I decided over the winter to send my Alcoa super snake wheels off to Eric Vaughn in California for widening. Despite the cost of shipping and time and materials with Eric, I decided that investing money in these wheels were what I wanted to do. The super snake Alcoa wheels are hands down my favorite wheel for Shelbys, and I therefore do not plan to run another wheel on this particular car.
Thanks to several board members who paved the way for this process by documenting their trial and errors which helped this to be a seamless (nearly) project. Much of the credit goes to TORQJNKY for his detailed pictures and explanations, which can be found here: https://www.svtperformance.com/forums/threads/eric-vaughn-widened-alcoas.906245/
I started by researching methods to ship the wheels across the country which would be the most cost effective. After considering all factors I went with USPS, which charged approximately $80 a wheel for standard ground shipping. For boxes I stopped by my local UHAUL store and purchased their extra large boxes at 24"x18"x24" for a few bucks each. I made certain to line the boxes in styrofoam and taped bubble wrap around each wheel. I believe shipping weight was about 37.5lbs for each box. (As a note, anything larger than 108 overall inches will be charged an astronomical oversized fee. The 24"x18"x24" box is exactly 108" and therefore does not apply).
February 1st off the wheels went to California, and after several months of waiting for my wheels to be returned and phone chats with Eric, I finally received them the third week of April. Upon inspecting the boxes I noticed the only protection for the wheels were doubled cardboard without styrofoam or other damage prevention packing. Unfortunately each wheel took a hit to the outer rim edge which resulted in insignificant damage which is barely noticeable. However, I know the dings are there and am not happy about it, but decided it's not worth the trouble to go through UPS for repair/replacement.
Onto the workmanship of the wheels: Each cut and weld appears to have been completed via a machine as the seams are very neat and cleaned up. While Eric had my wheels, he also repaired slight damage around the lip of one of the wheels from improper tire changing techniques. His work was done so well, I cannot even tell which wheel was repaired.
Below is a picture of the welded seam, which I used a clear coat on to prevent any risk of rusting or corrosion.
Thanks to several board members who paved the way for this process by documenting their trial and errors which helped this to be a seamless (nearly) project. Much of the credit goes to TORQJNKY for his detailed pictures and explanations, which can be found here: https://www.svtperformance.com/forums/threads/eric-vaughn-widened-alcoas.906245/
I started by researching methods to ship the wheels across the country which would be the most cost effective. After considering all factors I went with USPS, which charged approximately $80 a wheel for standard ground shipping. For boxes I stopped by my local UHAUL store and purchased their extra large boxes at 24"x18"x24" for a few bucks each. I made certain to line the boxes in styrofoam and taped bubble wrap around each wheel. I believe shipping weight was about 37.5lbs for each box. (As a note, anything larger than 108 overall inches will be charged an astronomical oversized fee. The 24"x18"x24" box is exactly 108" and therefore does not apply).
February 1st off the wheels went to California, and after several months of waiting for my wheels to be returned and phone chats with Eric, I finally received them the third week of April. Upon inspecting the boxes I noticed the only protection for the wheels were doubled cardboard without styrofoam or other damage prevention packing. Unfortunately each wheel took a hit to the outer rim edge which resulted in insignificant damage which is barely noticeable. However, I know the dings are there and am not happy about it, but decided it's not worth the trouble to go through UPS for repair/replacement.
Onto the workmanship of the wheels: Each cut and weld appears to have been completed via a machine as the seams are very neat and cleaned up. While Eric had my wheels, he also repaired slight damage around the lip of one of the wheels from improper tire changing techniques. His work was done so well, I cannot even tell which wheel was repaired.
Below is a picture of the welded seam, which I used a clear coat on to prevent any risk of rusting or corrosion.
