I *was* trying to get some 36s on my Scout relatively cheaply.. bought some used 36" TSLs, had three used 15x8.50 Mag(nesium) wheels.. scrounged n' found two more wheels, then found out one of the TSLs had a sidewall leak..

Fine. Got two decent-tread tires mounted up on two wheels and threw 'em on the back, ordered two new 36x12.50s..

They arrived yesterday. Picked them up, took 'em 6 blocks to the tire shop and dropped off the two extra wheels..

Got 'em home last night.

That's when I noticed of my 5 wheels, three have the large center-hole, two have small center holes.

Scouts used external hubs up front.. and when that changes, I plan on moving to 8-lug hardware which makes these wheels useless anyhow..

Small center wheels fit fine in the back. No problem there.

Small hole -
http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout/jpg/2_2_2002/pic008.JPG

Big hole -

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout/jpg/2_2_2002/pic009.JPG

Right now, my clearest option is to yank the other rear tire off, which has a big center hole.. take it and one of the front tires back to the tire shop and have the tires/wheels swapped.. putting the used swamper on the small center, the new one on the big center so I can have two new tires up front, two used in the back.

The other option is to just cut out the center of the front wheel and see about having it rebalanced.

Cheaper than two dismount/mount/balanced jobs, and it would mean another wheel I can use on the front (making 4 of the 5 large centers)

My only concern is.. I have zero experience with these old-school slotted mags (which IIRC are magnesium alloys..)

They take the crappy flat-washer lug-nuts.

If they were steel wheels the solution would be simple - carve 'em!

I'm just askeered of hacking on these wheels. I've seen enough broken ones...

n' just to recap.. I wanted steel wheels, but don't have an extra set of 15x8s with large centers.. and since I'm working on the 8-lug running gear and already have a pair of 15x8 and 15x10 8-hole wheels I don't really want to buy new 5-lug wheels... so I thought I'd try to make due with what I have.

So.. would you carve on alloy wheels?

I have a 4" hole-saw that would be a good start, but I might still need to do some more clearancing with some other tool (grinder?) or try to pay a machinist a visit and see if they could do something with it..

Thanks,

-Tom

Magnisum is flamable. So if they are real magnesium wheels they are going to be a bitch to work with. I used a light wire wheel to clean up some real magnesium wheels for my wifes MG and it was like a sparkler on the 4th of july.

Chuck P

Bolt the wheel to a Bridgeport table, dial in the center, and run a boring bar through it. About 20 minutes total for that job, and you'll have a nice looking large hole and will be able to sell the rims when you go to 8-lug. We cut Mg routinely here, it's no big deal. I'd be really scared of the hole-saw / grinder approach though, those alloys are brittle and you'll stress it enough that way there's a very good chance it will break, either as you work on it, or a week later... Don't mess around, have it cut properly.

are you sure they are real Mag? if they are you could put them on E-bay and get enough money to get what you wanted. i have a set of Alumn. slotted rims just like those that i'm taking to UPS Mon. to have Champion install bead-loc's.
to tell the truth i'm not sure if what i have are Alumn. now that you have brang this up i think it would be a good idea to find out what they are before i pay for shipping.

Damn, and i thought the thinking was done for this week!!:rasta:

Take them to a machinist! If you cut to fast you are gonna have a nasty mag fire on your hands.

had the same situation with the same style of rim for my toy pickup. They had small holes to fit a chevy so they wouldn't fit on the front of the toyota.
My friend stuck them on his lathe and turned out the centers to fit the toy. It was pretty easy (never saw a spark...that didn't really occur to me until I read this post:eek: ).
Make sure the rim is centered really really good on the lathe or your center hole will be off center and they won't ever be able to be balanced.