Interested in a local Spyder

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Congrats on the buy, Adrian, and welcome to the adventure!

Here's some more on the 4-bolt alloy wheels if you're still interested (instead of doing a full wide-five swap).

I've had Mangels on my Speedster for years and had always thought about a wide-five swap until the alloys became available in 4-bolt a while back. This past summer, I finally decided to track some down.

I say 'track them down' because Greg's website has shown him 'out of stock' for over a year on the polished ones I wanted in 5.5" width. (He does show the powder coated in stock.) I suspect this is because, since he standardized on wide-fives for all of his builds, he's let supplies of the 4-bolt wheels run down.

At any rate, I found out the wheels are distributed by a large outfit in Garden Grove called 'Allied Wheel Products'. One of their brands is 'Raceline', under which they sell a huge volume of all kinds of rims to the mass market.

For these wheels, they invented the German sounding brand 'Mobelwagen', but they are very much made in China, like most of their wheels, but to pretty high standards. These are the same wheels sold as V190 by Greg, and, by all means, buy them from Greg if he has them in stock. They're about 10 pounds lighter per rim than the steelies.

They are much better looking than the Mangels without hubcaps, and on a Spyder that's probably how you will use them, but keep in mind that near the hubs they are different than wide fives, obviously because of the difference in bolt pattern:

On my Speedster, I attached the clips they come supplied with and used moon hubcaps. And note, too, they use 'wide-five' hubcaps, not the ones for 4-bolt wheels. There is a difference.

The offset is about a quarter-inch wider than with Mangels (the rim is closer to the outside of the car). On the Speedster this wan't an issue with 175/70 tires. I had plenty of clearance inside and out. Dunno about a Spyder.

And one last note. The wide-five version needs 'ball-seat' lugs, but the four-bolt uses the more common 'conical-seat' lugs.

Cheers!

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That's good info, particularly regarding the proper profile for the lug bolts/nuts.

All good information.

IMHO, a Spyder just looks WRONG with hubcaps. It also looks wrong with anything BUT a wide5. But hey, you do you.

I always thought the Porsche 914 Pedrini (Italian) or Mahle 4 bolts alloy wheels would look good on 550, Bugatti and even a racing TD.  Had a set of Pedrini but sold them when I found a reasonable set of the 4 lug Fuchs (working on polishing them).  The Pedrini and Mahle can be media blasted or painted.  Very difficult to polish though. They both look similiar but the Mahle are lighter and more costly.  Offsets are ET45 and 15' x5.5.

To all the Speedster guys that are trying to "help" here:

It is not probable that a 5.5" wheel will fit the front wheel well of a Spyder. Please stop. Spyders are NOT the same as Speedsters.

Spyders need a staggered wheel/tire set. I believe Carey has put 5" or 5.5" wheels on the front of a Spyder, but compromises were made. The backspacing/offset had to be changed, and the turning circle is BIG. Just FYI.

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I'm sure you knew this, Danny, but just to clarify, the V190/Mobelwagen alloy wheels ARE available in both 4.5" and 5.5" widths.

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I do. I was pointing my comments towards another individual without calling him out directly.

@Sacto Mitch posted:

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I'm sure you knew this, Danny, but just to clarify, the V190/Mobelwagen alloy wheels ARE available in both 4.5" and 5.5" widths.

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What I’d like to know is if the 4.5” have the same offset issue as the 5.5”. As Danny points out, critical on a Spyder.

Fwiw, I finally got to see Ric’s Speedster with the new wheels yesterday and there’s, literally, one pinky width between his LR and the fender.  He says he’s rubbed twice, so far. I told him about the dremel process and he said he’ll probably do that next time he has the wheels off.

btw, here’s one of the places that does the process I thought about doing to those Halibrand knock offs.
https://weldcraftwheels.com/

@Sacto Mitch I have been looking at those 4 x 130mm Mobelwagen wheels.

We can use that bolt pattern in FV, and the 4-lug disc brake kits are WAY cheaper than the wide5 options of about $2000 an axle. $4k for disc brakes when a whole car costs less than $8k doesn't make sense to me. It looks like I may be able to do it for about $800 for the brakes plus a set of wheels. Not too shabby.

As far as I know, all of the 4.5" alloy wheels will rub in the front of a spyder if used without a narrowed beam.  a 1" narrowed beam (1/2" per side) would be ideal, but a 2" narrowed beam (1" per side) is a more common "off the shelf" item.  Keep in mind you also have to custom make your torsion stack and shorten your steering arms to match.

As for the aluminum 4 bolt wheels, it may have been corrected now, but when they first came out, and the last time I tried to use them (a year ago), they did not clear disc brake calipers since they were designed after ra drum brake wheel.  You had to run a 1/4" spacer to clear the calipers.  Again, not then end o f the world on a Speedster, but for a spyder it is problematic.

2" shortened torsion leaves and tie rods are available off the shelf as well as the beams.

In my case, the 2" shorter beam was perfect as it allowed the use of 3/4" to 7/8" per side wider discs, plus the aforementioned 1/4" less offset of the 4.5" V190 wheel, the fit is perfect.

@DannyP posted:

2" shortened torsion leaves and tie rods are available off the shelf as well as the beams.

In my case, the 2" shorter beam was perfect as it allowed the use of 3/4" to 7/8" per side wider discs, plus the aforementioned 1/4" less offset of the 4.5" V190 wheel, the fit is perfect.

We bought some pre-shortened leafs many years ago and the holes were not in the right spot, so I bought an end mill bit with the proper taper and we just make our own, perfect every time.