• 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

Vega wheels

Share this page

DWeeB

DWeeB

Jedi Trainee
Offline
I here that old Chevy Vega wheels will fit a Bugeye. Can anyone confirm this? The guy down the road has an old Vega in the back with these types of rims and before I try and dig them out I'd like to know that they will fit. TY
 

Attachments

  • 27677.jpg
    27677.jpg
    90.4 KB · Views: 760
Yes they fit in that they are also a 4X4" bolt pattern. However, I believe the actual bolt sizes (and therefore holes) are larger.
 
Stock Vega wheels have an identical bolt pattern and are a common upgrade for Morris Minors.
Remember that they are 14" diameter, NOT 13". The Spridget rear axle "hat" slightly fouls the center hole of the stock Vega rim, easily corrected with an angle grinder.
Since you won't end up putting them on a Bugeye, be sure they go to a Moggie guy. If they're the rally wheels, I'd be happy to store them for you.......

Regards,
Glen Byrns
(bugeye and two moggies)
 
That's great, I'll dig them out this weekend. If I got the rotary to fit I should be able to trim these a bit. I'll have to cut down a few trees to get the car out of the wood, she's on blocks and the wheel look pretty good from what I can see. And yes I think they are 13". Look to be the black rally type with beauty rings and center caps but the rings and caps are pretty pitted. How wide are they?
 
What's a SWA car?
 
After a bit of reflection, I headed out to the garage and realized (once again) I was full of it. The original Morris wheels are 14", but the Vega wheels I fitted to the truck are 13". Just plain mis-remembered. Still, be sure to test fit the rears to see if a bit of grinding is needed around the inner diameter of the center hole of the wheel to clear the axle hat.
I've got the standard pierced steel wheels with the small stainless "moon" caps and no trim rings. I got the set of four for $100 from a Vega guy in the SF area, and later when I decided to put them on a Morris truck where the spare would be visibly mounted behind the cab, I ended up paying $50 for the fifth one. Ouch! At least I didn't need a fifth moon cap for the spare.

Glen
 
SWA is square wheel arch (most box Spridgets)

RWA is round wheel arch ('72 and '73 cars).
Bugeyes are also RWA but I don't think anyone calls them that.

I ran the Vega wheels many years ago and had issues with lug nuts "creeping" loose. I would not run them again.
Also, in my view, the stock 3/8" studs are too small and may fail with hard use.
You could upgrade to 12mm studs in the front pretty easy, but there's very little space to do this properly on the stock rear hubs.
 
Well that's a bummer. I'll probably pass on them then, the last thing I need is a wobble wheel or broken studs.
 
I thought there was an issue with a 100mm pattern as compared to a 4 inch pattern or was this on some other wheel.

Kurt.
 
nomad said:
I thought there was an issue with a 100mm pattern as compared to a 4 inch pattern or was this on some other wheel.

Kurt.
Click to expand...

Nope, Vega was one of the very few cars to have the 4x101.6 mm, or (4x4") bolt pattern, these wheels were pretty popular with the SCCA racers, I seem to vaugely remember something about enlarging the center bore for the Spridgets, can't really say from expereicne, never use them on the race cars, however a set belonging to some one with old rain tires sat around the shop like forever, I finally gave them away.
 
Glen_B said:
Weird, I've got a set of Vega 14" on my Morris truck.
Click to expand...
You sure they are not Monza instead of Vega? Those wheels for the Monza looked the same but the Monza had a bigger engine, some models have the 350 v8 in them. All the vegas I ever saw had 13s, as well as the pontiac astre, its sister car but much better because it had the steel block engine.
 
Since we are talking about the 4 on 4 bolt circle. About every trailer with a 4 lug patten is 4 on 4 as well. One of those cheap 12" wheel and tire combos from harbor freight for 45.99 will fit on a spridget(though not recommended). Just food for thought if you were to get in a pinch.
 
regularman said:
Since we are talking about the 4 on 4 bolt circle. About every trailer with a 4 lug patten is 4 on 4 as well. One of those cheap 12" wheel and tire combos from harbor freight for 45.99 will fit on a spridget(though not recommended). Just food for thought if you were to get in a pinch.
Click to expand...

On that note, old hondas are 4x100...pretty much anything pre 2000 smaller than an accord. Can post a picture of my integra aluminum rims that wouldn't look to bad on a spridget
 
Monza, Vega, Jensen Healey, Midget, Sprite, Morris Minor --- all 4 on 4.

The back set if different on the Chevy wheels and won't work on an SWA car without body modification. (IIRC)
 
RyanBez said:
......On that note, old hondas are 4x100...pretty much anything pre 2000 smaller than an accord. Can post a picture of my integra aluminum rims that wouldn't look to bad on a spridget
Click to expand...

Spridget rims are 4 X 4".......not 4 X 100mm

The difference is critical and could lead to catastrophic lug failure. Especially since Spridgets have small, relatively weak 3/8" lugs.

I would not recommend running 4 X 100mm wheels on a Spridget unless you redrill the Spridget hubs to the 100mm lug pattern.
 
Vega wheels are indeed 13". I have a set of Cosworth Vega wheels on my MM pickup. Needless to say, these are quite different from the standard and rallye style steel wheels. There is no center bore issue on these, but there is on the steel ones. Vegas did have larger diameter studs so I had to find just the right sleeved lug nuts to make it work. The lugs cost me as much as the wheels and at the time (about 12 yrs ago), I could only find the right combination in the UK. These wheels are 6x13 and work well on the truck, but would be too wide for a sedan or even a Bugeye. Even with 205/60's they tuck in nicely behind the rear wheel arches.

DSCF7123.jpg

DSCF7122sml.jpg


morrisputilt.jpg
 
Back
Top