My Story

I'm really sorry for you loss. I've been coming to terms with what my life will look like after dad is gone, and it'll be tough. It doesn't matter how old you are: when you have a good relationship with your kids and/or parents, it leaves a void.

Regarding the wheels: you're in a good place, really. Getting nice wheels in your hub configuration might not be so easy-- but if you want to go to a Chevy or Ford drilling, there are many, many options available.

EMPI makes discs for their kits in blanks, and some places sell them in Chevy or Ford drillings. If you have one of the very common EMPI disc kits with 4x130 hubs, you could switch out the discs and run whatever wheels you wanted.

Somebody else might have a better idea, but this one opens up the widest possible wheel selection to you. I wish you well.

Stan, thanks for your reply. You'll probably laugh when I say that your reply sounds Greek to me.   Strange because I spent my childhood under cars handing my Dad wrenches.   Im going to pass this info to my brother, who perhaps listened to the technical parts of Dad's lessons better than I did.  The discs you're talking about are adapter discs, right?  Like a conversion kit for wheels?  I think I understood that part at least.  And can you tell me how I can tell which model Speedster kit I have?  I think its a 1957 but the wheel wells dont always look like the pictures I've Googled. Thanks again for your message.  Im encouraged for the first time in about a week over the wheel dilemma.  Lol

Sorry for your loss!

Don't go bigger than 16"

Thank you, Bill.  Don't go above 16"???  Because of the wheel wells or bc you think it'll just look awful?  The only reason I'm going up is because the 15" tires are a bit more expensive here and they are harder to find.  

Vintage Speedster custom made 17" wheels look great on a Vintage Speedster Super Widebody car but not so great on any other flared or non-flared car.  I agree with Bill, no larger than 16."

Troy, Thanks!  This is just the no d of feedback I'm looking for. I appreciate you taking time to help me make a good decision. 

Hi, Gat!  Gordon here, from Massachusetts, and my car is a CMC, similar to yours, wide fender flares and all (photo way below).  There are a few Texans on here - maybe they'll drop by and say hello - you can also do a lookup (under members? up top) by zip code and see other people in your area.

So......The news on the rims is that pretty much any stock-size wheel on that car will put the wheel waaaay back into the wheel well and you will then have two options:

1. Get a 4 X 130 wheel that is dished enough outward to fit the wheel well and look "right" in the opening (Vintage Speedsters is a good place to look) - I think that is what you have now with the chrome and gold CMC rims - or;

2.  Buy a set of wheel adapters to go from the 4 X 130 bolt pattern, that you have, to either a 5 x 130 Porsche pattern (with limited wheel styles available - see mine below) or a Ford or Chevy bolt pattern with a whole lot of wheel styles available.

Now.....There are two rival camps regarding wheel adapters because the adapter both changes the bolt pattern to something else and also pushes the wheel out from the hub an inch or more (in my case, 1-1/8").  This gets your wheel out in the flare where it looks right.  One camp says they put undue stress on the wheel hub, the bearings and the wheel, while the other camp says they're just fine and if you get a quality spacer, machined from billet 6061 Aluminum or equivalent, you won't have issues.  I'm in that camp and have had zero problems in close to 15 years.  I got mine from Pelican Parts and they cost about $125 per wheel.

The wheels on my car are 16" Fuchs (pronounced "Fooks") and look pretty "right" on the car.  There are a few Speedsters out there with 17" wheels on a flared body and, in my opinion, they look pretty good, too, but I wouldn't go any larger.  Even the 17" rims might give you rubbing issues on the inside of the body due to their size - something to think about.

We all probably have a few questions on your build like; any disk brakes?  Estimated engine size? that sort of stuff.

We readily admit to just about anyone that we're driving a replica.  We're trying to use that term, rather than "kit car" but it seems the rest of the world prefers to say kit car, even though they might not really understand what that means.  LOTS of people on here have cars built by professional builders (Vintage Speedsters, Beck, Intermeccanica, etc) so are those "kit cars"?  You'll find your own explanation sooner or later and probably stick with that.  Whatever that is, you'll be fine.

