Author Topic: Home made Pro Class wheels (Read 4980 times)

benno · « **on:** November 10, 2018, 09:45 PM »

This is how I did it 👍🏼
This project started with some really ropey Araya 7x that I had kindly donated to me by a fellow stroud based Radster Jason ( burnerboy ) on here.
They were a bit beaten up but not beyond saving.
1 was gold and the other was silver so I got the caustic soda out and gave em a bit of a bath to remove the Anno.
With the Anno gone it was a case of out with the sander and working down the grades finishing up with wet sanding with 1000-2000 wet and dry.
I thought it was best to get the rims as good as possible before attacking them with the drill 😂
So I also gave em a good going over with autosol and then peek using my trusty polisher which is basically my orbital sander with circular microfibre cloth attached to it.
When they were at a reasonable standard it was time to start thinking about drilling alll the holes.
The problem was that all the spoke holes and the actual bobbles for the spoke holes are not all the same distance apart so trying to make a template was difficult.
After a few attempts on a practice set of scrap wheels I came up with a plan.
I stuck 1” masking tape across the rim between the bobbles ( in some of the pics you can telll the difference in the distance between em )
I then made a small plastic template with a small hole which was in the centre of the rim and roughly centre between the bobbles.
I then marked every hole with a biro and used a centre punch to give the drill a head start,
It was then a case of drilling every hole in stages starting with a 2mm bit then up to 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and finishing with an 11mm hole using a stepper drill bit and being extra careful to stop before they got to 12mm 😂😂
This was actually quite good as it gave me a very slight counter sink and no burring
So that’s 420 holes in total 😱 but when I took the tape off it was deffo worth it.
I had previously bought some really nice Suzue hubs so I sent both the rims and hubs off to Rads resident wheel builder Danny Robbo and he did an excellent job as usuall
For the rim tape I bought some 15mm shiny blue ribbon from eBay and also some new standard rim tape the icing on the cake was the pro class valve hole decals from the main man Del and they were finished.
I’m chuffed to bits with em and they will be gracing my next build
The pics will tell the rest of the story
Cheers

benno · « **Reply #1 on:** November 10, 2018, 09:50 PM »

benno · « **Reply #2 on:** November 10, 2018, 09:52 PM »

benno · « **Reply #3 on:** November 10, 2018, 09:54 PM »

Finished

chubby · « **Reply #4 on:** November 10, 2018, 09:54 PM »

Not easier to buy some??

Sent from my G8341 using Tapatalk

benno · « **Reply #5 on:** November 10, 2018, 10:06 PM »

Quote from: chubby on November 10, 2018, 09:54 PM

Not easier to buy some??

Sent from my G8341 using Tapatalk

Yep but where’s the fun in that 👍🏼

chubby · « **Reply #6 on:** November 10, 2018, 10:08 PM »

It'll be somewhere

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Glynnyboy · « **Reply #7 on:** November 10, 2018, 10:15 PM »

Great work and an awesome read. Top job Mike

Ady · « **Reply #8 on:** November 10, 2018, 11:34 PM »

Myself did exactly the same on a pitted set of arayas and came up a treat.
It takes a lot of patience as you got to be spot on and the metal bits gets everywhere.
They use to do this originally as you get some sets with the araya stamping.
Top work mate

burnerboy · « **Reply #9 on:** November 11, 2018, 12:02 AM »

Hey Mike, remember those old rubbish Arayas I gave you, can I have them back as I have a bike they can go on???

Top notch job as usual bud and great to see em saved.

WINI · « **Reply #10 on:** November 11, 2018, 06:55 AM »

Great read and a top job Mike.

Look amazing

factory pilot · « **Reply #11 on:** November 11, 2018, 07:35 AM »

Nice one Mike love this thread

Retrodan72 · « **Reply #12 on:** November 11, 2018, 09:22 AM »

Best thread we’ve had in ages Mike.

Bob_Acid · « **Reply #13 on:** November 11, 2018, 09:49 AM »

Nice job Mike!

griff · « **Reply #14 on:** November 11, 2018, 10:01 AM »

Great job Benno!
Always enjoy reading a good resto thread - nice to see a bit of TLC do wonders

Taipan · « **Reply #15 on:** November 11, 2018, 10:02 AM »

Bloody excellent! they look the biz!

can I ask out of curiosity? are the holes you drilled the same diameter as the hole that the original inner tube valve came thru?

oldschoolace · « **Reply #16 on:** November 11, 2018, 10:38 AM »

Nice Job

kind of job lots of patience and measuring still doesnt make you immune from a mistake
You're right about the spoke spacings. something we all take for granted but they are far from equally spaced

BMX1973 · « **Reply #17 on:** November 11, 2018, 11:35 AM »

They look fantastic and just as good as originals .

class work

benno · « **Reply #18 on:** November 11, 2018, 12:13 PM »

Quote from: Taipan on November 11, 2018, 10:02 AM

Bloody excellent! they look the biz!

can I ask out of curiosity? are the holes you drilled the same diameter as the hole that the original inner tube valve came thru?

No mate the holes are bigger, I’ve done them at 11mm, I measured my og set and did them the same 👍🏼

In2bmx · « **Reply #19 on:** November 11, 2018, 12:22 PM »

Amazing patience and work Mikey

Class

CustardLips · « **Reply #20 on:** November 11, 2018, 03:47 PM »

Nice work Mike... this thread makes me wanna make some and i don't even need em.

MartyC · « **Reply #21 on:** November 12, 2018, 01:50 PM »

I remember one of the guys from Ruislip/Eastcote doing this bitd, not as neatly though...

Author Topic: Home made Pro Class wheels (Read 4980 times)

griff

In2bmx