take the extra loads of a wider wheel and tyre...... The 4.5" 'official' wheels have thicker metal in the centres - for good reason.

Don't hold me to it but I believe that you use to need a certificate from the company/welder that banded your wheels for an MOT to pass it if they notice the weld line. This is to say that if the wheel fell apart, the welder would be held responsible. There are a million threads on Retro Rides and other forums regarding this but it seems the general consensus is that you can be fined if the fuzz deam your wheels unsafe/ badly made.

I did mock some up a while ago but only got as far as BM did and not actually weld them together. I used the 14" Minor center and a 14" Ford Rostyle rim (these had the center rivited on so came apart quite easily) that was 6" wide. It looked very nice but I couldn't be sure that welding it wouldn't warp everything so never did it.

ratrodmog wrote: I used the 14" Minor center and a 14" Ford Rostyle rim (these had the center rivited on so came apart quite easily) that was 6" wide.

This is something like I did although it was only to take out the centre and reverse them to change ofset.

I was more than happy with them but as previously said they took a lot of balancing.
The vehicle then passed a full SVA but wether they noticed them.....

ratrodmog wrote:I did mock some up a while ago but only got as far as BM did and not actually weld them together

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Hi ratrodmog any chance you could be persauded to spark up that welder and give it go?

Regards

John

a lot of minis and escorts had these in the 70,s and have seen reports of them splitting and also metal fatigue .A welder that is coded would be the safe bet but even then

If you want banded steels, then head over to Retro Rides, the man you need is jamesp. He does wheels for competition use, and they're done using a lathe and proper industrial welding equipment. Quite a few of them on the board are running them, and no-one's got anything negative to say about his work.
If you want to re-rim steels and you're not confident in your welding, how about mocking them up and tacking or rivetting them together, and then taking them to a suitably competent welder? All you need to do is ensure they're square, this could be done by using a dial test indicator, while revolving the wheel on something suitable.

Useful link there - any idea how much he charges per wheel to add say a 1.5" band ?
Problem with tacking etc is -the wheel could still distort badly when the welder gets going on it. I feel it would need to be done bit by bit - around the circumference. But 'wanderinstar' did get his welded up professionally and was very pleased with them. But with banding or rim swapping - the end result still relies on the possibly rather thin metal of the original Minor wheel centre...........