Making your own wheels.

[Darin Bastedo]

A friend asked me how I did the wheels for my Cobra so I thought I would post a few pics to help illustrate it for him and other who want to know.

First thing I did was draw the basic spoke design on a sheet of evergreen sheet plastic. Then I cut all the holes in between the spokes and shaped the plastic accordingly

Then I add the rim from a parts box wheel, in this case IIRC it was from a monogram 1978 corvette wheel.

Then I added the hub, and ridge detail with either sheet plastic (hub) or strip plastic (ridges). All in all there were 23 separate pieces in this wheel. If you have questions or need a point clarified feel free to ask.

[shucky]

Darin, thats pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing. I've always wanted to try making a wheel myself just haven't gotten around to it. I'm convinced you can pretty much make anything with styrene, lots of time, and files. Really nice job you did.

[allparish12]

amazing!

[Darin Bastedo]

Guessing by the color on the in-process model that the one you made from sheet/strip plastic and kit parts was used to do a resin cast for the model's set of 4?

Yes I did. The Street Cobra's wheels are all the same size so I was able to make just one and have it cast. BTW it I had Five cast as I needed one for the spare tire also.

Edited July 27, 2011 by Darin Bastedo

[b_lever1]

very good idea should work on almost every kind of wheels

[Dr. Cranky]

Wow, you are really challenging yourself and your skills are fabulous. I could never do four wheels to look exactly the same.

[Mr. Moparman]

Wow, you are really challenging yourself and your skills are fabulous. I could never do four wheels to look exactly the same.

That's why they make this liquid called resin, Dr.!

[Hawk312]

Ha...I just stopped by this forum to search for a thread on making wheels, and here it is right at the top.

Can you expand on what you mean by " shaped the plastic accordingly"? I assume you started with a flat solid block of styrene stock?

Any ideas on what you would do if you don`t have a base rim to base your wheel off of?

I am trying to replicate this wheel, in large scale of course :

[jeffs396]

David, with your skills, I don't think duplicating that Alcoa rim will be difficult!

Look outside of "normal" kit building supplies for your master, like copper or aluminum tubing for the "hoop".

The center should be fairly easy with thicker sheet styrene carved to duplicate the 3-dimensional features of the 1:1, or use rennshape, or balsa foam, etc. Some brass hardware in the proper size for the lugs and lots of patience and some time & you'll have it!

[Chuck Most]

Wow, you are really challenging yourself and your skills are fabulous. I could never do four wheels to look exactly the same.

You could always build one wheel, then pull a mold off it and cast the rest.

[flyonthewall]

Great job on those rims, perfect symmetry!

David, I made some Porsche Boxster Spyder rims pretty much in the same way Darin describes above. They are not too dissimilar to what you are after with those Alcoa's

[Casey]

Any ideas on what you would do if you don`t have a base rim to base your wheel off of?

I am trying to replicate this wheel, in large scale of course :

What scale is the wheel going to be? There are many toys available with plastic wheels, and while some of the toy's wheels may look horribly simplistic, you really only need to find a wheel hoop which closely matches your desired wheel specs. You can always sand away some material, or use some styrene strip to add a bit of thickness. Since they are already nearly perfectly round, you don't have to worry about making your own wheel hoop, as that's near impossible to make out of a rolled sheet of anything.

The real key to making wheels is symmetry. The human eye can detect (well, some people's eyes are better at detecting than other's) even the slightest bit of off-centeredness (if that's a word) and any non-symmetry. Even making each spoke (or pair of spokes) individually, and casting multiple copies will work, provided the master spoke(s) is (are) perfectly symmetrical.

[Dr. Cranky]

Chuck, you are right about that too.