Skeeter's got new shoes!

[skeeters_keeper]

Last night I was working on school work, and decided to check craigslist... saw a post from Wed for a set of four Miata wheels + tires, 185/60/14. Did a little research, found that the wheels supposedly weight 12.3lbs each, figured for $100 it was worth it even for just the tires, and on e-bay the wheels are going for around $50 a piece. heard back from him this AM while I was at school, when I got out of school at 4:30 i met him in front of walmart, and now Skeeter's got some new wheels! first time i've ever had something besides steelies on my
. The wheels are actually in really good shape. The tires are so-so, plenty of tread left but the rubber seems a little hard (been sitting around in a garage, at least not outside). All seasons, nothing fancy. I like the look of steel wheels... but i thought i may actually be able to save a little weight with these. I weighed one of them (wheel/tire combo) and it clocked in at about 32lbs. I then weighed the aspire steely with 175/70/13 and that came out to 28lbs... about 4lbs difference! I guess the bigger tires weigh a bit more than the smaller ones, because i thought the wheels were supposed to actually be lighter.

the difference:


Even with coilovers its a tight fit! if it rubs too much i'll raise the back about 1/8" and then i should have plenty of room.


I installed some mudflaps and stuff too, by the time i was done it was getting dark...



I was planing on painting them black, and getting some more performance tires and using these as my summer wheels and then using the aspire wheels as my winter wheels... now i'm not sure if I will paint them black or not, but we'll see! they are definitely about the biggest tire i could fit on there, only a few mm from the rear strut, rear swing arm and fender lip, and in the front its pretty close to the fender lip and at full knock the edge if the tire rubs on my new mud flap (cheapo advance auto ones, but hopefully they'll work).

what do you think, paint them black? leave them aluminum? paint them black and then paint the small polished sections of the spokes the same color blue as the top of my car? Other ideas? (hot pink? lime green?) lol.

Just figured I'd share... i can't wait to actually drive it and see how it handles different. I expect it to be a little slower, but not sure on the corners yet... guess i'll find out in the AM!

[Gforcefd]

Looks great man, I have always loved those rims

[BigWheel]

Looks great. I was looking at a Miata today wondering how the wheels would work on a Festiva.

[25Horseplay]

Looks good Nate! I would leave them like they are!

[lanemeyer14]

Yeah, they look great the way they are!

[htchbck]

looking good nate, skeeter's come a long way since back in the day when you were blowing out fuses coming 'round the mountain on your way pick up my old B6 You'll like the 185/60s, thats what I've been running on silver car for a while on the escort wheels, their pretty nice (an somewhat cheap too). If your ever buying new tires for them I'd recommend the general altimax HPs, they run about $55-60 installed and they have an slightly aggressive directional tread and make an amazing wet weather/performance tire for the price... just my $0.02

[spiko]

The wheels make your car stand out so much more. I think black would look great, but then again, I would try it out in Photoshop just to get an idea of how they will look. That's a great mod for $100

My tires just came in yesterday, Toyo T1R's 195/45/14, can't wait to get the engine in, suspension together, and throw those on my 14's

[Amos]

Oh man... It's scary how close Beast is gonna look to Skeeter...

I'm doing a Tremclad Medium Blue paint job with a Rockerguard / Rhinolining bottom

[piratewilly]

Here i did a little photoshop, took me like 5 min so its not the best but u can get an idea





personally i like the way the rims look stock, really clean look

[freshtiva]

Looks great I wouldnt paint them black.

[lanemeyer14]

It's a tough call. I'm a fan of black rims (have them on my prelude), but they look really good both ways. I say keep them stock since you already have the black steelies.

[CHills]

^ x2

[Safety Guy]

Miata "Daisy" wheels look good black or stock aluminum. I wonder what they'd look like in light blue to match your car?

Matt says the Proxes 195/45-14s work well with those 5.5" wide wheels. You could also look for 185/55-14s, which are available.

I got a set of the '99 Miata aluminum 14 X 6" wheels, which I ain't mounted yet. They are listed at 12.7 pounds each. That's slightly lighter than my Aspire alloys weighed (13 X 4.5") and much lighter than my 13 X 5.5" VW alloys at 15 pounds each.

Just for comparison, Miata steelies (14 X 5.5") are 18 pounds each.

Karl

[wrestler3025]

I say keep them stock as well Nate. I think they look a lot better than the black steel wheels that are on there now. If you painted them black I think it would detract from the nice look that it has now(with the silver). Just my .02 Congrats on the purchase by the way!!

[skeeters_keeper]

They are growing on me with the aluminum look... i'm going to leave them that way for now. Their so clean, i was surprised!
the CL ad only had 1 pic of 1 wheel, and no pics of the tires, so I was a little wary... I was very pleasantly surprised!

Karl - I looked through some pics of the wheels on the miata forum, and i thought they looked good in black, there was a guy who painted them black and then buffed the flat center of each spoke back to being aluminum which looked good, and another one which did the same thing except he painted the center of each spoke red to match his car. I was wondering how mine would look with black and then light blue on the center of the spokes... I think it might stand out a little too much though.


as far as tires, i'd love to get the proxies that Matt has... but at $90 or so a piece thats not likely to happen! I may give the ones that Hatch suggested a try. Both my moms and my brothers cars have 180/60/14's on them right now, which is sortof ironic. they also both have 1.6L engines, but they are diesel (jettas).