# Vincent Wheels on Tyco widepans!



## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

*Vincent Wheels on Tyco widepans! Auto World XTs too!*

Well I finally got a few done. I had enough pairs of type 'E' vincents (5mm wide) to start playing around, and I got my adapting method dialed in. Since I dont have any type 'D' wheels (4mm wide) so Ive stuck to trucks. Here's what you can do if you put a little effort into adapting these. And of course, Ill tell you how I did it.

This is a loose replica of the '95 Wrangler I drove through my last 3 years of college. 'Loose' as in its a tyco CJ, since no one makes a good 1/64 scale YJ wrangler. The chassis is an HP-7 with 'E' corvette wheels all around with the tallest AFX/tyco HP tires Supertires makes. Outside of some axle shortening, the chassis wasnt modded in any way for this to work. These wheels are just like the A.R.E. chevy rally repro wheels I put on that jeep, so its pretty accurate to my old Rio:









This truck rides on an HP-2 chassis (later version with traction mags) and the wheels are the Cromodoras. For tires I used a set of low profile HP-2 rears on the front wheels, and a pair of the hard silicone repro AFX tires on the rear:









This van uses the same late model HP-2 as the stepside. Wheels are Alpinas which give it the look of the 'turbine' wheels such as what the general lee and A-team van used. The rear tires are AW XT rears, fronts are stock HP-2 fronts:









And here's how I did these:








The chrome wheel 2nd to left is the Vincent set between a tyco HP front wheel to its left, and rear to its right with an AFX 5-spoke rear to the far right for size references. The 5 mm width is just under the overall width of the HP rear and noticeably wider than the HP front. I have some vincent type 'D' 4 mm wheels on order so when those come in Ill experiment with those on the fronts and 'E's on the rear of some widepan sportscars, and will post pics. 

The vinnies I used were all type E wheels sized for Tyco/LL rear axles (.059) which are a direct fit to the stock rears on these once you trim the axles down. The front wheels were all reamed with a 1/16 drill bit to fit to the brass tubing.

The axle is a shortened .047 dia piece just like any tyco or Tomy chassis would use. I took a piece of 1/16 brass tubing and cut it to about twice the length of the finished sleeves you see here. I first used a needle file to pilot the existing holes in the tubing, which helps the micro drill to cut true. I chucked the 'scrap' end into a pin vise (you have to do this, since the finished sleeve is so thin, it would crush in the pin vise's jaws) and carefully drilled it out with a .047 drill. Once drilled out, I rough cut the finished part of the sleeve and test fit it to the front axle, then cut it to the length I wanted. I actually superglue it first in the wheel then check for snugness to the axle and re-glue if needed. 

Depending on perspective, youre either sizing the wheel down, or the axle up with this sleeve. Currently Vincent only makes the 'E' and 'D' width wheels for rear applications only. If you guys like what you see, be sure and let Thorsten know there's a demand for front wheels in these widths! The skinnies wont work on Tyco widepans or AFX/AW chassis since no tire is tall enough to touch the track, and on these bodystyles the razor thin width wouldnt look right in the first place.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

And here are a couple AW rigs with E width vinnies all around, and XT rear tires. 

In the Jeep's case, it had the 'sloppy' front axle holes so I bought chrome steelwheels sized for T-jets and used .064 axles all around. No adapting at all outside of trimming the axles down and putting spacers on the fronts:









This Hummer on Cromodoras was a little trickier. It has the flamethrower chassis which has the smaller, tight axle holes. So instead of reaming them full on 'sloppy', I reamed them just enough so I could get a tycopro rear axle (.059 dia) through it. Those axles have no knurl so its the best choice here. They still needed spacers up front to keep the tires from rubbing the pickups. I did ream the rear wheels since they were all sized for tyco rears, and of course both axles were shortened:









When putting vinnies on XTs, if you like the full width type 'E' wheels all the way around, then buying them all sized for tyco rears is the way to go especially if you have the front 'sloppy' axle holes. The .059 tyco rear axles will fit more snug than the stock XT front axle, but have less rolling resistance than another .064 axle, and you'll just have to ream the rear wheels. Otherwise, the same trick from the Tycos with the T-jet sized 'D' wheels would work on these.

