Has anyone purchased a set of these lately from the normal places that stock them, Summit, Jegs, etc? They list them as having a 5” backspace. The reason why I ask is I find it hard to believe that a 5” BS would work on a 10” wide wheel on a 70-72 GS. I’ve called Wheel Vintiques, Coker and Stockton. WV can make any BS I want and don’t have any ready to go. Coker has 2 and they claim they are 5”, and Stockton/Speciality is the same as WV except much more spendy. It’s a long story but I only need 1. Or if anyone knows of a place that can move the center on the one “problem wheel” that I have, that might be an option too. Thanks.
The set that a previous owner purchased were indeed 5.5’s. He had one modified later on to 6.5, and I need it to be 5.5 again. I was hoping the listed 5 was incorrect for commonly-stocked 10” wheels as I don’t see how a 5 could ever work. Wheel Vintiques is 6 weeks out, which is fine, but they also charge an extra $25 to deviate from 5” even though they have to build the wheel anyway. Just looking for answers before I order.
If it is going to be $25 for custom setback I would think about 5.25.. You need to buy or make a wheel tool to make sure you will clear exhaust, shock mount and inner wheelwell.
The B/S I need has to be a minimum of 5.5, because that just barely clears the rear caliper. The LH wheel works on the troubled RH side, and 5-5/8” might be better but it’s an expensive guess. The rear end must be off just a little. The “commonly-available” 15”x10” wheels are confirmed to be 5” B/S. That will push the wheel too far out. So Wheel Vintiques it is with a 5.5” B/S. It’s hard to make rear disc brakes, 5/8” studs and stock Buick rallye wheels co-exist. The Bogart wheels that my slicks are on fit fine, but I like to drive this car (in my avatar) on the street too.
Someone on the board does that: Curt McKim http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?members/curt-mckim.51102/
When you go 10" wide rim, you are pretty much at the limit for stock wheel wells. That's where side to side differences throw a wrench in the works. I have about a 1/2" less clearance on my driver's side.
I had a 325/50 -15 on a 10 inch wheel with 5.5 backspacing and that is all you will fit on a 70-72 skylark. In certain situations it would rub a little on the frame.
Bob, one thing that might cause a problem is that WV(Coker is the same) use the aftermarket center stamping which needs to be "lug centric" balanced compared to the factory wheels which are "hub centric" balanced. You can tell the difference because the aftermarket centers are chromed while the factory centers are brushed. It shouldn't cause a problem as long as you get them correctly balanced. Don't let anybody tell you they can be balanced the normal way. It is not a big deal to get them done as long as the shop has the correct adapter to do it. I found a place locally that does it and they work great. No extra cost. I also read that Toyota trucks use that kind of balancing so one of their dealers may have the right balancer(Not sure if that is 100%.). You could probably check with Stockton to see if they use refurbished factory centers and it may be worth the extra cost if you only need one wheel. I guess there is no chance of moving your current wheel from 6.5" to 5.5" because there would be a large gash in the chrome where the center hub was welded. I was going to buy 4 15x8's with 5" BS for my '69 directly from WV. I called them and the price they quoted was the same as Summit plus the $25 each to change the BS. The big difference was the shipping cost. Something like $50 each. The lady told me to just order them through Summit and because they were more then $100 shipping was free! There was not difference in the time frame and as soon as I talked to Summit they knew the exact forms that they needed to fill out for the special order. Something like 6 weeks later I had the wheels. I had them balanced, correctly, and they work great.
Mike, Yes, altering the current wheel back to 5.5 from the current 6.5 would require a lot of work. When Bill the Flipper owned the car, he had the wheel altered from 5.5 to 6.5, which is relatively easy (no chrome work needed). I own repair shop and have a Hunter wheel balancer and have the finger adapters, so balancing them is not a problem. I charge the same wheel balancing price regardless of the centering type too. Road Force balancing is more if we have to move a tire on a wheel. Yes, many larger truck wheels require “fingers” but they are still hub-centric. Toyota trucks use a very large hub, but we still have adapters. We have all that. Buy once, cry once. The biggest issue balancing painted-center Buick wheels using fingers is the paint work isn’t the greatest from the vendors. There is a lot of clamping force and the possibility of paint damage is real. I had this happen on a set of Coker wheels for a concours 70 Stage 1 convertible last summer. At least the wheels were straight! I order 1 5.5 from WV today, $375 to my door in 4-6 weeks. For whatever reason, they didn’t add in the $25 custom charge. Stockton was big bucks - I think almost $500 for 1!
My situation doesn’t have anything to do with Curt M or anyone else’s quality/service. My X has 2 different backspacing on 15x10 wheels to center them in wheel wells. One isn’t fitting now because of the backspacing since converting to Mark William’s rear disc brakes.
Yeah, I understand Bob, I was just responding to post #6 where Bill mentioned Kurt McKimm. I have 15 X 8's (4.5"BS) with 275's in the back, and it is really close on the driver's side with plenty of room on the other. I could probably use 5" of BS on that side.
Bob - I'm looking for people that could redo your wheel, that's all. Here's some more you haven't mentioned: CalChrome.com, Tim at wheel Works in Burlington, New Jersey, underdog on this board. I do not know or have I used any of them, just names I see from searching that you can investigate, or others have liked or not liked. Curt had many likes in 2018, but things can change. Good to know when others have issues with a service provider. Looks like you've gone with WV - hope that works out for you.
It took about 4 weeks to get a new wheel made from Wheel Vintiques, 15x10 with a 5.5 B/S. I checked the runout, which was thankfully good. Also pictured are the “fingers” which a lot of people talk about for cars, and the larger ones are for the trucks.
Yes, wax will be going on soon, but now the other ones look a little old so I bought the stencils and am going to repaint those. It never ends.
