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I have a set of Sport Designs sitting in my basement waiting to be redone. Over the course of their lives Chicago potholes have essentially destroyed 2 of the barrels. So I have to replace 2 barrels and have the remaining 2 to refinished. However, since they are multipiece wheels why can't new barrels be made with a different offset and lip? Typically I run 10-15mm spacers on these wheels anyway because the offset is so conservative, so there is room to move for sure. Before I go and re-invent the wheel.....pun intended, has this been done before and if so who was the shop that did it? Google turns up a few shops around the country that can make custom barrels and heck if I CAD one up I am sure I can have them made out of billet locally. Any thoughts or group interest if I do make some custom sets up?
Consider starting with, in no particular order, Wheel Enhancement (Is Harvey still there?), Zuffenhaus (Keith or Aaron), or Fikse (Jeff?).
Of course, you know to have them all redone at the same time by the same shop so they will match.
From a price perspective, it may be more effective to just buy 2 new/used wheels than try to replace the barrels. That is especially true if they have to custom make the barrels.
Where did you get the new barrels? They are a turned finished.....so getting the wheels redone is not something easily done (or at least from my perspective).
I have done nothing yet with my wheels, so I am trying to figure out my options. The last set of wheels I redid was $1500 just for powder coating, so I know this isn't going to be cheap. Money isn't really my concern here. I think the wheels would look better if they had some lip to them with a little more aggressive offset. Both can be accomplished with custom barrels. Just trying to figure out if this has been done by anyone.
My plan is to separate the centers and send them out to a local shop to be blasted and refinished. Then source barrels somewhere and assemble them myself. Shouldn't be rocket science......
I've seen a set of these with different barrels to make them wider with an outer lip but they were also increased to 19". It was on the 996 Modifications Facebook group posted by Dave Meyers, not sure if he's on here and can give more details?
How bad are those destroyed barrels? Are there chucks missing and is flat a pancake? If not, they can be straightened and fixed.
Just to be clear I know they can be repaired or I could source a new set very inexpensively. I DO NOT want to rebuild them as they were stock. I would like to rebuild them with a different offset and with a lip, that is the purpose of this thread.
Just to be clear I know they can be repaired or I could source a new set very inexpensively. I DO NOT want to rebuild them as they were stock. I would like to rebuild them with a different offset and with a lip, that is the purpose of this thread.
It's an interesting idea that I thought about sometime back also. Did you have any luck and get anywhere with it?
Yep, something I considered doing too, but my initial investigations indicated that retaining an 18” barrel diameter AND increasing the barrel width/offset on the front face, wouldn’t be straightforward due to the overall existing diameter of the wheel centre, specifically the area where the 20 bolts heads are located.
I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it wouldn’t be straightforward and the additional outer lip depth may look a bit strange.
I have a spare set of Sport Design wheels with 7.5 fronts & wanted to find 8” barrels. In my search I came across Phil at VR WHEELS. Here’s what Phil suggested:
Hey Billy, sorry we only carry 3-piece wheel parts. We could do a 3-piece conversion to them if interested.
It is $1880 to perform this conversion. It includes all 8 parts (4 lips polished / 4 barrels raw), new longer hardware (any color), and all required machining / assembly / labor. Additional $160 for shipping back to you in the continental US if you are not local to us.
You would just have to provide us with at least the centers and let us know the desired wheel spec you would like to have them built to or what size lips and barrels you would like to build them up with.
We do offer powdercoating services if interested. We get all our colors from www.prismaticpowders.com. One of the most popular silvers we do is called Porsche Silver which you can see on there. I am not sure if that would be a close match but you can check our their catalog as well. It would be $100 per lip to powdercoat if interested.
Let me know any questions you may have and I can help you out.
02-15-2019, 10:55 AM
Sport Design/Classic Wheel Barrels
