Changing Wheels For The V8

That sounds promising. Slightly gretaer than ideal offset - but I know a source of spacers if it's too far into the wheelarch. Much easier that way than too far out! Only downer is that 51/2 J sounds a tad skinny?

Chris
 
Chris - do you think that if I got a second set of wheel hubs (I can't picture what they look like on a p6, but I assume that you can seperate the "hub" of the suspension where the wheel studs poke through), could I get them re studded to something like a 5x114.3 pcd?

Would 7in wheels in a +40 offset fit on the back if I ran something like a 195 tyre?

could I fit a 6.5in wheel on the front in the same offset?

I may have just found an even better wheel than I did earlier today.
 
This would be smaller, a 5x114.3 pcd is the same as Australian Ford falcons (mustangs as well I think) and big Japanese cars like Skylines.
 
No, and you wouldn't want to fit early Beetle wheels would you?

I misread the PCD before and though he said it was 5.5inches, hence me thinking the studs would be close to the edge of the flange.
 
The width of the rim doesn't affect the tyre placement in the arch - that's the offset. In theory you could go anywhere from 4.5" up to 8" rim width provided you didn't have wider than 205 tyres and the offset was OK. In practive very narrow tyres on dirty great rim widths have trouble reaching out to the edges of the rim so they can keep the air in and the opposite effect with wide tyres on narrow rims - think galleon on stilletto's! So if you want to run 205's - which are the widest it's easy to get in the rear arches - you really want a rim width between 5.5 and 6.5 inches - ideally 6".

If it will fit in the rear arches it will be fine on the front.

The hubs are cast steel, so you need an engineering shop that's pretty clever to attempt to weld up and re drill. The main difficulty is that you will be redrilling part in the weld fill and part in original cast metal, and that is not easy. You can't go very far away from original pcd as, although the front face of the hubs is flat, the back has raised "blobs" to accept the stud holes. Move too far away and you're drilling into fresh air! Going out to the metric pcd to suit Fuchs etc alloys is fine. I'd be prepared to be dissapointed with anything further though. You would need to get hold of a spare set of hubs to experiment on and be prepared to finish up scrapping them.

It might almost be easier to take a mould off a set of existing hubs and recast some new ones. The amount of machining after casting is very straightforward and you'd be starting from homogenious metal. You might even be able to massage the size of the stud lumps to give yourself a wider range of pcd options.

Chris
 
read my mind, was thinking of the 5x130 conversion.

problem with 5x130 is that aside from the 911 wheels, there seems to be bugger all else in that pattern.

testrider: as in 5x100?
 
okay, I've been offered these:

383867_295033800538420_129303667111435_824738_597298220_n.jpg


specs:
RS-Watanabe F8F
15x6.5 15x7 staggered set
+40 offset all round (stamped)
5x114.3

thoughts?

15x7 with a 195 tyre on the back.
15x6.5 with something like a 185 or 195 on the front.

get the hubs redrilled to 5x114.3
 
the other idea I had was to use a bolt on spline hub and use copies of BRM GT40 wheels, like this:

GT40_BRM_rims.jpg


still investigating that one.
 
OK The F8F's look lovely, and the offset should be pretty well spot on. BUT, at 7" they are going to be very wide for even the widest - 205 - tyre you're going to be able to get in the rear arches. I guess they'd just about be OK with 225's, in which case you could take a gamble and commit to a bit of rear arch surgery a la Simon Owen. I'm speaking from memory here, but I would have thought you would be able to weld and redrill the hubs for that pcd.

A bolt on spline hub sounds promising, but don't forget that the spline hub will sit outboard of the normal hub, so you will need the already unusually large offset of the P6 hub plus the depth of the spline hub to give you an unfeasibly large total offset. Or you could use gebuine Rover splined hubs - but they are like rocking horse poo.

Chris
 
chrisyork said:
OK The F8F's look lovely, and the offset should be pretty well spot on. BUT, at 7" they are going to be very wide for even the widest - 205 - tyre you're going to be able to get in the rear arches. I guess they'd just about be OK with 225's, in which case you could take a gamble and commit to a bit of rear arch surgery a la Simon Owen. I'm speaking from memory here, but I would have thought you would be able to weld and redrill the hubs for that pcd.

A bolt on spline hub sounds promising, but don't forget that the spline hub will sit outboard of the normal hub, so you will need the already unusually large offset of the P6 hub plus the depth of the spline hub to give you an unfeasibly large total offset. Or you could use gebuine Rover splined hubs - but they are like rocking horse poo.

Chris
Click to expand...


Hi Chris

you pretty much nailed the two things that have stopped me putting my hand up to both options. The F8F Wantanabes look fantastic in person (they're really just a Japanese copy of a mini lite but they suit a lot of period cars), I have been assured though by a few people that 195's will fit on but I will have to look at the sidewall heights to see if I can get a tyre that will keep the speedo honest. The second issue with those wheels is that they do have a tendancy to crack on the spokes, and since they are already a bit rare, finding a replacement would be a nightmare. The third issue is.... what do I use as a spare!?

With the BRM replicas, yes, the hub for the pin drive would indeed mean that a postive offset wheel greater than +40 would have to be used, which is ok, but then it would start to look like some of the more modern large sedan/front wheel drive wheels (ie no "dish"), which I don't really like.

More research is required I think, but at the moment I think I am heading towards the BRM wheels.
 
The best resource for wheel/tyre information is the wheel and tyre bible http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg4.html

There's a handy "ideal rim-width calculator" and also a speedo difference calculator on there. According to the rim width calc, you should be ok with a 195 on a 7 inch rim, although it's the largest recommended width.
 
ewokracing wrote,...
What's the OEM tyre size for a p6 and were p6b's any different?
Click to expand...

Hi Geoff,

They were different, the P6 came with 175 tyres on 5" rims whilst the P6B sat on 185/80 or 82 tyres on 5.5" rims. I am not sure of the profile for the P6 175 tyres, but I am sure that someone will let us know.

Ron.
 
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