How to convert rims - female to male

As i'm working on these for my Celica, I thought i will put together a specific 'how-to' for future reference.

Cutting away the polycap housing is the first step, which is not easy without some sort of motor tool. A steel cutter is used for the job by steadily grinding away with the tip. Take it easy here and watch out for the cutter biting into the plastic, when this happens it will jolt and will usually damage a spoke. You will notice a small recess when the housing is removed, this is what will be used to fit the peg into.
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The pegs can be taken from a Fujimi kit but chances are you won't have any, so we'll make some. 2mm styrene rod is what i'm using for this, 2mm seems to be the standard for the pegs on most rims.
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The recess on the rims has a larger diameter than 2mm so you will need to widden one end of your peg to get a tight fit. By far the easiest way of doing this is to use heat and soften the tip, then press the rod onto a hard flat surface. Try to keep it as straight as possible, you could from some kind of jig but dont worry coz you can always sand the base flat.
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Sizing the base is a job for the Dremel again, fit the peg straight into the chuck of the drill and use a sanding block or file. Apply light pressure and check the fitment to the rim regularly coz you want this to be a very tight fit. In the case of this how-to, i'm using 17" rims which have a smaller recess than the 18"s, so the base on these pegs is barely noticeable but necessary all the same.
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Use your choice of glue to attach the pegs, i've gone for styrene adhesive coz this will weld the join together and should provide a stronger bond than CA coz of the small area we're dealing with. Either way these are still fragile so fitting and removing them to their hubs should be kept to a minimum. If you have followed everything so far by keeping a tight fit and a flat base, the pegs should stand at 90degrees and u won't have wonky rims:D This is infact another reason why strene adhesive is better here, coz u will have time to play with the allignment.
Do this 3 more times, cut the pegs to length and you're done:)

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Hope u all find this useful.;)

Thnx man! These how-to guides are so helpful to newbies like me!

Originally posted by flyonthewall


Hope u all find this useful.;)

I do! thanks mate, it's bookmarked :D

Thanks for the 'How to' Chris :)

Did a similar thing myself just last weekend, only difference is I added a metal pin to the pegs to add a bit more strength to the joint between the rim and the pin.

Ray

Originally posted by freakray
Thanks for the 'How to' Chris :)

Did a similar thing myself just last weekend, only difference is I added a metal pin to the pegs to add a bit more strength to the joint between the rim and the pin.

Ray

Good idea Ray. Another idea i had for this problem is to place a thin disc of plastic over the peg therefore covering the base and sealing it in underneath. Couldn't use it in this example though coz as mention the base of the pegs is not much.

awesome :)

dam dremel, i was grinding away the polycap housing with the dremel and it got it caught in the spoke... damaged slightly should still be able to fix

chris, can you post some pics of the wheels on the car so we can see the alignment?

Thx

Nice one Chris excellent tip from you, been scratching my head over how to get polycap wheels to fit my celica, by the way the 350z came today so ill be getting out the knife very soon:ylsuper

Thanks for the how-to!

I seriously need to get meself a dremmel!

Thanks Chris.... I really needed to know how to do that, I was tryin to figure it out for myself...

I got some TE37 rims for my celica and they have been a bitch tryin to make them fit

There's a joke in here somewhere, I just can't say it :finger:

Great job Chris, I'll need to pick up a dremel soon!

Great How to, Chris.
I was doing the same today for the GT4 basically the same way just used a different tool in the dremel.

Originally posted by djmr2
awesome :)

dam dremel, i was grinding away the polycap housing with the dremel and it got it caught in the spoke... damaged slightly should still be able to fix

chris, can you post some pics of the wheels on the car so we can see the alignment?

Thx

You'll have to hold tight for pics with them attached to the car, i'm still mucking about with the ride height.

Great stuff Chris...i'll add it to the FAQ's

bump for a great thread..

here's a Tip

instead of pressing the rod against something flat, you can just heat up the rod and put it into the recessed hole inside the rim so the melted sytrene will conform to the hole and give u a great bond later. The holes on my aoshima rims were rounded so by forming the rod to the hole gave it more surface area to bond to.

:)

so how about a male to female? is till need to buy a dremel

Originally posted by djmr2
bump for a great thread..

here's a Tip

instead of pressing the rod against something flat, you can just heat up the rod and put it into the recessed hole inside the rim so the melted sytrene will conform to the hole and give u a great bond later. The holes on my aoshima rims were rounded so by forming the rod to the hole gave it more surface area to bond to.

:)

That is true, but what i have found is that when you press the end down onto anything, you hardly get the rod dead in the centre of the plastic you have squashed - if that makes sense???:confused: Spinning it in the motor tool enables you create a perfectly round base, with the rod dead in the centre.

Originally posted by flyonthewall


That is true, but what i have found is that when you press the end down onto anything, you hardly get the rod dead in the centre of the plastic you have squashed - if that makes sense???:confused: Spinning it in the motor tool enables you create a perfectly round base, with the rod dead in the centre.

yah..

i did it myway and i didn't find the rims looking funny at all when mounted on the car.. so not a big deal for me to have it PERFECTLY centered.. but i rather have a strong bond because they tend to break if u want to take the wheel out of the polycap...

Originally posted by djmr2


.. but i rather have a strong bond because they tend to break if u want to take the wheel out of the polycap...


Yeah, you have to be careful coz they are quite delicate. That's why i mentioned that when the pegs are sanded in the dremel, to keep checking the fitment to ensure that they are tight. If they are even slightly lose, they will not get a good enough bond and therefore likely to stay inside the polycap rather than stuck to the rim.

Anyway, each method could be tried out by readers of this thread and they can do whatever they prefer. I guess fitting the pegs direcly into the rims after heating gets around the problem of not having a moor tool at all. Whatever floats your boat my friend!;)

woaa fly- congrats on the promotion to moderator:D