I searched around for a while but have not found anything.

Has anyone looked into lightening the stock SS SC wheels?? They are forged right??

I was thinking of taking a set to a machine shop and having three "lightening" holes drilled in each spoke, and maybe some metal shaved off where possible. I bet you could drop them from 24 to like at least 20 lbs.

anyone tried or thought or looked into this? I may try it, I have access to a metal shop and I might drill lightening holes myself, we do it to airframes on our helicopters....it should work.

 

interesting...

 

how much do they weigh anyways

 

it might be a better idea to grab some 17's though, they are already smaller and might be able to make them lighter in the end, and they are the same width anyway.

the other part is the "cool" factor......they would be somewhat unique and look pretty cool IMO

and are they forged??? I thought I heard they were

and weight is in the 1st post.....24+ lbs

and maybe instead of holes....which would be the slightly easier route, I could do something like my Dad's wheels on his '96 Impala

I have a picture but not sure how to put it on here....photobucket?

 

Get lighter tires... general exclaim UHP's are 3lbs lighter than the stockers. So that's 6lbs of rotational mass you can decrease right there.I wouldn't **** with the rims, if you do that you can make them way weaker and it won't be safe IMO.

 

get some lightweight 16's or 17's. that's the better option. i wouldn't cheap out on one of the things that keeps your car off the ground.

 

the holes would/should not make them weaker

when we fabricate wing ribs and different airframe parts, adding the lightening holes and then adding a flange makes them stronger, its cool as ****, the holes at least would not compromise the integrity of the wheel...its the whole arch thing.......like the VW beatle lol

so do you guys know if they are forged??? that would make a difference.

and here's the pic of my Dad's 5 spoke wheels on his impala, they are made by budnik and are forged

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/b...2004001111.jpg

 

yeah i was ganna say if you had access to a mill you could do that then they would looked kinda like the ss/tc rims...

 

yes, they are forged. at least, that's what the sales literature says.

 

ok well, then....this seems like a pretty feasible idea. I have to figure out how much it would cost me though to see if it would actually be worth it. If it would drop at least 5 pounds from each wheel and not cost as much as a new set of aftermarkets.....then it would be worth it IMO

if I could do this, I would probably paint them too, or have them powdercoated!

BTW I do not have a SS SC, just looking into buying one and gathering info on what I will/can do, I might....MIGHT forgo my LS build as it would be easier to start with the LSJ and G85 package

 

Post pict when it breaks.

Good luck.

 

Holes in the spoke may not affect the load bearing force but it would weaken it ability to take side force (ie hitting the curb) unless you know someone with a big mill its cheaper to buy lighter rims/tires. Rims are engineered a certain way so messing with that might not be good imo.

 

everything is "engineered" a certain way! But we still mess with the head on an engine and find improvements many places like that. I do understand the concerns for failure of the wheel at a critical time, but they seem pretty "beefy"

I think its worth a shot. I wont go overboard though.

And this will only happen anyway if I get the SC I want. I will be in Alaska for 3 years starting April, the car will be sitting for long periods of time and I will have 3 years to get it ready to cruise Florida streets with my bros

and about everything being engineered a certain way, I understand what you mean...

but I learned a big lesson from my pops the other day. I saw that a borla cat-back for his '07 ZO6 made an improvement of 27 hp and so did the kandN intake, I thought "man it seems like they did every little thing they could to that to make it perfect."

then (he has a bachelors in Business) he explained to me that in mass production you have to work with different costs so on and so forth, so they can't afford to put borla exhaust or K and N intakes on every car because they would cost more to make and the price would go up and they would not sell as easy.

so anyways....not everything on a "performance" car is good to go, chevy had to find a wheel that would work, look nice and was not TOO expensive...that could be mass produced and just be economically fitting for the car

IMO....they can be messed with, If they snap like foam I will take lots of pics and start a "rebuild" thread for the car lol

 

I work at a machine shop, I could do the work for ya... Just something to keep in mind.

