(S) Wheels Refurbed, Mmmm Anthracite Niceness [pic heavy]

Finally went ahead today and took my car to http://www.lap-tab.co.uk/alloywheels.php to get the wheels powder coated. The end result looks pretty decent but now though I reckon it’s crying out for some abarth/lester side skirts.

before (ho hum humdrum)

after + 30mm apex full kit drop


Can anybody see if there is anything different besides being a different colour?
Yup they aren’t my originals, they’re a inch bigger; 14” versions from a tempra estate which I got for £30 for the lot, not too shabby .
Light was fading so took some more shots but will try and replace tomorrow if I still have edit function on this original post.





I do have one niggle. Driving back, the rear wheels make noise coming down off humps and I reckon the tyres are scrubbing on the inner arches .
The wheels are et43 and I put 20mm spacers on front and back. The tyres are 185/50 profile and the cars sus kit drop might be contributing. Any ideas? Perhaps getting the rear arches rolled?
I deffo know the chances of carrying rear passengers is next to gone though . Pic below illustrates unladen clearance; with one rear passenger it has about 10mm travel .

Looks tidy that looking at it, think you may want smaller spacers on the rear at least, im pretty sure i can make out damage to the back tyre on the outside, either that or rolling arches would solve it

Looks good mind

You can easily live with the 20mm spacers up front as you now have an offset of 23mm if you have removed the standard fitment 3mm spacers, normally the car is 27.5mm as you take into account the 3mm spacers added to the standard wheel which is 30.5, so 4.5mm is not much, but on the rear I would run a 12mm spacer or even a 15mm as this will give either 31mm offset only -0.5mm off standard so absolutely no worries carrying passengers, or 28mm offset a gain of +2.5mm as you are getting rubbing at the rear from running the 23mm offset some 7.5mm more than normal.

You will be able to sell the 20mm set as people are always looking for spacers to fit wheels to Cinqs, and with the different off-set front and rear on them its easy to but these and smaller ones for the rear.

HTH,

Aaron.

i guess the wheels are 5.5" wide?

take my gt wheels for instance, they are 45.5mm offset, and im only runnin them with 15mm spacers, my car is dropped 50-60mm and i get NO scrubbing at all

EDIT: just had a thought, i am running narrow tyres (175/50) with the OZ's and 185/50 tyres they used to scrub like a bastid.

The problem is though that if I bring them in too much, the tyres will then rub on the inside against the edge of the exhaust.
See this thread on my test fitting of them without spacers though they did have 185/60 profile tyres but the car hadn't been lowered then. This would be simple if I had a round exhaust but can't scrimp up the funds for a supersprint at the mo
http://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecento-seicento/49920-tempra-alloy-test-fit-some-questions-56k-alert.html

Did some calcs

330mm dia alloy (13”) original 165/60 tyre
+
((165*60)*2)
= 528mm dia

355.6mm dia alloy (14”) old 185/60 tyre in old exhaust clearance issue thread
+
((185*60)*2)
= 577mm dia
= +49mm bigger dia / +24.5mm radius


355.6mm dia alloy (14”) new 185/50 tyre
+
((185*50)*2)
= 540mm dia
= +12mm bigger dia / +6mm radius

Dunno what to make of it, the new tyres arn't far off the original diameters so the exhaust might be ok.
So you reckon 12mm rear spacers?

P.S they are 5.5 wide and the tyres hasn't been damaged thus far, just a scuff that rubs off with the thumb but thats now, in 4 months the tyre could be pealing away from it's sidewall.

yea man, 12mm or even 15mm spacers for the rear and all should be fine

Love the finish and I've liked that company for ages, would like to get my wheels done there but it is too costly to drive down or post them down but they have good prices.

Liam

i even recomended a 12 or 15mm spacer back then

To ensure no rubbing a 12mm spacer is perfect gives to within 0.5mm the correst off-set for a 5 1/2J wheel, and leave teh 20mm up front as front arches are always that bit bigger than rears to take into account the turning of the wheels.

Aaron.

Ok cool cheers everybody, anybody know any places that sell 12mm spacers, hubcentric hopefully?

looking good mate come to brooklands so i can see em in person

ive found 15mm hubcentric ones, not 12mm yet tho

Forgot to add the wheels look great and yes some side skirts would be sweet, but i think a nice touch on your car would be to do the rub strips and ornamental gasket in a similar finish to match the wheels as the orange really stands out now.

My integrale in metallic black, tho looks like a very dark grey and I use a Vauxhall touch up stick readily available in Halfords so that colour used to spray the rub strips would look great.

Aaron.

Yup, forgot to say what my next plans where. My future aesthetic plans are:
Add a pair of abarth/lester sideskirts.
Repaint all the rubstips to glossy black.
Make a hole and add a new insert on the other side of the bumper.

By summer I'll probably also have my brakes upgraded to 257/20mm vented, then I'll have the base ready to start on the performance.

I can't find any 12mm spacers anywhere .

Hi
I`ve got a pair of 12mm hubcentric spacers spare,
Pm me if your interested
Cheers
Adrian

I've been thinking about this recently because of something Pete said with regards to the increase in tyre sizes.

On the Seicento Abarth 14" wheels they have an offset of 36mm, so what they do is fit thicker spacers upfront, can't remember the size but they are at least 6mm but I can't remember if they retain the 3mm standard spacers and as such are converted to a nut and stud conversion obviously to make fitting the wheels easier as the locating bolt is no longer there, but on the rear they just bolt on with no spacers although they still have a stud conversion to make it universal all round.

This got me wondering if the reason that they (Fiat) did this is because the extra tyre width makes up for the offset deficit and in so doing ensures that there is no rubbing on the arches.

I know that Emma (Foxyemx) runs the 14" Abarth wheels on here cinq with 185/50 tyres and she got the nut and stud conversion and spacers with her wheels and there is no rubbing issues at all, and her car is lowered.

So if you follow my way of thinking you could fit 10mm spacers at the rear giving an off-set of 33mm if you can't find 12mm spacers and don't want to risk fitting 15mm spacers in case they still rub tho i think they should be ok.

HTH,

Aaron.

LOL, just saw Adrian has a set, and I know these are good ones as he got them machined special forthe cinq.