And finally......I lost both of my parents a year apart just a few years ago and this forum was part of my solace - a place to go where the grief didn't show as much and I could just be "a part of the gang" and that helped greatly to get me through it.  I sincerely hope that we can help to do that for you as well.  

Welcome to the Madness we call "Speedster Ownership"!!

Gordon, first of all your car is gorgeous.  I hope I can finagle getting a rag top like yours before all is said and done.  I appreciate your welcome and guidance very much.  Wow....  I literally cut and pasted your info to my husband first, then to my mechanic and lastly my brother who is helping me source these wheels. It is literally a goldmine of what I needed to hear.  CMC....is that the manufacturer of the body??  I'm glad I finally have the model narrowed down. So its  CMC Speedster Replica?  I have so much to learn but this is the most of I have been excited in a year. Thanks so much!!!  And i fo hope i can get in contact with others in my area.  That would just be fun.  As for my engine... since my husband is not mechanically inclined, and Dad is gone, I had them put a stock new engine in.  I think it's small ... not a sport engine bc that one was $1500 more.  I believe I have disc brakes bc he had to rework my brakes and I had the carburetor rebuilt.  I also had to have the gas tank lined and sealed after fixing a leak.  The car is painted now and after the wheels we will tackle the interior.  So much to do but at least I have a direction that seems more solid now.  Again..thanks so much!

And from the oppisite end of the spectrum

Sorry for your loss Gat. My dad is the reason I bought my car. I've kept it for other reasons.

Sorry for your loss, Gat.  You've come to the right place to get your car "sorted".  You will probably get an answer to any questions you have, and some will actually be helpful. We all are happy to help you spend your money on the "madness".  Luck.

Gat:  CMC was a company that produced quite a few Speedster replica bodies, and a number of other car models as well, during the 1980's - late 1990's.   They were mostly noted for being a marketing "boiler room" that would badger you to buy their stuff, then, once you sent your last check you couldn't get anyone to answer your calls.   They might ship everything you ordered at the same time, or might ship only a partial of your order and maybe never send the rest at all!  Such was life dealing with CMC.  Fortunately for us all, the bodies they produced were, for the most part, pretty good with a few eccentricities here and there.  Those chrome and gold wheels were almost a trademark of theirs.  They eventually went bankrupt and resurrected themselves as "Street Beasts" and may still be around in some other form, although I haven't heard of them in quite a while.  

Bill, over there in Hawaii, has the photographic negative of my car (another CMC), Lane Anderson has a Beck Speedster and lives near Charleston, SC, Al Gallo and his wife, Heidi, have a Vintage Speedster and live at the elbow of Cape Cod, Rusty and Troy are out in California (They'll have to tell you what their cars are) and Stan (Mr. Clean avatar) has an Intermeccanica that he may start working on again, once his new house and garage are finished - a somewhat slippery slope right now.  While I know I've seen folks in here from the Dallas and Houston areas, the closest regular might be Jack and Alice Crosby in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Anyway, you somehow have found not only one of the best sources for Speedster replica information on the planet (no kidding...  We can tell you how to do or fix anything.....some of it even about Speedsters!) but this is one of the best groups of people on the Internet, too.   We have annual gatherings in Carlisle, PA (May), California's central coast (June) and an upcoming one near Ashville, NC in September.  Quite a few couples and a few solo drivers at each.  

BTW;  Vintage Speedsters has everything you may need for interior stuff, unless you choose to use the CMC interior package that you may have.  For anything else that you might need, just ask and you'll probably get several sources at least.  Lots of parts are out there, and we can steer you away from the poorer quality Asian stuff when necessary.

Have fun with your project!  If you send me a private message I'll reply with a cell phone number you can give to your mechanic to call if he/she has questions.