3 piece wheel bolts

[Disturbed1]

firstly, im going to refurbish a set of pretty expensive 3 piece wheels and after getting the centres repainted and the lips polished to a mirror, would like to finish it off with new nuts/bolts rather then trying to clean up the original ones and reuse them..

my question is - does anyone know of a good place to order these from?

have read on an american forum that you can get titanium ones aswell. to all the qualified engineers out there, what would be your opinion on using titanium fastners for this application


cheers

[wilbo666]

New bolts add up to be quite expensive, quite quickly... also you really need to find someone who has an account with a decent discount. The discount on bolts / nuts when you get an account is huge, something in the order of 600%+ if I recall! (I.e. get the general public price and take a 6th of it)

I got some stainless ones via Austain in the past.

BUT Have you thought about getting the existing bolts re-plated, i.e. Zinc Dichromate?


Oh and in regards to titanium, sounds expensive for little gain... the number of bolts there are I reckon you could use alloy bolts and still have the needed strength lol


Cheers
Wilbo

[allencr]

...your opinion on using titanium fastners for this application

My opinion, who do you want to impress & are they easily impressible.

[Disturbed1]

My opinion, who do you want to impress & are they easily impressible.

dont go out my way to impress anyone

[AAAAGZE]

you may find if they;re BBS wheels, they may be a bolt diameter that is not available from commercial bolt shops.

what head style are you looking for? what material? do you know the grade of the bolts you intend to replace?

are these wheels going to be used on the street or on the track?

a lot to consider for a seemingly mundane task...

[Willofan]

Try Richard at Retro Wheels in Sydney 02 9570 3033 he does Simmons 14 - 16" with all styles of bolts. tell him diameter and length of thread and head size, cap screw or socket head etc.

[Draven]

also try neale's wheels in sydney - they're specialists in refurbishing and making wheel combinations.

[thechuckster]

These bolts don't tighten up much - and after re-assembling my AJR 3-piece rims, it's a boring and tedious task.

fwiw: i got some loctite (sorry, can't remember which one but nothing stupendously strong) in goop form (like a chapstick) and applied small amount to the threads of each bolt as i assembled it (120 i think). I worked my way around the rim doing nuts up at 90 degree intervals.

Get/borrow a small torque wrench as when i searched/look-up up wheel re-assembly, the torque settings ranged from 12-30ft/lb depending on make and bolt count.

[takai]

Im very interested in the torque ratings for the bolts. A few places ive tried have just advised FT but im a bit dicey about that.

Personally i have a full set of 308 12.9 M8 SS capscrews, and a set of 12.9 HT M8 Capscrews with HT wizlok nuts for my wheels. Undecided between the SS and HT bolts.

Oh yeah, for 100 of each it cost just <$80 at trade from Coventry Fasteners.

[Disturbed1]

just gathering info atm since i dont even have the rims yet.

rims are panasport g7 c5c2s though.


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[thechuckster]

I just polished the nuts/bolts with a soft wire brush attached to a cordless drill - removed most of gunk and surface rust. Wasn't worth sending off to be re-chromed.

They came up looking like this:





(Hi-res versions at bottom of this page)

From memory, i did the nuts up to 12ft/lb as they were being inserted/assembled, then re-did the whole rim at 20ft/lb. I couldn't find specs on my AJR rims so used something that seemed to have the same bolt hardware and size of rim.

The loctite is primarily there to stop the nuts vibrating loose. No need to over-tighten the nuts as that amount of clamping force spread around a substantially-sized ring is substantial. I over-did the gap sealant (used a highly flexible sikaflex).

fwiw: just google search for something like "torque settings 3-peice rims pannasport" and trawl thru the threads - you'll eventually find your brand and if they use special nuts/bolts, info on them. e.g.. http://www.wheel-whores.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7