Bears performance should be able to do that for you but it will cost you in shipping to and from the Windsor area.
There has to be a machine shop in the Barrie area that can handle this. Might be worth it to talk to either Al Billes of Al Billes Racing Engines, Barrie, or his father Dave Billes owner of Performance Engineering also in Barrie. If they can't do it, maybe thay can point you in the right direction.
pretty much any machine shop with the right equip can do it. an indexing chuck is what you need, it has to be perfect. what is easier and likely cheaper is a wheel adapter that changes your pattern, if you have the room inside your wheel wells
Where are you located? I'm a tool maker and have done many !
Like Henry said, the issue is with the socket hole. What I usually do is to drill and tap the holes to 1/2-20 and use a threaded stud. This way the flange does no need to be welded, and is much stronger than using pressed in studs.
-- Edited by hemi43 on Monday 16th of July 2012 04:04:54 PM
As a machinist I have done my share of making items with bolt circles on them. The issue with the 9" is that there is a large hole to pass a socket through which normally is filled and welded up. Then the B/C is scribbed onto the flange and hole centers are marked and punched. I drill the stud holes in a drill press.
For a 4 bolt to 5 bolt front hub conversion I made a ring with both B/C on it and bolted it to the hub and drilled through the template. If someone made one for the 9" it could be shared with others.
I would guess you already have the wheel you are wanting to use.
I'm in Barrie area.I have a friend not to far from me that says he can do it as long as I have a pattern to follow.He said we can just mig weld that hole up and machine it flat then drill the new holesI have one of those plastic things to check patterns and I was just going to bolt the ford pattern on and mark the chev pattern.I do like the idea of using a threadeed stud,I'll run it by him.I thank you for the info,where about are you?
If you need a pattern, just bolt one of those steel spacesaver spares (after welding the hole) to your axle that has both Chev and Ford bolt patterns. Use one of those punch tools that fits in the stud hole of the wheel but just leaves a tiny indent in the exact center of the hole when it is hit (the name escapes me ... "centering punch" maybe). This will leave you a dimple in the center of where you want to start drilling. Don't forget you will need to drill your brake disc or drum too.
It looks like you are running aluminum slots on the truck in your avatar ... it might be possible to redrill the wheels instead of the axles ... I just sold a set of aluminum slots (Shelby Cal 500) and drilling those wheels would have been possible, tons of "meat" between the original bolt pattern (not to mention it would be a LOT easier to drill aluminum than an axle flange).
With all due respect, please don't use threaded rod then weld the end. Welding high carbon steel like grade 8 rod, will concentrate the carbon into the weld leaving you with a brittle weld. One way around this is to use a high nickel rod, but the weld will still be more brittle than the surrounding parent metal. Using those plastic hole templates, or even a rim is NOT accurate enough. The best was to re-drill a flange is with a horizontal mill with an indexing head or digital readout. I only have a vertical mill, so I machined a template that has multiple bolt circles on it. These holes are all located to within .001 !!
Sorry, but I'm not near Barrie or I would help you out.
-- Edited by hemi43 on Tuesday 17th of July 2012 02:12:09 PM
First off I have not drilled an axle myself but I can't imagine a dual pattern steel wheel that is hub centric to the axle, then bolted securely to the axle using the original pattern not being a good enough guide for redrilling ... I am not suggesting this is the correct way to redrill an axle but I would certainly give it is a shot if the cost to have it done correctly was too high (as long as replacement axles could be had cheap if my method didn't give satisfactory results). I will admit that I have no education in machining ... guess it's just the hillbilly in me talking :) A slightly more detailed explanation would be that I would use some sort of an insert that pressed into the wheel stud hole, and was drilled (on a lathe for dead center) that would allow the first hole to be drilled using a small drill bit. Then stepping up very gradually in bit size until I reached the desired size for my new stud. Again, this is all hypothetical being that I (as mentioned earlier) have never actually done this.
I am also not a fan of using threaded rod for studs regardless of the grade of rod. Aftermarket threaded or press-in "racing" studs can easily be purchased and would be a much safer option I would think.
Go figure, I'd be more than willing to cheap out on the drilling but not the studs ...
I guess the intended use should also come into play ... if the car is just a cruiser with 2 something gears, an open rear end and an automatic I would be tempted to give it a shot. If this is a 454 powered Vega ... I wouldn't even think of having a machine shop do it, I would either change to aftermarket axles or a wheel that fits the pattern of the axle (rather than fitting the axle to match the pattern of the wheel).
EDIT .... I would be drilling using a DRILL PRESS ... definitely NOT by hand.
-- Edited by Rusty Nuts on Tuesday 17th of July 2012 02:35:55 PM
I did a vega hub and drilled and tapped the hub for 1/2 NF. I used grade 8 threaded rod for the studs and welded thm onto the back of the hub. Some rims can be slotted to a veri-fit configuration.
Just using a pattern to drill the holes will NOT ensure that you have them centered perfectly. This is an axle, you needf tyo have them indexed unless you're simply putting wheels on a derby car. Think of the safety of others here too please.
__________________
Buying selling and trading garage toys and big kid stuff.
Using a steel wheel as a drill fixture would work, and more than likely give satisfatory results. I'm probably the wrong guy to ask because I'm a Tool Maker and close is never good enough for me . Having said that, there's a lot of guys running around with newer metric OEM rims on their older GM vehicles with no issues. The problem is that the newer rims have a 120 mm bolt circle, and the older GM 4 3/4 axles actually have a 120.65 mm bolt circle. That's quite a bit of difference, but I've never heard of anyone breaking studs because of it.
for sure people, you cannot drill axles by hand with a drill using a wheel pattern disc as a guide, no way no how. axles must be drilled exact indexed perfect. no exceptions. this is your life in your hands in a car with threaded rod for wheel studs going 100 kmh plus, would you drive it?
