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I put some new tires on mine and the place that did it says I have a bent wheel. Not bad, and I can't tell driving it (Maybe they made a mistake?) but they said it was bent.
So, I thought it might be a good excuse to indulge a little and buy some wheels. That was when I learned how tough it is to find aftermarket wheels for these cars.
I am told by people who are supposed to know that the 85 used either 8.5 or 9.5 rims with a +38mm offset and the P255/50VR16 tires I bought. (I have read similar, although slightly conflicting things regarding these wheels.)
Is this accurate and what did you do about wheels? Originally I thought some Torque Thrust D's or the old Centerline type wheels might look good, but there's a real shortage of options in these sizes. The few that exist are pretty expensive.
Most of the online places have a calculator that wants to put me in 17's, but I just bought the tires and I kind of like the ride with the bigger sidewall. I don't really want a 17.
Are these sizes right? How much fudge room is there? What did you do? Is there any good options I'm not seeing on the sites like "tire rack" etc?
I put some new tires on mine and the place that did it says I have a bent wheel. Not bad, and I can't tell driving it (Maybe they made a mistake?) but they said it was bent.
So, I thought it might be a good excuse to indulge a little and buy bought. (I have read similar, although slightly conflicting things regarding these wheels.)
Is this accurate and what did you do about wheels? Originally I thought some Torque Thrust D's or the old Centerline type wheels some wheels. That was when I learned how tough it is to find aftermarket wheels for these cars.
I am told by people who are supposed to know that the 85 used either 8.5 or 9.5 rims with a +38mm offset and the P255/50VR16 tires I might look good, but there's a real shortage of options in these sizes. The few that exist are pretty expensive.
Most of the online places have a calculator that wants to put me in 17's, but I just bought the tires and I kind of like the ride with the bigger sidewall. I don't really want a 17.
Are these sizes right? How much fudge room is there? What did you do? Is there any good options I'm not seeing on the sites like "tire rack" etc?
Hi
Well that is one place to stay away from, a bent wheel would shake the car like crazy. I know in the past I had tires that were slightly out of round, the car would shake on the highway lucky the tread separation was a manufacturing flaw and got new tires for free.
There are plenty of early c4 wheels available, I know I sold the 4 of my 9.5x16 for $50 ..... yeah too cheap but they were taking up a lot of room.
Most go for c4 ZR1 wheels 17x 9.5 with correct 84-87 offset, or use 1 inch adapters and use any late c4 wheels or C5 C6 wheels.
The '85 wheels could be a mix of 8.5@+32 and 9.5@+38 OR 4 "of a kind". The information is cast in the wheel "back-side". You want to make sure that you've 4 of one or the other OR if a mix of 2 & 2 that the fronts are the 8.5 and the rears are the 9.5 as well as being mounted on the correct side of the car.
Ask the shop that did the mount to point out the damage or the run-out on the wheel they mentioned. They should be happy to do that.
The 8" wheel you mention is mentioned by BFG in there tire specs and seems to be the width used for their "section width spec". I would have thought 8" might have been a less than desired width. Looking at their specs it's a ................... maybe?
An 8@+38 though would set the outer lip of the wheel in something very near 1/2". Appearance might be an issue I'd think. An 8@25 would be very close to a match of the wheel lip location.
16" wheels are either used (typically originals) or $$$ custom. Mine came with ARE 16", great to me but none out there for sale that I've been able to find.
Moving to 17", can do these or similar, have to make sure you get the +40 offset,not +54. They have both on the c7 or so I hear.
What is the proper way to calculate wheel backspacing vs width, etc, for a C4?
I mean, I hate to buy something, have it shipped here, and then it not fit?
Post the brand, style, part # of whatever here and get opinions first. It's not as difficult as it seems but it can get confusing for sure until "you do GET IT"!!
If you need to just post a link of maybe what you consider a first and second choice.
St. Jude Donor '06-'07-'08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16
Try Jason at www.vette2vette.com. Take off the bad wheel on your car and write down the specs that are on the back. Let Jason know what they are so he can send you a good wheel that is exactly correct.
By the way - I am getting to like the stock wheels more and more lately. You can strip the clear and buff them out to look quite nice:
The '84 - '86 wheels were all identical except that they used different lug nuts (with plastic covers in '85 & '86) and the centers were not black in '86. The '85 & '86 Z51 also used 9.5" rims all the way around. Otherwise they came with 16X8.5 front and 16X9.5 rear.
As others have mentioned, these wheels sell for cheap these days and many ended up in the scrap heap. Never-the-less they are a very high quality wheel, even if they are a pain to clean.
Not to hijack your thread, just to add a little info here:
When I got my 96, I had a slight leak on my left side rear axle where it goes into the differential. Took it down to replace the seals and found that that side had excessive play in it. It would move in and out nearly a quarter of an inch: WAY TOO much! When I removed that axle, the tip of it was worn down almost to the retaining ring. Shortly after replacing with another axle, I put new tires on and they found that the wheel was bent on that side. Not bad enough for me to feel driving, but you could see the wiggle on the tire balancer. The upper control arm on the rear of the Vette IS the axle shaft so that bent wheel was causing the axle to beat in and out as I drove down the road. THAT'S why my axle was worn out on that side and I never would have figured that out until the tire guy showed me the wheel was bent!
Most go for c4 ZR1 wheels 17x 9.5 with correct 84-87 offset, or use 1 inch adapters and use any late c4 wheels or C5 C6 wheels.
This might be the best way to go. You can easily find the ZR-1 style wheels in 17x9.5 with the proper 38mm offset for the 84-87 cars. This style wheel can be found in chrome, polished alloy, silver, and black with polished lips.
This wheel size will use a 275/40-17 tire which is available from a number of tire manufacturers. Visit the Tire Rack website to use their search function using that tire size. The 275 tire has nearly identical dimensions to the OEM 255/50-16 tire so the speedo and odometer will read properly.
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85 Wheels.
