Which wheels? I can't make up my mind.

[Eaglefreek]

I'm in desperate need of new tires and currently have 14x6 wheels from an Isuzu Impulse on my car. I also, have 15x5.5 Suzuki Esteem wheels from the Aspire that I bought for it's engine. The 14's have a 24 offset and the 15's have a 45 offset. I dig the look of the Isuzu wheels, but they stick out a little more than I would like and they really need to be refinished. The 15's are in great shape. I currently have 155/65/14's and I know everyone says to go with 165/45/15's, but I'm considering 165/50/15's because they are closer in size to the 14's coming off and my speedometer is dead on right now according to GPS. There are more tire brand options also with the 15's. What's a man to do?

[william]

I love 5 spoke wheels but the wheels that are on it are really neat looking.
Plasti dip them bronze!

[Advancedynamix]

I'd use the 14" wheels and run a few degrees of negative camber. 165/55-14 Achilles tires with -3 degrees of camber is an unbelievable setup. The camber will eliminate the tires poking out past the fenders and it'll drastically improve traction.

[RobotKarate]

I've always loved those Impulse wheels and think they look great on the car. I'm gonna go hunt some down now, lol.

[Eaglefreek]

I was considering painting them bronze with the squares black.

I'd use the 14" wheels and run a few degrees of negative camber. 165/55-14 Achilles tires with -3 degrees of camber is an unbelievable setup. The camber will eliminate the tires poking out past the fenders and it'll drastically improve traction.

What will that do to tire wear? I call this car the tire eater. 23k miles on these Federal tires and the inside edges are toast. I'm hopefully taking it to a guy who does alignments, mostly for racers, in his garage. He did a car for me over a year ago, but was considering not doing it anymore due to his busy full time job.

I've always loved those Impulse wheels and think they look great on the car. I'm gonna go hunt some down now, lol.

If I decide to go with the 15", mine will be for sale fairly cheap.
EDIT You need an an Aspire swap since the wheels are 4x100.

[FestYboy]

The inside edge wear is because of improper toe setting. That car has negative camber, it should have just a touch of toe in. The reason you're loosing the inside edge is you have a toe out condition. The machine may print out good to settings, but if the table is tweaked or the heads out of calibration, the printout doesn't mean jack.

[Eaglefreek]

The inside edge wear is because of improper toe setting. That car has negative camber, it should have just a touch of toe in. The reason you're loosing the inside edge is you have a toe out condition. The machine may print out good to settings, but if the table is tweaked or the heads out of calibration, the printout doesn't mean jack.

I took it to one of those "budget" alignment places the last time and they probably did a crappy alignment, plus my rack was worn pretty bad.

[ryanprins13]

Ive gotten a lot of wheel alignments done on my festiva. Always lots of inner tire wear. They like to give you extra toe in so the car drives straighter. The negative camber does that for you so you dont need much toe in

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[Advancedynamix]

I've fixed over a dozen Festivas that had been aligned by the "best shop in town" with tools I fit under my passenger seat. I've driven across country and back several times in Festivas with over -2.5 camber with no abnormal tire wear. Camber doesn't wear out tires if the toe is set correctly. Like Ryan said, most shops pile on the toe in to aid in steering wheel return and give the car that rock solid feeling. The car will feel wandery with very little toe in, unless you have negative camber. Negative camber helps move the load of the vehicle inward on the contact patch which reduces the amount of leverage that surface abnormalities have on your suspension. With the camber set at -2 to -3.5 degrees, you can feel a big difference in how easy the wheel is to turn, how responsive the car is and how much traction you will have (concentrating the vehicle weight on the inside edge of the tires also increases the tires ability to grip the road surface as well as evacuate water in wet conditions.) When the car is rolling at freeway speeds, the car will roll easier with less scrub and the vehicle will get better fuel mileage and reach higher top speeds more easily.

[Eaglefreek]

Well, In an attempt to purchase the Isuzu wheels, Charlie convinced me to keep them. I took them to a buddy's house to use his media blaster and blasted them with crushed glass. He offered to paint them, but he works long days 6 days a week, so I didn't want him to do it on his day off, but he at least wanted to epoxy primer them. I"m going to paint them with Duplicolor Bronze wheel paint and hope to have them painted in a couple days and the new tires should be here soon, also.






I used a product called Liquid Metal from Permatex to fix some curb rash.




He used Southern Polyurethane epoxy primer which is uv resistant, so I'm just going to keep that in the squares and only clear when I'm done spraying the bronze.


Taping off the black is a bit of work.

[RobotKarate]

Man, those things look freaking HOT in chrome! I've GOTTA find me a set now!

[Eaglefreek]

I got them painted, today. I think they came out pretty good. The tires won't be here until the end of the week and I have to go out of town next week for work, so it might be a week and a half to 2 weeks before I get them on the car.

[firebush357]

Wow! Those are nice looking!

[jptn]

Looks awesome! Weigh them before you mount the tires. The miata people need to know.

[Eaglefreek]

Wow! Those are nice looking!

Thanks.

Looks awesome! Weigh them before you mount the tires. The miata people need to know.

Will do. I'm curious myself. I've got to find a decent accurate scale.