Original wheels??

My Fiat in 1979 had steel wheels that would have looked ok if cast in aluminum alloy. The car was purchased by me with a set of steel wheels with chrome hub caps from an earlier Fiat and I rather liked the retro appearance. I took my time and eventually bought half a parts car with Iron Cross Cromadora alloy wheels that were an upgrade option for my year. As usual not original but a year appropriate style is on the car now.

Cheers Ron

Many classics came with steel wheels as alloys where an option. The benefits of lighter wheels are well know. As long as the upgrade is somewhat period correct, then I say it's a good thing.

I don't like when you see very modern styled wheels on classics.

My 914 came with 4-lug fuchs forged alloys. I sold them and am now running steel wheels in preparation for a 5-lug (911 style) conversion and I have a set of 5-lug fuchs alloys, which were available on the 914-6 as an option. That help??

When I bought my GT6, it required new tires.

The guy at the shop asked me if the car vibrated much?

I replied, don't know have not driven it much.

2 wheels too truck sized weights to balance!

Anyhow happy with what I have now. I have a really nice set of 13" slotted wheels tucked away till I have a need for them.

My MGB has the original, stock painted wire wheels. When I put new tires on last year, I stripped the wheels down and re-sprayed them a nice, semi-flat silver. I'd love set of the knock-off Minilites, but not at the prices they're charging!

My race-Spridget runs on stock '78 Rostyle steel wheels.

The A35 I'm building for vintage will run on stock, steel Rostyles as well (for now).

You don't want those knockoff minilites. They're REALLY heavy.

OK, maybe Panasports.

But anyway, they look cool.

My wires weigh a ton too.....actually it would be neat to get a set of those MGA steel knock-offs they used on the Twin Cams.

When I still had my TR3, I had thoughts of switching from the "disk-type" to wire wheels....until I found out how involved the switch was. I assumed it was nearly as bad when switching from wire to disk on my Spitfire, so I never went that way,

My Opel GT is sitting on the original rims w/stock glamour rings and center hubcaps. I am considering changing to a bigger rim in the future as it's getting difficult to find decent tires for 13-inch. Maybe a set of 14 or 15 inch panasports/minilites, those look good on anything. Or a set of BBR mesh. We'll see. First have to get the midget running and it has stock steelies with hubcaps.

On my Land Rover I did change to "Wolf" wheels, a new version of the Land Rover steel wheels that are just a bit wider. However, my Land Rover came with 16" wheels, which was not "stock" for the 88, but I have a feeling that the original owner did an "up-grade" for higher ground clearance.

Now on my GT6 project I have been going around and around in my head about what to do. The guy that I got the car from was pretty pleased that it still had the original steel wheels and covers. They need to be painted, or powder coated - both the wheels and covers, but I am not sure if they will stay.

On the other hand I thought it might look very nice to "up-grade" to wire-wheel knock-offs, but a friend has warned me off of them.

So now I am wondering if Triumphs, in 1965, would have had Minilites spec'd? But, in the end I will probably keep the OEM wheels... maybe.

My healey is sitting on the original painted wire wheels. They are pretty wore out though and need to be replaced. Luckely I scored a good set of chromed wire wheels for a great deal yesterday!

Oh and a word on used wheels...

http://www.gt6.ca/06/0114/

I sent these babies out to be painted and cleaned up...

Sadly they are scrap now.

Yeah, I was going to mention that many folks won't powder coat wheels because it's harder to spot any cracks.

My old 71 GT had a set of the old American Racing Libre wheels on it. Loved 'em. Sure wish I knew what happened to that one.

My Spit 6 currently has the OE steel wheels... but I'm hoping to get a set of 13" Minilite knock-offs for it... may be heavy for Minilites, but they're still pretty light (we have them on the '79 1500).

my 74 MGB has rostyles on it, when I restored the car I had the normally black inset area changed to match the body color.

My '70 MGB came with painted wires; that set was pretty worn out when I got the car. A neighbor, moving to Florida, let me haul away all the MGB stuff in his garage, including a decent set of painted wires. Those went on the car for ~100K miles, until the splines went out. Then replaced all the hubs, and got chrome wires.

'76 Fiat came with steelies and hubcaps. Nice enough look; but it only had 2 of the hubcaps. Looking for hubcaps on Ebay, my wife found a mid-70s italian alloy wheel in the unusual Fiat bolt pattern. They were made by MSW, and are a gold basket-weave... never seen another set on a Fiat. Super period look, though I think the wheels are date-stamped 78 or 79.

'89 Yugo, still on stock steelies/Y hubcaps. Matt

My stock Mini (Innocenti, actually) wheels seemed to be porous. A set of Superlites cured the problem.

Panasports look great on vintage sports cars and Miatas, but I'm a big fan of the old school steel wheel look sans hub caps or trim rings. I'm cheap, too. I have steelies on my Miata and my Spitfire. I had some minor body work done on the Miata before putting it away for the winter so I had the guy respray the wheels silver with a flat clear coat while he had the car. Triple black Miata with silver steelies ... I like the look. Back in the 70's I had an Autodynamics Deserter GT and it had a set of extra-wide steelies. They had VW Bug centers welded to wide steel rim sections to take wider tires, same concept as the 60s era Grand National stockers. They looked great. Poppy red Deserter with wide silver steelies ... I wish I still had it.

For a little while there, I had some American Racing Silverstones (Minilitle-style) on my wife's 2000 Civic Si. I thought that it looked pretty cool.

I've got the stock steelies with trim rings on the TR-6. After the tire test I kept the trim off for a bit, and liked how it toughened the car up. I eventually put them back on though. I'm saving up for a set of Superlights. (Mini-lite style)

The Mini-lite looking wheel is like the Torque Thrust for American cars. They look fantastic on everything.

Great question, I have chrome Dayton wires on my street '65 Austin-Healey BJ8 (chrome wires were never a factory option). On my '57 AH 100-6 MM vintage racer I run the new Superlite Spline Drive Series. They have a very clean look unlike the other brands available. They're manufactured in Australia and the US distributors really know their products.

They have great cars in their ads too.

Dougie

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I put knock off minilites on the 63 Spit race car and I'm happy with them. My 70 GT6 came with factory wire wheels but one or more is out of true so they're gone this spring. Exchange rates with the Pound is pretty good right now, I've picked up two more sets of the Minilite type wheels, new, on ebay directly from England for around $400 a set, including shipping. they include lugnuts and center caps with triumph on them. I didn't put the centercaps on the race car but the street cars will get them. Even though it's not a factory wheel I feel they're period correct.

mike

On the subject of wheels, does anyone know what the bolt spacing is for the old 911 style 5 spoke Fuchs alloys? Cheers, Scott

Okay... Thanks for the reply, folks. I've just sent in the renewal for my second 3 year subscription to CMS, and obviously haven't learned the secret handshake yet. Still haven't gotten either of the 2 CMS T-shirts that I should have coming to me either. Guess I won't take up anymore valuable space on these forums. Cheers, Scott

If you're having a subscription problem, send me an e-mail and I can have someone look into it.