MAG WHEELS ???

[Blown_FC]

Those who can recall, will remember me talking about a set of Dragway Indys that I can pick up at a good price....well I finally had a tyre fitted and trial fitted it to the FC.

AAARRRGH !

They are 14 x 7 with a 3.75" backspace, which means they fit, but come real close to the guards, and I mean...real close.

So I am hoping for some advice   :-/

I've put on a 195 / 75 / 14 tyre ( as small as I can go on a 7" rim, and the tyre just scrapes inside the guard lip, but when I pack the car with 3 adults, the guard lip is almost touching and with 4 adults it clearly gouges the tyre ( car not running, just static testing int he shed ).

With this in mind, I still have to fit a rear window, tank full of juice and a bit of luggage to give a true indication.

SO my options are to have the rims reset. That is pulled apart and have the centres refitted about half an inch further out, making the actual rim sit further in, but this will cost a further $300

OR

I can have the inner face of the wheel ( where it bolts up to the hub ), machined out my about 5mm which should also just give me enough room...this idea cost only $50 the set.

Has any one else had these troubles or can share ideas ?

THe wheels are BRAND NEW Dragway Indys but just a few years old...never had tyres on them, and he wants $800.....to order new from Dragway will cost me $1600
hence why I really want these wheels.

ANy ideas ?

Mark

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Can you reverse the rim? ie take the centre out and flip it and refit. This would put the airvalve on the inside though, which might be fixed with an extended right angle valve like truck have on their inner wheels.
As I understand the dragways are an alloy centre bolted to a chromed steel rim. This would mean a reset would require drilling new holes and welding the old and a possible re-chrome.
I have a set of 14x7 steelies on mine with 235 tyres, statically they fit fine with the custom off-set.
The first road trip should be this Saturday, all being well, I can then give you feedback about scraping with normal road use.

[Blown_FC]

Thanks Stinky....feedback would be great.

As my centre needs to come outward, I wouldn;t need to rechrome.  If the centre was moving inwards, then yes, I'd have a half inch band of unchromed or poorly chromed section that would look shocking, so I'd need to rechrome.
However, YES, I would need to have the old holes welded up ect.

I'll have to think about your idea of reverseing the centre, although I guess that would mean a rechrome anyway, as the good chrome would be facing the inside and the bad roough chrome would now be outside.

Thanks for the idea !

Mark

[Phantom]

Mark i rekon fitting Dragway Indies are worth it , although mine are only 6" , they certainly look ok to me.
                                  Cheers Rusty Rusty

[Blown_FC]

I agree Rusty.......they are an old school wheel for an old school car....and to me...that's how it should be.

I saw a pic of ( Don;t quote me ), a HZ Kingswood in a recent street machine mag, that had 20" ROH alloys, which in my opinion just don;t do the car justice...too big and too silver paint for the car.

Old Holdens or Old cars in general with chrome grills and chrome bumpers, just suit chrome / polished wheels.

but that's my own opinion which means nothing to anyone really.

Rusty...your Indys really fill the guards nicely especially the fronts.....and they suit your car !

I just with the rims I'm looking at buying were 6" aswell...not that 7" are a problem, but jsut the bloody offset !

Thanks for the pic.....I've always like your car.

Cheers

mark

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

What about purchasing new or second hand rims with the correct off-set holes and bolting your centres in?

[Blown_FC]

Thought of that too Stinky.....I rang Dragway to enquire about new Rims with the right offest holes to put my centres in, but as they are intereference fitted to 6.5 tonnes bla bla bla then bolted in, it is something that can only be done by them or trained workshops with the correct equipment, and would cost around $200 / rim.

Hence my $800 wheels have now become $1600 wheels which is the price of new ones anyway.

I guess, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and spend the big bucks and hope the wife doesn't find out.

Cheers

Mark

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Before you do, thinking outside the square, it may be worthwhile investigating a different diff, I think the LC/J Torana banjos are not quite as wide as the FE-HR diffs.
They would just need the FE/FC plates welded on, might be a cheaper option.

[JB]

The thing about having only 5mm clearance is that when you corner, sidewall flex and movement in the springs mean that the tyres will still rub on the guards... I have this problem at the moment, and am wondering how to roll the lip as it is a double layer.

JB

[Blown_FC]

JB....from what I've been told and from what I can see, even though I will probably end up facing the inner wheel by 5mm, I may still have to work on the lip as you have mentioned.

However, after advice from my panel beater / painter, he said the double lip is usually spot welded all along the lip, so it would be ok to VERY CAREFULLY, and VERU SLOWLY, use a cutting disc on an angle grinder, and grind / cut back a few mm off the lip.

I have looked at mine, and can easily grind back 5 mm of lip without going near any spot welds.

The trick though is too do it very slowly, so the metal doesn't get too hot so as to burn the paint, but it is do-able.

Thankfully, FC's seem to have a fat lip.

It's not hte most ideal situation I give you that, but for the sake of just a couple of mm and some patience, it may just give the clearance needed.

mark

[JB]

That being the case then, those very thin cut off wheels would be the trick.

Jason.

[Blown_FC]

YEP.....going to tackle mine in the next week or so.

[Jockster]

G'day Mark
The rims on my car are 14 x 7 with a 4" backspace, I had to relieve the inner guards a little, but if you go too far you separate the weld which then gives you two separate panels, which allow water, mud etc to get between the panels. As I had my problem after the car was painted I wasn't keen on welding the panels up again, in the end I used the metal bonding glue that they glue the panels onto new cars with and pressed the panels back together with a wedge between the wheel well and the inner guard. After allowing it to dry the glue held with no problems. I then seam sealed it and proof coated it, 4 years later it is still holding ok, despite the wheels occasionally hitting the guard.
Having said all that I still can't get the car as low as I would like it (remember my backspace was a quarter inch less than yours already). If I was doing it again I would use an LJ Torana or 244 Volvo diff, both are roughly 1.5 inches narrower than the FC housing, I might still do this on the cars next revamp.
Cheers
Jock

[Blown_FC]

 
Thanks Jockster...thanks gives me a bit more confidence in doing what I'm planning to do.

If I drove the car as is, with just me in it down a smoothe highway I would be fine, but I'm planning on making it to Adelaide for the next Nationals, so I have to make the car as user friendly as possible, given I'll no doubt have the wife, a kid ( or 2 ? ) and family members in tow who will all want a ride, and all the luggage to boot.

I tell you though...since I've had the rear springs hot dipped reset  and the front springs lowered, 14 inch wheels with just simple 195/75/14 tyres fill the guards like nothing I've seen.

It look so good, I just have to find a way of making them work !

Thanks for your tips.....Might just get me a couple of tubes of the metal contact adhesive just incase I get a bit excited with the grinder  

[blacky]

 Is it only the rears that are giving you headaches ?
If so the LJ diff would be the cheapest and easiest fix. It is only a couple of hours work , your existing centre and brakes will fit , and no stud pattern dramas.
it would be a shame to slip with the grinder and bugger up that paint job......

[2door350]

I'm running 14x8 dragway prostars with 245/50/14's on the rear of my sedan with a centura diff with no probs - its even lowered a coulple of inches!!  had to massage the inner guard about 10mm and tap up outer lip but that was only to fit the big rubber in.  235/60/14's would have fitted with no mods.

Centura diff is about 1.5cm shorter a side than fc. LJ/LC is even shorter.  Eh is slighly wider and HR wider still.............