superlight splitrim refurb
Turbo Mini Forums

hi, i picked up a set of superlight splitrim alloys some time ago for my car as featured in my build thread.

they wheels werent in too bad a shape, but starting to look tired and showing their age.

i knew this would be a bugger of a job, but bit the bullet and started on them just prior to the weekend





this is the wheels once we had picked them up - they dont look too bad in the pics, but in reality were a bit rough



got the tyres removed, but made a start polishing the outer rims prior to this



yoko semi slicks going on the front two. will be using yoko a539s on the rear





original nasty black bolts ...



removed



new m4 stainless dome top bolts to replace. will polish these up on polishing wheel befrore fitting

the worst part was removing the sealant once the rims where split apart. 3 down, one to go.



outer rim



wheel centre piece.



three pieces of the wheel placed together.

so the plan is to strip and clean the 4th wheel.

hopefully i can get this done this week. the centre of the wheels i will paint vw black magic to match the colour scheme of my car.

the outers i will highly polish

i have some old stock john cooper garages centre caps to fit once done.

as stated, the bolts will be changed. i also am going to fit some richbrook flush fit valves.

this has been short but sweet, will keep updated with the progress.

also i believe i have to re-seal the rims with normal silicone (have read this somehwere on this site). also have to look to see the torque setting sof the bolts, which i know has been discussed previous here. will have to get searching. cheers

Edited by welshdan on 12th Sep, 2010.

What rating are those bolts?

not sure, but they are quality rs items. with 18 of them per rim, it will be ok.

not sure silicone is the right thing to use, sure you can get some propper wheel stuff.......

looks great otherwise!!

And on the 7th day........... God created turbochargers!

i know when we did keans on his nissan we used normal silicon, i'm sure they were M6 bolts though, M4 seem a bit small to me?

i think its m4 off the top of my head. - ordered the bolts a long time ago. though they fit perfectly where the originals were fitted. following searches, quality silicone seems to be the best thing to seal the rims.

i didnt think stainless even had a high tensile rating
other than that they look good

Yes i moved to the darkside

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my brother has a set of revo splitrims. they were fitted with stainless bolts from new.

Stainless bolts are not up to the job. What you want are plated cap screws grade 10.9 minimum.

An A2 or A4 class 80 stainless screw is equivelent 8.8 carbon steel. There are A2 or A4 class 100 whih are equivelent 10.9 carbon steel. I would give RS a call and see if they can find out what strength class their screws are.

Also, I doubt very much those scres are M4. That is just daft. They look more like M6.

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It is more work hardening in stainless that then causes it to go brittle and fail well below its rated tensile strength.
That is my understanding of it in any case.

Oh.......

And great job on the wheels they look fab mate !

Rich.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
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Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

silicon works fine however iirc stainless bolts dont have the shear strength

Are those 12" or 13"??

look like 13's with the bridgstones on in the first pic

Rick.

Couldnt you be more adventureus and do th centres a different colour.lol

A common misconception, even amongst some of the engineers I have worked with, is that stainless bolting is "stronger".

The only thing I would add to Sprocket's figures above is that in my experience the most common stainless bolting, A2, is usually only class 70 which is not even as strong as a plain high tensile (8.8) steel bolt and about half the strength of a 10.9

The other issue with stainless, especially A2, is it becomes embrittled in mildly corrosive atmospheres (ie, salted British roads) especially if it is in contact with a dis-similar metal.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

thanks for the input re the bolts. they will be bolted back together with what i have, but i will look to change them in the future.





the wheels are 7x13, have a bit of a wild offset on them. they stick out just past sportspack arches (though that is with the sportspack spacers on there).

i did think about going for either gunmetal, gold or the black centres. i really think the black centres will suit the car though.

That offset looks perfect to me. I certainly wouldn't say it was wild.

not wanting to piss on your fire, but I'd change the bolts to a grade you know what is, I've seen a few nasty miglia crashes due to the bolts failing, instant tyre deflation, not like a normal puncture.

Do you want to risk scrapping your minis for £30 worth of bolts?

Team Racing

Its probably the last sort of debate you wanted to open on your wheels - look very nice by the way! but what Tom, Jim and others say is true - S/steel is not a good use for wheel bolting, the problem with "re-torquing" is you are yielding the bolt each time you do this - not a good idea on a brittle bolt or 12.9 grade, 10.9 can cope with a little re-torquing, 8.8 a little more - but you'll not find quality cap screws in 8.8 grade. Beware also zinc plated 12.9 cap screws as they will suffer "hydrogen embrittlment" and snap in a similar manner to s/steel - unless you have a conformance cert from the supplier to say they have been treated for embrittlment - read expensive.

again very nice wheels - be worth spending a little to ensure they stay in company with the car!

JK

If Carling made Mini engines
it would probably be like this one!

The other thing to consider is that stainless and aluminium make quite a nice battery. Much better off with mild.

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A man without a project is like a like a woman without a shopping list.

thanks for the input

i have made a bit more progress with this. split and cleaned the last wheel. tidied the rears up



got them in primer yesterday.

the cast centres were shocking, took quite a bit or prep to take out the roughness etc. hopefully the topcoat will look ok.



got my paint in the week. its vw black magic pearl, same as the roof on my car.





going to prep and get the black on this afternoon.

freshly painted. will get some more pics when back together and on the car.

dan