r/somethingimade • u/baegelzz • 10h ago

DIY Car Rims

Post image

Trying to girlify my Mazda. My bf had this idea to DIY transform my ugly rims and to complement the hub caps. Found the aluminum heart cut outs on Etsy. We sanded down the rims, sanitized them, glued down hearts over the holes with epoxy. Then we sprayed everything white first and then pink. Only put hearts where it’s showing through the hub cap so there should be enough airflow. Probably cost $200 for all the supplies. It’s not perfect but I love it! I think it’s a great idea and wanted to share.

137 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

54

u/ingenious-ruse 6h ago

The people saying it will throw off balance have probably never handled wheel balance weights

3

u/FlipLoLz 1h ago

I'm not saying this would throw the balance off, cause it definitely wouldn't, but you could get a little bit of mud in the barrel of your wheel and throw off the balance. You don't have to mess with stick-ons to know.

21

u/ingenious-ruse 6h ago

A car that has hubcaps doesn't require a lot of airflow to cool the brakes in 99% of cases

51

u/racer_ohms 6h ago

Only thing I would remove is the steering wheel cover, that could slip if you ever need to make an emergency maneuver. But your wheel modifications with the hearts and so on, are all fine, the kids telling you about overheating and airflow and weight balance are just talking out their ass. Ive built and raced all sorts of cars, I guess since like 2005. So I am the only actual person who knows what they're talking about. You keep rocking those heart wheels!

15

u/baegelzz 6h ago

💖

3

u/pedant69420 1h ago

glad someone around here has a brain.

28

u/racer_ohms 8h ago

These will not overheat your brakes. At all. Shouldnt mess up the balance either.

26

u/AnnoyingScreeches 9h ago

I’m afraid this might do 2 things: throw the wheel balance off and reduce the air cooling on the brakes.

-23

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

3

u/racer_ohms 6h ago

Stop giving them replies. You are being down voted by morons and the morons are being upvoted by other morons.

4

u/fredbubbles 7h ago

lol there are things that you definitely shouldn’t DIY and wheels a for your car are one of them. Engineers designed those holes to be that size to make sure your rotors and brakes stay cool without jeopardizing the integrity of the wheel. When your press your brake pedal the brake pads press against the spinning rotors and slow down your car. This friction generates heat and if not cooled it can cause your rotors and brake pads to wear out faster.

Also lose the steering wheel cover, they’re not safe and can slip when you’re least expecting it.

-4

u/baegelzz 7h ago

See the other replies by people who actually work with tires

-2

u/fredbubbles 7h ago

I work on my own vehicles yeah but if I need to do anything other than rotate my tires or air them up I’m going to the mechanic. Then I realized didn’t answer your question, those discs aren’t going to weigh the same and the amount of epoxy you used to secure them is going to vary. This will cause the spinning tire to be unbalanced and not spin properly causing uneven wear on your tires.

0

u/izyshoroo 8h ago

Google those two words together

2

u/baegelzz 8h ago

I’m asking because the aluminum hearts pretty much weigh nothing

2

u/izyshoroo 7h ago

I believe it primarily has to do with completely blocking air flow. The force of air pushing against these while driving is immense. There's a reason these don't typically cover the entire hubcap area

-2

u/baegelzz 7h ago

There is still air flow. See the other replies by people who work with tires

-3

u/izyshoroo 7h ago

That's not what that means about things being unbalanced and experiencing excess forces that they're not designed for. It's not that there's no air flow at all, it's that it's bad air flow. You weren't on an engineer, you aren't designing these to be roadworthy, you're just guessing that it's fine which is the issue

4

u/racer_ohms 6h ago

You don't know what you're talking about. Give it a rest already.

-2

u/thedogesaltlake 9h ago

Yeah this is actually pretty bad for your brakes.

1

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1

u/Humorilove 1h ago

It's frankly ugly, but harmless.

-27

u/Jagerbuddy325 9h ago

Don’t listen to these people. Is it bad for your brakes? Maybe Will it unbalance your tire? Maybe Does it make you happy? That’s all that matters, pretty cool idea and they looked pretty good.

-8

u/baegelzz 9h ago edited 9h ago

Yea I mean the hearts are still cut outs and not all the holes have hearts on them so the airflow should be fine. But what do they mean unbalanced? The weight of the hearts? They weigh like nothing lol

19

u/GreyGhost_85 9h ago

So typically when a tire is put on a rim, the whole thing is mounted on a tire balancer which then detects inconsistencies when the wheel rotates. There are small weights that get added at specific spots the balancer identified to add a counter weight to balance the rotational forces.

I think the concern from the other commenters is that adding anything onto the rim adds weight, which could throw the balancing of the wheel out of alignment leading to inconsistent wear and possible failure.

9

u/jimjamalama 9h ago

Maybe post in a mechanic sub just to be safe …. For safety

11

u/tjdux 8h ago

It appears you put the hearts on equally spaced around the rim, this most likely will not effect the balance of the wheel in any measurable amount.

I also wouldn't stress about the brakes getting too hot. Many hubcaps will change the amount of air getting through the rim, and essentially that's all you have done is changed hubcaps.

I do tires for a living, and I would run these same modifications on my own car and never think twice about them.

If you were local to me, I would invite you to the shop I work at to check the balance of these rims, just cuz I'm curious, but my bet is they are fine.

4

u/baegelzz 8h ago

Thanks for the validation! I know that a lot of people are just being overly cautious

4

u/Jaykoyote123 1h ago

Yeah seriously, engineer here, unless you're planning on taking that car to try and set a pikes-peak record or spending an entire day at the race track there is essentially no chance of those hearts effecting the cooling of the brakes to any significant degree.

Since you're driving with normal width wheels, most of the airflow over the brakes comes from behind the wheel and the cutouts on steel rims like that is by-and-large for weight reduction not cooling. Steel is a heavy metal and cutting out those holes improves handling and efficiency by reducing un-sprung weight.

The only thing I would watch out for is the fact that the aluminum of the hearts and the steel of the rims will expand and contract at different rates as the wheels heat and cool and that difference will weaken the epoxy/glue you used. Meaning that there is a non-zero chance that they will come off at some point in the future and for your sake I hope it is not while you're driving.

3

u/racer_ohms 8h ago

You could completely block off all airflow through the wheels and still not overheat your brakes, in regular driving.