Hey guys...

A while back i bought these rims for my mini and i have no idea...

a) what they are. (manufacturer, model, etc.)

and...

b) whether i should bother buying some tyres for them. I think they could look good if they were cleaned up and maybe repainted but what's everyone elses opinion?



This is what i currently have and will probably keep them for road tyres. The new set would get some semi-slicks.


I was thinking if i were to have them repainted, i'd go for a yellow or bright gold to replicate the colour scheme of the old Lotus Racing cars.

_________________
- Simon -

Use them I say.
I'd repaint them all silver, that'd look sweet I reckon

_________________
Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850

They're something different and that's why i'd keep them. Would look good done up and painted nice.

Cheers,

Dicko.

They look like the GKN unipart wheels (from wheel dictionary).

Keep them.

I reckon paint them in a nice silver & they'll look really awesome.

_________________
You're only supposed to blow the BLUDDY DOORS OFF!!

Harley, I believe you may be correct. They do look very similar don't they.

_________________
- Simon -

I like them also. Could also do Rally Style white. Going against my Bling normal I know

_________________
Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

White! Like baby Compomotives.
Or sell them to me

I bought the wheels for $120 on eBay (about 2yrs ago). Just thought i'd share.

Unfortunately in order for the wheels to sit at the correct offset, a set of spacers is required. The spacers came with the wheels and are made of steel, approximately 25mm thick. The wheel nuts have long shanks and protrude through the wheels and snugly fit into the spacers. The nuts therefore bear on the spacers.

Is this a normal method of fitment for some wheels? It makes it a little bit fiddly to put the wheels on, but once they're on it seems like a decent way to do things given that all the holes have tight tolerances.

A problem i have is that i only got 15 wheel nuts. I wouldn't know where to look for a replacement to match. Suggestions? Obviously i don't want one that just fits, it needs to look the same as the rest.

_________________
- Simon -

This comes to mind looking at those spacers and nuts:

I have seen it done on race cars in the past. Not quite road legal though.

Does your car have drums with built in spacers? Or skinny drums?

Given that the nut is continuous through the wheel and spacer i don't really see the big issue here. The long shank of the nut ties the two together and they act as one piece.

If the holes in the spacer were too large or the nut was too short, then i could definitely see a problem.

The studs are carrying no more load than normal and the nut is long enough that it screws onto just as many threads as with a spacerless wheel.

Without going into the blanket rule of "spacers on a road car are bad" can you explain what is so face-palm about it? I concede that it would be ideal to have a wheel with the correct offset from the beginning.

I don't know. I've only had one mini so i couldn't pick what's normal and what's not. It's got 8.4" discs on the front and i was told it had spaced rear drums when i bought it, but i can't confirm that.

_________________
- Simon -

So far as road use goes they're a No Go. Check this document from VicRoads....

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/CC48FC10-4D57-4F04-82E1-3BD72EF88340/0/VSI8.pdf

Cheers,

Dicko.

I have seen nuts like that fail, it depends on how well they are made. (if they don't have a nice radius under the collar)

You are probably adding a bit of leverage to the studs that they were not designed to take.

The whole spacer thing is a bit overblown. A lot of people jump up and down about them. The reason they are banned is to stop idiots from making spacers 6" wide.
If you bolt the spacer to the wheel and call it a strengthening plate most people wouldn't know the difference.
If you made the spacer from aluminium and welded it to the wheel it wouldn't be a spacer any more and the problem has ceased to exist.

Well, my car fails to meet VicRoads standards in many aspects...
- the overall diameter is surely increased by more than 15mm by fitting the 12" wheels.
- possibly fails on wheel width increase (not sure what the original wheel width is)
- the flares cover the tread but the rules state it needs to cover from sidewall to sidewall, not just tread
- it also fails on track width
- it fails on the brakes modifications
- etc. etc. etc.

_________________
- Simon -