what 14" wheel question

lets try a new variant of the what car thread.....

lets say you were looking for a cheap set of 14" wheels with a 4x100 bolt pattern and a 7" width. you were looking for the wheels used and on the cheap... what kind of car would you look for to find them?

there was a similar question in a past post that required steel wheels. this one does not.....

and..... go!

Was going to say VW snowflake:

But they are only 6" wide.

There are virtually no OEM 4x100 14x7 wheels. Lots of 14x6s. You will probably have to find aftermarket. I've found decent prices and selection at 88rotors.com No connection to them, etc. etc.

take a look here: http://www.wheelcollision.com/cta.htm

they give dia, width & image - you need to find the bolt pattern yourself but that's easy enough.

thou I would be quite surprised if any OE produced a 14x7

E30 basketweaves are 14X6.5". That is the widest 4x100 OEM wheel I can think of.

For that matter most aftermarket wheels from the 80's and 90's are 14X6 too.

keep your eyes peeled for some used diamond racing wheels maybe?

nothing oe that i know of though.

I was going to say BMW bottlecaps. I got my set for $10 but they are 6" wide

93EXCivic wrote: I was going to say BMW bottlecaps. I got my set for $10 but they are 6" wide

I'm drawing a blank on whether weaves are 7 or 6.5.

Finding good 14" tires may be harder than finding good 14" wheels.
14x6 used to be the wide rim back when 195-50-15 was the hot "large" tire.

I'm looking in for that size too, what tire are you going to use?

Ian F wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: I was going to say BMW bottlecaps. I got my set for $10 but they are 6" wide

I'm drawing a blank on whether weaves are 7 or 6.5.

6.5

jrw1621 wrote: Finding good 14" tires may be harder than finding good 14" wheels. 14x6 used to be the wide rim back when 195-50-15 was the hot "large" tire.

This. I would try hard to avoid the <16" tire selection ghetto.

I had the same problem. My '86 GTI hillclimber seemed happiest with the smallest rolling diameter tire I could fit so I stuck with 14" - which are the smallest diameter that will fit over the A3 front brakes. I found and used the BMW/BBS (et. al.) basketweave 14x6.5 for several years as a result. This is the widest wheel I have found without having something like Diamond make me a set. I also found the field of 14" tires was getting pretty lean.

This year I gave up and switched to 15". Still using an E30 spec wheel for the low offset, but good cheap new wheels in 7" width are available and there are a few more tire choices thanks to Spec Miata using this size wheel.

Cut the centers from a set of 14" Chrysler K-car rims, do the same for a set of older GM midsize car 14x7 rims, weld K-car center into the GM rim. Voila !! 14x7 in any offset your little heart desires. I did this years ago cuz I'm cheap.

I was hoping to run 225/50/14 s since Kumhos are apparently challenge friendly now, unfortunately 14x7 rims don't appear to be friendly at all!

V710's? FWIW, most of the Hoosier and Kumho R-comp tires fit on relatively narrow rims better than comparible street tires. A guy in our region used to run 225/50-14 710's on bottle caps for his SM-class E30.

IMO even brand new diamond racing steelies are relatively challenge friendly.

In reply to Ian F:

I have a set of e30 basket weaves I could use.... I was just poking to see if there were any slightly wider options out there I might be able to find cheaper. It's always nice to have more room in the budget for goodies!

I just found some BBS RD in 14x6.5 on Craigslist; nice and light but really the BMW mesh is your best bet.

I was just shifting my bottle caps around my basement. It may be only a 6.5" rim, but man I forgot how well a 205/60 tire fits on them. Another 10mm on each side wouldn't be much. My 195/60 Star Specs look almost stretched on the weaves.

I wouldn't sweat it.

impulsive wrote: take a look here: http://www.wheelcollision.com/cta.htm they give dia, width & image - you need to find the bolt pattern yourself but that's easy enough. thou I would be quite surprised if any OE produced a 14x7

...Sadly not 4x100.

Ian F wrote: V710's? FWIW, most of the Hoosier and Kumho R-comp tires fit on relatively narrow rims better than comparible street tires. A guy in our region used to run 225/50-14 710's on bottle caps for his SM-class E30.

This. The recipe for E-stock Miatas at one time was 225 Hoosiers on a 14x6 wheel. Looked a little funny, did the trick.

If you can handle 15x7's, your wheel and tire selection improves....DRAMATICALLY.