On 6/2/05, No Name Available <Trvlr2001@aol.com> wrote:

> Hey Ben,
> What kind of machining would have to be done to the seats?
> What kind of cutters would I need to locate?
> I could arrange the mill work.
> JC...
> 

JC,

Tim Hannink describes a similar procedure which can work. However,
success will rely heavily on the skills and/or tools you have at your
disposal.

I have seen lots of wheels successfully redrilled and recontoured with
nothing but a simple drill press and countersink bit. One fellow
(Otmar - the vanagon stretch guy) even made his own ballseat
countersink by machining the old lugbolt. However, not everyone can be
THAT good or that lucky in machining wheels to the point that they are
balanced and wobble free. Tim seems to have accomplished that to his
satisfaction as well. Unfortunately I have run onto more people who
fail at the task than those who succeed.

The one thing to keep in mind is the Vanagon is a lug-centric vehicle.
That means you have to rely on properly centered lugholes for a
correctly centered wheel. This forum has had very few reports of such
problems. I have encountered numerous situations where wheels had
their lugholes enlarged and the new hole was not EXACTLY centered.
There was even a case with a certain vendor's Mercedes wheel
knock-off. The wheel which could not be balanced turned out to be
simply incorrectly drilled to start with. The net-net is the wheels
should to be CNC machined to correct the defect or discarded.
remachining wheels makes them more expensive than buying a correct set
to begin with.

Like Tim, my preference is towards the 60� c6n5ca3 seats. Depending on
your wheel mounting pad thickness, you can even get away w/o changing
wheel studs and/or bolts. VW went this route when they offered alloy
wheels as an option on Vanagons. The conical seats can "reach-in"
further than ballseat lugnuts. That way, you can get the requisite 7.5
turns that VW recommends without changing over to longer studs and
bolts..

BenT