DISCLAIMER: this is a do at your own risk. Though modifying wheels can be done it doesn’t mean it’s safe!
Now as a 19 year old kid not only am I unwilling to spend 1200 bucks on a set of panasports my stubborn mind tells me that I can make a perfectly good $400 dollar set of wheels that don’t fit on my car fit on my car.
First I had to know how much room did I really need. so I ordered one wheel and got a 195/50r-15 tire mounted. I bolted it up in the rear which is the area it won’t fit and realized that there was know way I could just bend that spot welded lip out of the way.
Rolling the fender was not an option for me. I personally think it doesn’t look all that good. The Fairlady has got her curves and I like em that way.
I turned to modifying the wheels. It was a gamble but only spending 400 vs 1200 bucks was worth it to me. If it didn’t work I mean hey at least I learned something. (Buy the right parts first...) I used my eyecrometer and guesstimated the amount i needed off the wheel. Which was right around a 1/4†if you take a look on the back side of the wheels the taper for the lug nuts start right around a 1/4†so taking a 1/4 off the backside was to much in my opinion even though theses wheels are quite beefy and could probably take the abuse.
I needed to make More room .200†was definitely not going to cut it. I look at the drums and realized that they are clamped between the wheels and the hub and do not experience to much lateral force.
I toed the wheels down to the table in the mill made sure the surface was flat and wrote a program that ran a 3†shell mill in a circle around the hub. I took .200†off the backside .050†short of my 1/4†goal. Next was the drums. I hate modifying original parts but I was confident it would be strong enough. ( the braking surface on the drums still measure a 9.5†diameter! Original dimension!) I ran a file on the back side to knock down any high spots and toed it down on the table. I took .080 of each drums face. Exceeding my 1/4†goal by .030â€
Now basically the wheels fit just like my 14†wheels with 195/60r14 tire wheel combo fits in the rear. Tight but it fits. (You my need to tap the lip inside the fender up a little) my old wheel and tire combo rubbed a little when I drove hard through corners but I believe that can be fixed with a hammer
That’s how’s you fit a 15X7 Konig rewind on a Datsun roadster.
The main question- was it worth it? Probably not to the average Joe but as a 19 year old kid with a whole machine shop to play around in I definitely think it was! It was a good learning experience for me personally expanding my machining knowledge and simply just trying new things.
As fitment goes I think the rear is dead nuts (metric- spot on) with tire and wheel combo. It may be good with a 1/2†lowering block to get that tire up there a little more but as for up front I wish I got a slightly taller tire maybe a 195/55 or 60r-15
