Last week I found what I thought to be a great deal on 5 buick rally wheels with tires on Facebook Marketplace. I am rebuilding a 1971 Skylark and wanted to change the wheels from the original 14x6 with hubcaps to 15x7 rallies. After I brought them home, I realized there were two different bolt patterns for the rally wheels. One is the mid size GM (5x4.75") and the other is the full size (5x5"). I bought 5 of the 5x5". The rear axle looks to be a BOP 10 bolt with the bolted in axles, not a C clip retainer. I went looking for the code stamp on the axle housing but it wasnt there. I am assuming its a BOP not Corporate based on the retaining plates and the diff cover that has scallops on each side. Plus the axle flange has access holes to reach the bolts on the housing so redrilling the axles for the new size wont work. I plan on changing the fronts from drum to disc, to I can redrill those, but it seems like I can't get new axles on the rear with a 5x5 pattern and the provisions for the BOP bearings. What are my options here? I can do alot of the work myself, but it seems like I am about to open an entire can of worms if I decide to change the bolt pattern.
Sounds like a can of worms. Resell the rims, if the tires are good keep those and find the correct A body rims. If they are nice rims people are looking for them.
^^ like Matt & Fred said, don't get more involved to fix something that you shouldn't have too. Sell them & buy the correct ones....
Unfortunate that you and the seller did not know what you had, but resell and get the correct wheels. I’m sure all of us have learned the hard way at some point in our lives!
Buying axles for our rear ends isn't cheap, about 700 a pair. So you will have more in making your mistake work than just starting over. So it appears the only 2 reasonable choices are sell the rims and buy the correct ones, or buy a big car to put them on.........but we have all done something like this b4, if anyone in the car hobby tells you they haven't they are either just starting, super lucky, or full of it
If the wheels are in nice shape, you should have no problem reselling them. How much this makes you whole will depend on the condition of the wheels and how much you paid for them. When my current motor was being built, I bought a Steve Reynolds oil pan off this site. It turned out the oil pan was for a Girdled motor. I had to resell the pan here on V8. I took a 50.00 loss. I then bought the right pan from SRE at a very good price, so it was a wash. Like Ben said, we have all been there at one point or another.
Thanks everyone, I am going to sell the road wheels and look for a set of 15x7s with the correct bolt pattern. Don't think I would take a loss on the wheels, but I might clean them up a bit before I sell them.
