New wheels for my 98 TA?

[4birdman]

I am thinking it is time for a change. I love my wheels and so does everyone else, but I think it might be time to reinvent the car a little.

It is to a point where it has won a bunch of awards and all, but it has gotten to a point where it has been in its current state for about two years now and people are starting to pass it over when I go to shows with it since they've seen it before.

So I am thinking it is time for a change. I am currently running SportMax 962s and I like them, but two of the wheels have peeling clearcoat and I need to replace them anyway. I would like to stick with a similar size wheel, but wider in the back. I want a 18x9.5 in the front with a 35mm offset and a 18x11 in the rear with the appropriate offset (right now I have 18x9.5s with 35mm offset, so I would like an extra 1.5" in the back, so whatever the offset would calculate to there).

The two things people say they like most about my current wheels are the color (gunmetal) and the big fat lip on them. So I need a gunmetal wheel with a fat lip. I can't spend a ton of cash on the wheels because I have other projects that need my attention and money.

Here is what the car currently looks like:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[ProdigyCustoms]

Well, unfortunatly Forgelines are most probasbly out of your budget, but for conversation we are putting 19" Snowflakes (ala Project EmptyNest) on Lisa's 2000 WS6 Convertible. We should have them on in a couple weeks. Curious to see how they look.

[4birdman]

Frank, that is a little bit out of my budget. I'm betting that will look awesome, though. :)

I did think about some retro looking wheels for the car. I thought about the billet Ralley IIs for the car, but after seeing them in person I decided against it.

I really like the style of my wheels now, but there are certain things I don't like about them. They are a dual-lug wheel so they have 10 holes for 5 lugs. They also have a weird recess that will only fit one type of lug that I have found because it is such a tight recess, and that lug is some cheapy chrome crap that rusts within a few days.

[paulk68]

i like the look of those alot. would look pretty good on my 2001 camaro. how bad is the clear peeling? how much were they new?

[4birdman]

I bought them back when I had a side business selling performance parts. I think they ran me like $600 or something. They are pretty cheap wheels, like $160 each for the 18s. The clear is REALLY bad. It is peeling off in sheets, looks horrible. I only have maybe 15k miles on them, too.

[paulk68]

oh ok that is to bad. i guess it is the old saying "you get what you pay for"
thanks

[4birdman]

Yeah, no kidding. At the time I wanted something good looking that no one had. I bought the first set made and everyone loved them. Now a lot of people have them after seeing my car, so it is time to move on, I think.

[1FstChevy]

Those current wheels look pretty good from the photo above, but I guess I know what you mean by it being time for a change.

However... you mention your car being "passed over" and it sounds like you want something thats a big enough change to instill more interest than the current image, so although I'd agree that gunmetal finish wheels with bright lip look great, I'd wonder if that would be enough change for your T/A since it sounds like thats a big factor to you also.

I'm also wondering how much you'd let those wheels go for as I'm sure they could be re-cleared if your price was good enough to offset that cost!? Wasn't planning on doing anything to my 98' Bird daily driver but those look pretty sharp if you plan on selling them... & what size tires do you have on those? Something like 275/35/18?

[4birdman]

I just want a set of wheels that aren't common on a TA. I do not want to change the gunmetal/bright lip look, but I want a new style of wheel. The problem is, I think, is that after I put these on my car a lot of the 300Z and import guys started using them in my area. So now some people joke with me about my "ricer wheels" :lol:

My tires are 275/35/18s and are about worn out. I drive this car wide open all the time and the tires show it.

As does the tired engine and worn out transmission. Might be time for a major revamp of the car!

[woody80z28]

I'm looking at these for my car, too. I have narrowed it down to these or Coy's C5s, but the Coys seem to be the next TTII where everyone has them.

Quality is all that concerns me. Do you know why the clear is peeling? Did the wheels ever see snow or anything?