 

cool...and you're in Miami

I dont have experience with this type of machining so much, working with sheet aluminum for aircraft, we have to be perfect with it....but this does too. The wheels have to be balanced and strong

I could drill 3 holes in each spoke, find other places to shave off some metal or whatever, but after drilling the holes I will countersink the holes to get rid of sharp edges and make sure there are no weak points.

If you are a machinist then you know you can't have sharp edges/corners on anything taking a load, it will be concentrated there and crack, thats why windows on airplanes are rounded or radiused, they use to be perfectly square lol

so do you think this is feasible?? and how difficult or expensive at cost, not labor, if it works I might try to help other guys out with the "heavy ass wheel blues"

 

agreed. Brandon you have some good ideas sometimes but not all the time. This is a stupid idea. If you care about your car, other road users, your life, you wont do this. EPIC FAIL

 

If its just drilling the holes you want, it wouldn't be too bad. I wouldn't get too carried away with doing a lot of shaving or whatever, as it will be hard to keep the wheel balanced, and I don't have the facility to balance the wheels, so I would rely on symmetrical removal to maintain the factory tolerances. I can't say how much weight you would be able to remove safely, and although I wouldn't forsee a problem during normal driving, one pothole or any type of crash and you can pretty much be certain all the wheels are gonna break, as you will have created a weak spot in the spokes by drilling into them. Machining a forging is inherently bad for strength, as you cut into the grain in places, creating weaker spots. That is the whole reason behind forging in the first place, to get extra strength by keeping the grain following the shape of the casting.

Anything is possible, but I can't make any promises that you will save enough weight to make it worth while, and of course there is no guarantee at all as far as safety or any type of warranty...

Give me some sort of total of what you would want done, i'll talk it over with the boss and come up with a rough time estimate per wheel.

 

^^^I don't think so, can you give me any real reasons why?

I know why you feel like its an epic fail, but explain to me why they will break and how.

Not saying I'm right your wrong, but this thread is the start of my research and gathering ideas....yous was worthless so far. Come back when you have something better please

and after I were to do something like this, I would test them in a safe place, like hard accel, stopping, turning, and checking for stress signs afterwards.

we have good NDI methods where I work (Non Destructive Inspection) and I can see IN the metal with eddy current to check for stress or anyting after some hard testing, eddy current is accurate up to 1/4" into the metal and works on non-ferrous metal (aluminum)

 

To have any real power gain for a lighter wheel you'd need to take the SS wheel to 13-14 lbs... It's notr worth it.. It's the same thing as taking 40 lbs worth of spare tire and jack out of the trunk... It woun't be felt... Might make the car handle a little better but that's it.. Youi want more pwr? Light weight flywheel, sepecially in these light cars.....it'll have the effect of adding 20 hp at the crank...

 

that was to qwikredline^^ my last post, not sportredSS'

Joe, I follow what you say, it will depend on the size of the holes as well, I'll have to figure out the right diameter to maintain strength and still accomplish the goal of weight reduction

and your right my plan was to shave little metal symmetrically through measurements and what not, and I have access to a balancer

god damn you guys reply too fast.....all my replies look crazy now like.....damn

ok I also think sportredSS has a good point, reduction in unsprung weight is good, and this will be good if I can simply go do it for free, because it may work and I think the wheels would be different and pretty cool

 

The other thing to consider, is that you are better served by removing weight further out on the rim, as it makes more of a difference. Lightening the hub doesn't do as much as the outer rim, if you are taking out the same amount of weight.

Use the quote function, so you don't get crossed up

And Qwikredline is a heavy duty roadracer, so he does know what he's talking about. Don't discount him as some crazy canadian. He might be that, but theres more to him than just that

 

roger that, was not denoting what he said, I just wanted info or his idea of why it was unsafe for the sake of debate and my own info gathering

 

does anyone by chance know how much the SS 17's weigh? at least a little lighter than the 18's?

and yea....I'm still on this

 

why not just get tiny wheels. . . .why ruin your stock ones??

 

I dunno man. I think I would let them go as is. 8lbs of rotating mass really wont get you that much performance.


i do know all about your weight saving stuff though. We do that on our race car. Titanium everywhere possible, and we even drill holes through the steering wheel to save weight.

but 6lbs on a street car , not really worht the inherent risk.