How To: Narrowing HPI Wheely King wheels

[gregrocks90046]

pigeonfarmboy brought me a set of HPI's 2.2 wheely king wheels in black. we both agreed that they look like a lot of 1:1 steel wheels, but needed to be narrowed for rock crawlers/scale rigs. here is my step by step on how i did it. the end result is the perfect width and look. the tools used were a drill press, 4 inch cut-off wheel with arbor, patience, and above all.....

safety glasses!

make all of your first cuts on all the wheels, then the second, and so on. this way you don't have to re-adjust your drill press for each wheel.

if you are not comfortable using these tools, then don't! i'm sure there is a crawler in your area that can help you out.

here are a couple of pics of the stock wheel-



getting ready to make the first cut. notice i am cutting right below the inner bead-


second cut will remove that section that is narrower than the rest of the wheel-


i forgot to snap a pic of the third cut. it is just like the first cut, under the inner bead on the other side of the wheel. here is a pic of the fourth cut. i removed about one centimeter. you can remove more or less to get the final width that will work for you-


here are the 3 parts after all the cuts are made and de-burring-


here is a side view of the center section to show how much i narrowed it-


pics of the wheel after gluing. i like using thick CA and zip kicker. the perfect width, in my opinion. and i think the wheel looks better with the outer rim closer to the center section-

[spittflamz]

nice work, and nice little tutorial too ;)

[Kranberry]

Originally Posted by spittflamz

nice work, and nice little tutorial too ;)

x2


but what about us less having tools kind of people that dont have drill presses?

[Rockpiledriver]

Originally Posted by cjkranwinkle@cableone.net

x2


but what about us less having tools kind of people that dont have drill presses?

You lose digits!

[gregrocks90046]

Originally Posted by cjkranwinkle@cableone.net

x2


but what about us less having tools kind of people that dont have drill presses?

a drill press isn't that uncommon. you might know someone that has one.

[joemomma95]

Originally Posted by cjkranwinkle@cableone.net

x2


but what about us less having tools kind of people that dont have drill presses?

I used my drill....put a slice of allthread in it and slide the wheel over the allthread, attach a nut and use a razor blade(very carefully obviously) to cut the wheel while you spin it on the drill. Kinda primative but it works...

[Rckcrwlr]

Nice job. I just picked up a WK and thought the same thing.

[Norcal crawler]

Originally Posted by cjkranwinkle@cableone.net

x2


but what about us less having tools kind of people that dont have drill presses?

Use a dremel. If you dont have a dremel, use a hack saw. If you dont have one of those you need to go buy some tools.

[rockwerks]

So unlike the pede wheels there is no plastic under the cuts? or does the center section have plastic underr it?

[gregrocks90046]

Originally Posted by rockwerks

So unlike the pede wheels there is no plastic under the cuts? or does the center section have plastic underr it?

i have never narrowed pede wheels, so i don't quite follow what you are asking.

[DumpsterRC]

Nice write up. If you ground/cut off half of the lug nuts it might look close to a 5 on 5 1/2" bolt pattern.

[gregrocks90046]

Originally Posted by DumpsterRC

Nice write up. If you ground/cut off half of the lug nuts it might look close to a 5 on 5 1/2" bolt pattern.

yep! we thought the same thing!

[wyo7011]

How does this affect the strength of the wheel?

[YAKIMA RC RACER]

for those that dont have a drill press i used a razor blade from a box knife and just cut the outside bead off like the first cut in the first pic clean it up a bit and just slide that bead over the plastic section than glue it together. on the otherside instead of cutting the whole bead off in the first pic cutt on the outside of that bead instead and just sand it down until even with the bead. sorry no pics. thats what i did and im at 10 15/16 over all width using masher 2k i hope this helps

[gregrocks90046]

Originally Posted by wyo7011

How does this affect the strength of the wheel?

if you run a bead of thick CA on the inside of both sides, it seems very strong. haven't had a problem yet.