Alloy Rim Installation – Part 3: Mounting Rear Rims
by CaboWabo
We’ve already prepared our rim backings and created our “nubbed” rim, so we can just dive right in and get this done quickly. First, let’s slide our gear back on to the axle, leave it at center – it’s okay if it floats around for now. Grab a rim backing with the pre-drilled hole and fit it on to the axle just up to where the tip of the axle is flush with the front of the rim backing. We may need to take our drill bit and file the holes bigger or more straight. If our holes get to big and allows the rim to slip on and off the axle too easily, just use a little piece of paper or tape like in the “wrap” method to shim it up and tighten the fit. Our goal is to get the rim backing as straight as possible when mounting, and make sure it’s tight fitting. When we are satisfied, take the rim back off, dip the tip of the axle in super glue and mount the rim and let it dry. Now that the rim has dried on to the axle, let’s go ahead and glue the gear on to the rim backing. As always, make sure it is even.
Now we’re down to our last rim to mount, the “nubbed” rim. Just as before, we need to make sure when we mount the rim to the axle, we have a tight and even fit, we can use our drill bit a file it just like before if we have to. Also, if our hole becomes too big, we can use a bit of the “wrap” method just as before to help us obtain a tighter, more even fit. Once satisfied, we need to do only one thing before we glue the rim on to the axle – we need to get our spacing between both rim backings correct or we’ll be left with a useless axle with cool rims! To get the spacing correct, put the nubbed rim on temporarily and snap the axle in to place in the chassis. Move the nubbed rim as needed, we want just a few millimeters of play in between the rims and chassis on both sides. Once satisfied with our placement, we can pop the axle back out of the chassis of the car and take a piece of tape and wrap it around the axle, butting it right up to the nub on the rim. We’re marking our placement here, now pull the rim off and dip the end of the axle in some super glue – mount the rim with nub butting right up next to the tape on the axle. Let it dry and remove the tape. We can do a test roll by just pushing the axle with our finger, it should roll evenly and with no wabbles. If we’ve used a stock axle, we shouldn’t have any overhang. If we do have overhang, clip it off right at the front edge of the rim, don’t leave any hanging out – it looks ugly and could give us problems when mounting the hubs.
