Thursday, August 8, 2013

Wheel Refurbishing


Solid Edge CAD Drawing


I managed to get the wheel centers I designed for the 2006 car a few months after the car (Thanks Roy and Dr Jones!). 

In preparation for the trip from Alabama to Houston I needed to get the car rolling for ease of transport. Here is some info from my search for the correct Weld Wheel Halves and Hardware to assemble the custom 3 piece wheels and a few images from the design process in 2006  



  • History on the 2006 wheel center.....Amtec was a machining sponsor and they were knocking our door down to machine something after the summer of 05. We did not have anything designed to send them but i had been toying around with the idea of custom wheel centers (~1lb weight saving per corner....4lb total). We sent them slabs of 7075 billet and they machined the wheels after the design was finalized. I played with several designs but the one that showed the most promise was essentially a copy of the split spoke BBS design that is so popular. It turns out it is popular because it is really light and strong. If you give the spokes a high lateral MOI you can make it quite spindly and still have good lateral load resistance. The Solid edge drawing is parametric with easy adjustments for spoke angle and width. I just played with the parameters until i had a good blend of aesthetics, lateral (function of Spoke thickness into wheel for good MOI), vertical, (Spoke width), and torque resistance (Spoke angle).
  • The Weld wheel half part numbers are P851-3214 (2.25") inner and P851-3318 (3.25") outer
  • Its been like 7 years........but i believe my load case was a combined loading of 3g of rear lateral weight transfer and 3g bump with maximum 1st gear torque load. The Lateral and Bump loads were applied to the bottom 4 bolt holes and the torque load was applied to all bolt holes. The wheel was constrained through the lugs.
  • Hindsight is always 20/20......On a 3 piece design i would alter the wheel center to have threaded wheel half holes. This would eliminate the need for the bolts to be inserted from the inside and nuts on the outside.....oops......

FEA Load Case:   3G lateral Accel; 3G Bump; Full 1st gear torque load
FEA of Final Design
Wheel Displacement at FEA Load Case
Machined Center
Machined Center in Action (California 2006)

Calculating backspacing to order correct Weld wheel halves
Wheel Center Test Fit
Wheel assembly in Alabama during Christmas 2012

Assembled Wheels
Weld Part Numbers

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