Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Hi,

I keep hearing nothing but good things about these tires and I think I'm due for a new set. My only question is do they fit on stock rims, since I'd be really loathe to give up the look of the stock rims and the beautiful chrome hubcap?

--Eric

'69 1600

You can squeeze them on the stock wheel but I think they'd lose quite a bit of their feel going on that narow a rim. You'd have to run very high pressures to keep them from rolling over too far. I ran my 195/60-14's on 6.5 wide wheels and don't think I'd recomend any narrower than 5.5 inches. You ought to be able to find another steel wheel (Z car?) that's wider and could be made to use the stock roadster hub caps though.

It should be noted that the stock wheels are NOT performance oriented peices. They are outrageously heavy for their size and like all steel wheels are prone to cracking when highly stressed repeatedly.
I did see a guy with a 356 who'd done a sleeper conversion to a 911SC engine - car looked bone stock from the outside. He had taken a set of older, wide (7 inch or so), GM steel wheels and had a shop cut out the GM center and re-weld the stock porsche center into the wider GM shell. I doubt that's cheap to do but it is do-able and has the advantage of neting you almost any offset you want.

There should be plenty of shops around that will widen your stock steel wheels, and it shouldn't be that steep. My pops has had it done a couple of times and I think he said it was something like $40 each. Come to think of it, you might have to supply an extra set of steel rims. Call around to the local hotrod shops and they should be able to tell you who in your area can do it for you.

Enjoy

Yeah, but you need to be careful about doing that. One of the guys on the e-mail list just had that done and then found out that the newly widend stock wheels won't clear the brake calipers.
If you have anyone do custom wheel work they should ask for all the needed specs but, fill out all of the critical data on this sheet http://www.kodiakracingwheels.com/kodiak-1.pdf
so the shop knows what to do. If they don't ask for this you might ought to look for another shop.

I noticed with my stock wheels that they flexed quite a bit even with a set of very old and scary tires. A set of Libras, or Panasports would be nice. The other early 240 z alloy wheels would look nice as well.

The falkens have enough grip to make a steel wheel unhappy. I have a set on my ARE Libras and they just barely fit. I love the tires.

Will