Cast Wheels & Rims

Cast aluminum alloy wheels are the most popular wheels available in the automotive aftermarket, and with good reason: Their unique combination of attributes – style, strength, light weight, heat conductivity, and affordability – is unattainable with any other type of rim construction. As you can see from the huge selection of enticing styles before you, the casting process enables the creation of many intricate wheel designs that would be impossible to form in steel. And while not as strong as steel, today’s aluminum rims are made with aluminum that is alloyed with various other metals, making them tough enough for just about any application, including the rigors of off-roading. Plus, they’re much lighter than steel, which can improve the ride and performance of your car, truck, or SUV.

Magnesium wheels were the predecessors of aluminum alloy wheels, and they are why even today many refer to any aftermarket, non-steel, custom rims as “mag” wheels. Magnesium wheels can be made lighter than aluminum wheels and still be very strong, and they were most commonly used in racing. However, while they were strong, vintage magnesium wheels were made from pure magnesium, which corrodes easily and is brittle and more prone to cracking. They were also flammable, an obviously undesirable feature in a wheel, and more expensive to produce. For these reasons, and with the refinement of aluminum casting techniques, aluminum alloy began to replace magnesium as the material of choice for performance wheels in the late 1960s. Modern cast aluminum alloy rims begin as a computer-generated design. The design is then used to create steel sections that are joined together to form a wheel mold. There are 2 kinds of cast rims, gravity cast and pressure cast. As the name suggests, with gravity cast wheels the molten aluminum is poured into the mold and gravity alone is used to fill all the cavities in the mold that form the wheel’s shape. Gravity cast wheels are not as dense as pressure cast wheels and the wheel is generally designed thicker (and therefore heavier) to ensure strength. However, these are generally the least expensive cast aluminum wheels, and they’re a good choice if you’re on a budget and want a great looking set of wheels, and you’re not concerned with how much they weigh.

Because the molten aluminum is pressurized, pressure casting ensures all areas of the mold are completely filled, creating a wheel that is much more densely packed with material than a gravity cast wheel. Although there are rims made using high pressure casting, low pressure casting is the most common construction technique. Pressure casting is costlier than gravity casting and pressure cast wheels are somewhat more expensive, but the result is a wheel that is strong with less weight. Lightweight wheels mean less unsprung weight and rotational mass. The suspension doesn’t have to work as hard, and you can experience more responsive steering, faster braking and quicker acceleration.

After the completion of the casting process, the wheel is allowed to cool, then it undergoes a finishing procedure which generally includes shot-peening, heat-treating and quenching to increase strength, and then final machining. During final machining operations the wheel stud holes are bored and the final details unique to that wheel design are milled. The finished casting is then painted, powder coated, polished or chrome plated, or a combination thereof. You can see many examples of the finished product right here on our digital shelves. We offer a large assortment of spoke shapes and patterns, wheel face and lip configurations, and degrees of concavity, in a selection of the afore-mentioned finish treatments. Many wheels have special effects including complementary and contrasting color accents, machined spoke faces and milled accents, simulated bolts, and much more. Or choose custom painted wheels for a truly exclusive appearance.

We have cast wheels to fit whatever you drive, regardless of the year, make, and model of your car, truck, or SUV, even if you’re making modifications to the factory suspension configuration. They range from 12 inches to 32 inches in diameter, with 4-lug, 5-lug, 6-lug, and 8-lug wheel stud patterns, and they’re available with various widths, offsets, and backspacing. If you’re an off-roader we have the wider and larger diameter rims that are perfect for big, aggressive off-road tires on a lifted truck, but if you get your kicks on paved roads we also have the larger diameters that allow you to run low profile rubber. Low profile tires have shorter sidewalls that are stiffer and don’t flex as much, so you may experience more responsive steering. If you have any questions about which cast wheel diameter, width and offset will enable you to get the performance and look you want for your vehicle, our wheel and tire specialists are just a phone call away.