• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

MCS

Jedi Warrior
Offline
1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

Ok, I need your opinions on rims. Lets forget about the price my 1966 Sprite is going to get what looks best, bad shoes I hate.
So do I go with Dayton wire wheels the bolt on type?
Or do I go with the mini lite rims?
Any Dayton or similar owners out there, how are they to clean I plan on maybe driving this car 1000- 2000 km a year.
The minilites look good but not sure I like them on my sprite I have a variation on my 2004 MCS they look great on the new mini..
Pictures would be helpful for the full effect
Thanks Phil
 
Re: 1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

Minilites, everybody has minilites and I hate them.
But yet I have 2 cars with minilites. I still hate them, they are not very attractive wheels.
I think there are more people with minilites on MGs then stock wheels on MGs and both are just silver wheels.
Cragers look good and are chrome.
I had a Sprite with Keystone Klassics on it too.
I have aluminum slots on my Sprite now.
My buddy has chrome wires, he says "As soon as I finish cleaning the 4th wheel, it's time to clean the first one again." But they do look good clean, bright and shiney.
Alot depends on the car color too. Dark cars with chrome wheels look the best. Light cars look OK with silver wheels but not with chrome.
This is only my opinion and I'm sure the guy with the black Sprite with minilites loves his car as does the guy with chrome wheels on a white Sprite.
 
Re: 1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

The key thing in favour of Minilites is that they are also British, and very traditional on LBCs. In the very early 60s there were only a very few vendors of add-on stuff like that. Minilites were first on Minis (10") and then later in larger sizes. I remember while I was in college they cost about 25 pounds each for 10", 28 pounds each for 13", but 100 pounds for a set was way more than I could afford.

Nowadays real Minilites cost about $250 apiece, and the Aussie-made Superlite imitations cost about $150. Still way beyond my pocket...

Ho hum.
 
Re: 1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

Gentlemen thank you for the replies. It is a hard to decide, I am not rich but my new rims are going to be purchased only once. I love the classic look of the big Healy with wire wheels; just hate the thought of spending days cleaning. My car will be English white. Thanks to this forum I have decided that once most of the bugs are fixed I plan to do a complete tear down and send the tub off for a complete scrub and paint, (late 2007 I hope) .I need to drive it for a season first. Just love the pictures of that new shiny bug eye that I think it is Jerry is restoring. I am also not that fond of mini lites on the sprite, I see a company on eBay that sells new Dayton’s for about 1200.00USD.
Thanks Phil
 
Re: 1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

I was actually wondering if it would be possible to powdercoat, in the body colour, a set of Minilites, or whatever style of wheel you choose.... That would look more 'complete'. In the old days folks tried spraying them and then baking the finish. It looked wonderful at first but didn't last very long before it looked scruffy. There were anodised versions, actually I think there still are, in various colours, but all basically metallic, as is usual with anodised finish.

ncbugeye is also OEW as you can see at left.
 
Re: 1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

Why not, most any metal can be powder coated.
 
Re: 1966 Mk 3 Sprite Rims

Hmmm. Oven baked rims... sounds delish!!
 
Back
Top