I Tried Building $6000 Custom Wheels

I try building my own set of 3-piece custom wheels for my BMW E30.

Donut = We like cars, and we like making videos about cars. Hopefully our videos make you like cars too.

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[Ween]

James looks way healthier and happier lately, love to see it 🫡

[Stan_the_Belgian]

It's so refreshing to have James as a solo presenter, loved it, reminds me why I started watching the channel at first!

[Ochumvru]

8:10
Slight correction. Forged wheels aren't cut from metal. They're made from compacting hot metal into a shape, kinda like making a snowball. Billet is where it's cut from a single block, like the Pagani Huayra wheels. 🫱🏾‍🫲🏻

[tomquade]

James was a prominent member of the VW community in the "baller wheel" era of fitment and style. Dude is more than qualified to walk us through this. Also, James certainly knows his way around 3 piece wheels more than he's letting on here. Anyone from the VWVortex pre-server change community knows this.

[kevinsellsit]

In my teens, circa 1980-83, I worked at Jongbloed Modular Wheels aka Jongbloed Racing Wheels. We manufactured 3-piece wheels for racing and street applications. Expensive, but worth it. This was a great job and I learned many skills to help me through life.
At 8:01 you mentioned "forged", that is a process in which the aluminum is hit so hard it becomes elastic (almost liquid) but without melting as shown at 8:13, but technically cut out of a forging as opposed to being "cut out of a single piece of metal" which implies billet. Forging is waaay better.
What you didn't show is how the inner and outer (barrel and lip in Donut terms) are made.
We started with a square flat sheet of soft aluminum and stretched it around a die on a lathe. By hand, with a steel pipe with a steel wheel on the end...not easy! Then cut the corners and center off and sent it out to be hardened. It comes back ugly but hard and rigid. We checked for cracks then it would then get put in another lathe where we would do the precise machining. Finally, it would be put in a jig with hardened inserts for drilling the bolt holes.
It's still ugly, and that won't do. We did all our own polishing, and if you've never had a 10 inch wheel inner (barrel) get away from you at 100 MPH you don't know what exciting is! I don't recommend it. A 2 HP 3 phase buffer-grinder can throw a wheel pretty damn far.
That being said, I can say "Building Custom Wheels" is EASY! Manufacturing them is quite challenging.

[badjujubeans]

James makes me feel comfortable to be a "car person" with minimal car mechanical knowledge and experience lmao

[rawalqayyum]

6k for filled and drilled is wild. Especially when the redrill didn't line up with the original chamfers.

[NWEDC]

Pumphrey is dropping some weight! Looking good brother. I actually helped my neighbors dad build wheels for his race car when I was like 8 years old, waaay back in the 80's. I remember doing something that really stunk, and later was told that it was highly toxic and I should not have inhaled it. It was the 80's, so it makes sense, and come to think of it, it actually answers a lot of questions

I did not realize I am almost 3 years old in Donut Underground years. Love you guys!

[alexisestrada]

Seeing James back in a car and building it makes me so happy. He looks so happy🥹

[mirfalltnixein.]

I gotta say, the editing on this episode is top notch.

Also, James looks really good.

[blautens]

Glad to see James looking well. I gotta be honest, it's hard for me to see a big enough difference in the wheels to care, but I'm all about sleepers anyway.

[bradleyisfishing]

Car looks so sick. That being said, the final side by side was a little like the office “it’s the same picture”. It’s more like a “I’m you, but stronger”

[DrazerTM]

Forged whells do use CNC but the part that makes them sturdier is the actual forging part where the metal is hammered into shape while red hot. Then CNCd to finish it.

[chefcc]

Adam died a little when he heard the cost lol!

[yatox]

Those are some of the nicest rims I've ever seen, I'm not a fan of that design but rethinking now because the chrome and gold bolts make it pop! BBS center floaters is also a nice touch.

[phoenixgaming]

I love watching donut, they teach you tons of car information while making it fun and educational.

[dudemanproductions]

really digging the solo presentation in this video, it reminds me a lot more of old donut and I love it

[conorfraser]

Those center caps are way too cool, love them

[therealforestelf]

I just love seeing James healthier than ever in recent videos, I think it's pretty chad to take care of your own physical health while also taking care of your cars physical health! just love to see it

[datjp]

That fitment is to die for. Beautiful James.