Also, I recently figured out that the skinny silicone AFX/MT/XT front tires made by Bud's will fit the type 'C' (2mm) front vincent front wheels. They dont seem to be tall enough to properly fit tyco widepans, but may work on XTs with plenty of spacing on the front axles. Ill try it and post my results.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Turns out the skinnies WILL work on an XT with those front tires from Buds:

This Charger was fitted with the Alpinas meant for Tomy/Tyco. The rears of course had to be reamed up to .064 and I had to narrow the rear axle a bit, and since the Alpina wheels have the open axle pass-thru's I decided to keep the front wheels independent rotating. I narrowed the pin axle, reamed one side a little bigger, and used spacers to get them out to the right width. While I was at it, I lowered the body slightly which gave the car the right stance:









Since I knew the mounted hieght of these tires was a little lower than the originals, I went ahead and swapped the stock wide pickups with the stepdowns over to the flat skinnies from the first couple JL XT releases. It was a good move, and so was swapping to a steel G+ guide pin. Everything clears the track with no scraping but barely:


















These tires from Buds are cheap and good quality so this is going to open up a LOT of sweet looking customs.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Oh and I did forward these pics and a link to this thread to Thorsten. Maybe he'll start making the wider wheels to fit the .047 axles and this will all be a LOT easier!


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

charger looks sweet!!! but really all looks great! :thumbsup:

Wes


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Would agree with Wes! :thumbsup::thumbsup: rr


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Wow, that really tops the cake!! This is an area that has just been over looked by manufacturers for years. I'm glad this guy Vincent is really doin a good job. :thumbsup:


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Rich--Vincent still more or less overlooks it. I just managed to find a loophole of sorts. The fronts Im using are really meant to be the rears on T-jets. The wheels meant for Tyco/Tomy only fit tyco narrow chassis, which used much smaller front wheels. 

If we start asking for the wider wheels with axle holes sized down to .047 then he's sure to realize the demand. My conversion isnt too hard to do, but it would make sense to just offer these parts for the widepans and AFX/XTs. Its very possible that these chassis arent nearly as popular in Europe so he deisgned wheels for what they have over there. I also advised Thorsten those sets will work on Lifelike M chassis as-is. What that means to you NASCAR guys is to ask for the steelwheels in black since they'll look just like the actual wheels used. Theyd make good cop car wheels too...

Glad you guys like em, there's more to come once I get the next batch of wheels.


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

Grunge,

The next batch of wheels...holy smokes this batch is great and now more, more, more. Awesum!!

Bob...the best part is there isn't any brake dust to clean off of these..zilla


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## shipsgunner (Sep 6, 2008)

bobhch said:


> Grunge,
> 
> The next batch of wheels...holy smokes this batch is great and now more, more, more. Awesum!!
> 
> Bob...the best part is there isn't any brake dust to clean off of these..zilla


I get brake dust in mine all the time... I might have to to rewire the track... ROFL

Dan


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## kiwidave (Jul 20, 2009)

I'm a fan of Vincent wheels! I don't buy the tires. I fit mine to whatever I can. Here's 2 wide pan Tycos and a AFX 4-gear specialty chassis car.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

These are total works of art. Beautiful, KD. What are you using for front tires on these?


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## kiwidave (Jul 20, 2009)

Thanks grungerockjeepe. These ones have AW Tjet fronts on them. They are a tight fit. Some I am using RRR front tires on the Vincent front wheels.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Cool. Ive heard RRR fronts work on those. Thorsten saw what I had done with the wide fronts, and it sounds like he likes what he sees. Hopefully he'll start making the wider front wheels,then the stock Tyco widepan front tires will go right on them.


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

wow some gorgeous customs!


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