Decision needed for wheel choice....

[Hap Waldrop]

Well you can make the switch to bolt on from factory splined spokes, but a little bit of work is required. Frist thing you need is two front bolt-on wheel hub assemblies, you have to source them used, they don't offer new ones, I bought a couple of sets off Ebay. Second is what to do about the rear end housing, there are two options, get a bolt on wheel rear end housing and change out the entire rear end OR you can use the original wire wheel housing, you'll need to get longer whell studs, like the Moroso racing wheel studs, and run 3/8"-1/2" wheel spacers on each side to make up the difference of the spoke wheel axle/housing length. The later is something new, but it's been done by several people and throughly tested, a couple of advantages to using the original rear end housing is of course you don't have to change it and and it will allow you to run wider tires, one of the guys who did this conversion is running 205/15 with no chance of rubbing on his MGB.

 

[Rob_P]

Hap,
That second options sounds like what was being suggested. Although now I need to go back and double check with them.

Thanks for all the input.

What are your feelings on these rims:

I have stumbled upon a set of four that have been blasted and painted to look brand new for $500.

What are these called?

Rob

 

[Bret]

Stock Rostyle wheels always look good. Better with the chrome ring.

As for the price I wouldn't know as I haven't priced them before - but $500 seems a bit high to me.

I'd check ebay to get a rough idea what folks are paying. Who knows you might find a set cheaper if you don't mind cleaning them up yourself to save a few bucks.

 

[jlaird]

And that folks is a preaty B.

 

[Nunyas]

You could repaint a set of old Rostyles for ~a lot~ less than $500 a set. Errr... hmmmm... Depending on where you live that is. For me, if I spend $100 on a used set, paying someone to media blast them would set me back another $200, and then paint would set me back yet another $50 (paint and misc. materials). I would save money that way, but I would also expect to invest 5hrs per wheel painting them, at a minimum.

Personally, I would not spend more than $100 on a set of unrestored Rostyles.

 

[tony barnhill]

Hap - I think 7/16" spacers are needed on each side if you go that route...interesting option though....&, if you modified the backspacing of the wheels, you'd have several tire options.

 

[Stewart]

And to think I had a hard time giving a way a set of 4 nicely painted roystles with beauty rings and 4 2 year old 2k mile tires on them plus 2 unrestored ones.

 

[tony barnhill]

The times they are a'changin'

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Rob you can make the switch from from spline hub spoke wheels to bolt-on wheels without changing the rear housing because it narrower than the bolt-on housing and make up the difference with wheel spacers and longer wheel studs, but you can't do it the other way around, if you want to switch to spline drive spoke wheels you will have to get a factory spoke wheel axle housing, because if you just try to bolt the spline drive hubs on a bolt on housing you will gain close to inch in width and make fitting wheels impossible. You keep mentioning saing money, well spokes for sure isn't about saving money, consider a new set of splined hubs will cost you 6-7 hundred buck, then you need to buy wheels, if you go chrome, you're be spnding 1500ish, so consider a top notch spoke wheel set up is going to cost you well over $2000, I can sell you a really nice set of Superlite alloy wheel for one third that. See I'm the complete opposite of you, I want to get rid of my spokes and splined hubs, because it's a much more troublesome set up than bolt -on hubs and wheels, if your hubs wear out, you wipe out the wheel as well, just had this happen to friend, kinda suxs to have to buy it all again, that will never happen with bolt on wheels.

 

[tony barnhill]

....& I'll be more than happy to build you a great set of beautiful Rostyles for $500!

 

[Rob_P]

Ha, thanks Tony. If i thought that was a good deal i would have bought them already. I felt that might be too much, and now i know for sure.

Hap, it's not so much saving money as not spending it all now.

A year or two down the line, I may not mind dropping 2k for the wire wheels, but right now there is too much to do.

(although the more i think about it the less I can rationalize the wheels being 33% of the value of the car!)

I am keeping my eyes open for some used rims. At the moment i am leaning towards a set of the old "iron cross" Z rims.

If i can't find a deal that i want, I will probably end up going with new superlites.

Thanks all.

Rob

 

[vping]

While waiting on my Superlites to arrive I've been reading this thread and someting strikes me. Do I need to get spacers for wheels other than Rostyles? If so, are they just Aluminum plates/discs with the hole pattern cut out and at varrying thickness'?

 

[tony barnhill]

Wheel spacers are just that....go to one of those aftermarket wheel places & they'll have them...however, whether or not you need them depends on the wheel backspacing.

 

[vping]

Ahhh I have that somewhere here. I'll have to look it up. What should it be?

 

[tony barnhill]

I'm not near my cars....but, lay a straight edge over the inside lip of the wheel & measure down to the flat part that fits against the hub - that's the backspace

 

[vping]

Will do when they get here. They should ship Monday. Thanks for the info T.

 

[Nunyas]

Generally speaking, the recommended back spacing for a wheel that is 5.5" wide (on an MGB), you should have about +22mm offset (almost an inch). If I'm not mistaken, the offset number is the distance from the center of the wheel (half of 5.5 in this case) to the hub. So, when measured from the back of the wheel you'll have something close to 3.75" (91mm) back spacing. If your backspacing is too much greater than that, then you'll need something to position the wheel closer to the center of the well.