The Cal-look Lounge

Anyone here into custom spun wheels?
Im trying to work something out with CMS, but seems like there is a long way to go.. I assume there are others that can do this too?

I need a set of narrow wheels, zero backspacing and 4x98 bolt pattern.

Walt usually likes to make a run of wheels instead of just a one off order -- -- something about making a living -- to facilitate my order getting done, I had three sets made, one for mine, one for John Bordens Yellow Fiat, and Mark Christensen has the third set setting in his shop waiting for a future Fiat project

(http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss306/Fiatdude/HM1.jpg) (http://s586.photobucket.com/user/Fiatdude/media/HM1.jpg.html)

Early on I did run some 4x100 rims off a ........ , chit i can't remember what they came off -- --  70's-80's VW of some sort -- -- they worked very OK

(http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss306/Fiatdude/FiatDragDay.jpg) (http://s586.photobucket.com/user/Fiatdude/media/FiatDragDay.jpg.html)

(http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss306/Fiatdude/Fiat2-27-283.jpg) (http://s586.photobucket.com/user/Fiatdude/media/Fiat2-27-283.jpg.html)

Maybe Mark will sell his set if he get a good price?
There are some options out there, from Lancia or Fiat, but most are a little bit too wide, wrong backspacing, or just look totally..erh..wrong.

I dont want to order more than 2 wheels. I will probably be stuck with them if i buy more  :-\

If you can get the wheels in the diameter, width, and offset you want then just buy them and send them out to get drilled for the second bolt pattern. As a bonus your car would actually look like a performance car and not just a dandy street machine.

You can probably get them without the holes if you wait for that diameter, width, and offset to be run.

I know bogart makes the wheels to order out of halves in stock. But they do not do a zero offset.

I forgot to add one more wheel-spinning resource. I don't know if this company makes wheels for smaller bolt patterns but it does definitely do a wide-five wheel and a ton of sprint/midget wheels.

http://www.realwheel.net (http://www.realwheel.net)

Now I got to thinking about this statement.


Are you SURE you need a wheel with ZERO backspacing? All wheels have at least a little bit of backspace. I suppose you could make a wheel with absolutely zero backspace but I can't imagine what application that would be for. At the very best it wouldn't fit in any wheel well. At the worst the nasty offset would wipe out wheel bearings. In fact i don't think you can get a wheel with zero backspace.

Are you saying that you want a zero offset wheel? That would mean that the distance from the back of the mounting surface to the rearmost edge of the rim would be the same as the distance from the back of the mounting surface to the frontmost edge of the rim. Even if that's what you want are you SURE it would fit inside your car's wheel wells? Zero-offset wheels stick out of the fenders on VWs. I can't imagine that a zero-offset wheel would fit on a tiny Fiat much less on the front of one.

Production-car wheels usually have a bit of positive offset (more distance from the wheel-mounting flange to the rearmost edge of the wheel than from the mounting flange to the front-most edge of the rim). Volkswagen wheels like the OEM VW wheels on Fiatdude's Cinq have about 40 or so mm positive offset (which is quite a bit). Front-drive cars like the Scirocco (the car that donated the wheels to the front of his car) have even more positive offset--like 45 to 50mm. If you look closely you can see that the wheel-mounting surface is almost flush with the wheel face on his spun wheels.

Possibly this info will make it easier to wheel shop. I would imagine that most wheel makers would think you're bonkers and want to get you out of their hair if you told them that you wanted a zero-backspace wheel. In fact I suspect that you wouldn't be able to use a zero-offset wheel on a Fiat.

No, thats not what i want... Just think i adapted or mixed that from somewhere  ???
What i really want is kind of maximum backspacing? Bubbles...? You know where i want? Need to have the wheels inside the lips of the fenders..somehow.

Like the ones in the front
(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/255327.jpg)

Tell whoever builds your wheels that you want the absolutely most positive offset that you can get. In most cases a slightly wider wheel can be made with more positive offset than a narrower wheel. So you may want to look at five-inch-wide wheels even if you thought you wanted a four.

HotRod -- ERCO and CMS have made zero offset wheel for years for the fronts of VW's -- This was done BEFORE people started narrowing their front beams

The three sets of rims I had made were zero offset because to use the orginal Fiat front suspension and get the discs brakes off a 124 with a nice tire in front they are neccessary

Yes, I know that ERCO, CMS and even Centerline and Deano (and Mitchell and Douglas and surely others) spun zero-offset wheels for decades. They're still all over the place. The problem is that zero-offset wheels push the tires out too far to fit under the fenders of lowered cars unless you narrow the suspension.

On the other hand Centerline, ERCO, EMS, and probably others made wheels with a ton of positive offset. Most people refer to those as bubbles and so on. Without a doubt the wheels on the front of your Fiat aren't zero offset. They're absolutely highly positive offset. They're highly positive offset like the Scirocco wheels that you used.

I think we're using different terms to explain the same thing. I use the terms zero, positive, and negative in the way that the wheel industry uses them, to describe the actual wheel shape.  But more recently the automotive aftermarket began using 'zero offset' to refer to brakes and spindles that don't alter the wheel track. I think that's the way you're using the term zero offset. The problem with using zero offset to explain a wheel that doesn't alter the wheel track is that it isn't standardized. It varies with each wheel and car.

Just to clarify the industry terms here's a graphic of wheel offset. I think you'll agree that your Fiat wheels are highly positive offset.
(http://cocomponents.com/dealer/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ATV-Wheel-Offset-Explaination.jpg)

Yes different terminology,, They have always been described as zero-offset and I just continued to use manufactures description