Racing Hart Wheel Rebarrelling

[HEcreated487]

First, I would like to apologize to the the "wheel gurus" of this site who have a significant amount of information and experience of wheels, including custom fabrication, re-building, etc. So I kindly ask for your expert advice as my knowledge of wheels is limited. I thank you for bearing with me ....

So I am looking at some 19x7.5 Authentic Racing Hart C2 wheels. I am unsure if they are the 1-piece type or 3-piece type. From what I have researched thus far, there is the possibility that the wheels could be welded, which would make rebarrelling/relipping/widening "challenging". Please note that the wheels currently have tires and to verify if the wheels are indeed welded, the tires should be removed (obviously). I honestly do not want to purchase the wheels to find out that it will be very time and cost intensive to create a custom set of wheels... I know, you have to "pay to play", but just trying to work out the details before committing.

So my questions are:

1. I have read that Dazz was the official vendor for Racing Hart, but went out of business in 2008. With that said, is it possible to widen Racing Hart wheels?
2. I would like to keep the barrels and faces, and purchase new, wider lips (if possible). Would anyone know where I could source the outer lips/barrels? Contact info? Pricing?
3. Do the lips have to be exclusively Racing Hart? Would it be possible to use another brand of lips/barrels? Would I require custom lips/barrels?
4. Any other information, advice, suggestion, recommendations, comments, etc. are most welcome!

Again, thank you all; I truly appreciate the time.

[cheez80]

i've been reading that cats have successfully widened racing harts (i've seen photos of a set on honda-tech) -- there are a few shops in socal that can do it. look for ralph and miguel -- i don't have their other contact information, but a little google gymnastics should turn up some results.

good luck!

[180roman]

well it says they are a 3 piece wheel, but doesn't specify if welded or not, but that should not be a problem for you

if the wheels are welded, you will need to take out the bolts and give the wheels to a machining shop to machine the front lip off, then you will most likely need custom outer lips spun up

you will just need to provide the company making the lips with the required inner diameter, lip design and etc, so you may want to take the measurements yourself before having the lips machined off, or just hand it to a shop which can do the whole process for you

if they are true 3 piece, then the widening job is a lot easier, you will just need to find someone to spin you up the new lips based of the original lips