Poke On A Budget

Before we get all the haters rolling in, understand that i did this just for the fun of it. I'm basically going to sell my Axis OG and need something to fill the fenders until i collect enough money for better wheels. That's why cost was priority for this.

It all started with these steelies lying on my frontyard.

One set was from The Dog when i first got her and the other set was from my KF40 truck. They're all are 14x5jj. Mom had been bugging me to get rid of them so i thought instead of selling them for peanuts, why not make something out of them?

The idea was to make a set of widened steelies by combining both sets. One set will be the barrels and the other will be the outer lips. Running tubes is never a good idea for me so the end result must still be able to run tubeless.

To make the outer lips, start by machining the inner lip off.



Afterwards, grind off the welds that hold the center to the rim and get that center off with a BFH. It surprised me how very little welds are needed to make a steel wheel. There're basically only tack welds at four corners of the center. The press-fit fabrication must have really helped on keeping a steel wheel strong.


With the center off, you get the outer lips..


Making the barrels are much easier as you retain the centers. You need only to machine off the outer lip.


To ensure the barrels and lips stay centered when they're combined, the edges are actually made into steps, ensuring both edges match when they're combined. It's a bit difficult but below you can still see the step edge.


Then comes the combining and welding. The welds were ground smooth and rewelded a couple off times, while carefully checking for pores that could leak air.



Once done, i went to check for the fitment on The Dog. Here's how the front looks.


Crazy poke, huh? Keep in mind that i had to use about 30mm of spacer to fit them as my RX7 caliper would foul the wheels without the spacers.

A few hours and two cans of spray paint, they look easier on the eyes. They're 9.5JJ rears and 9JJ fronts. 9.5 inch is the maximum width you can get with two sets of 5JJ since getting the lips off would reduce some of the width.



Since budget is priority, i decided to get 185/60 R14 used tires, cost me only 50 bucks. Now here's the fun part. Stretch tire fitment has always been a challenge, especially here in Lampung where not many guys have done it. I tried first using the brake fluid method but it didn't work. Perhaps i didn't use enough brake fluid. Luckily, the machine shop has this awesome "air blaster" made, as i like to call it.

The final result, 185/60 R14 on 9JJ.



I let a fellow Daihatsu Charmant Community member and friend of mine, Jefry, borrow these wheels. He's the fellow who's going to buy my Axis OG. He just sold his 14 inch alloys and with the money, bought a set of new 185/55 15 inch tires to fit my Axis OG. We'll later exchange the wheels after he pays me. I chose to keep my tires as i'm planning to use them for the new wheels later. His Charmant is stock, at least around the brake and suspension area. So the next pics will show you how these steelies will look under stock Charmant




Baller!