I totally understand what you are saying about tooling costs etc. I work at GMP Diecast as a project manager/designer for high end diecast model cars. I work directly with the China factories, and have even visited the facilities overseas. I guess what I'm thinking is, either way you still have to spend $$ to make a new wheel mold. Now I'm not positive but pretty sure that the factory Ford wheels are cast wheels and the wheels that American racing, Cragar, etc. use are not all cast. American Racing, Cragar, Foose, MHT, etc. and like wheel companies all buy hoop blanks and weld their spokes into the hoops at specific offsets. I had a long talk with 3 wheel companies at SEMA a couple months ago about wheel hoop shortages they are having. There's I think 3 companies (2 in the US and 1 in Canada) that make the wheel hoops are rim blanks. Anyways, my point is if you have to make a new casting to make a 4-lug version of a 5-lug wheel, why not just make something unique. Either way they have to revise or draw a new CAD or Pro-E model to make the new wheel and spend the same amount of money to make the new tool or casting?
J
J