My new (to me) wheels

[Zanzer]

My 93 has needed a new set of tires for a while but it still has the 12" rims. I didn't want to have to buy tires and wheels, so luckily I just happen to have a Geo on the yard that had 13's on it

The Geo has been sitting for a long time so the rims were pretty rough. I bead blasted them first and then painted the backs and beads with Plasti-Kote gloss black engine enamel and the fronts were sprayed with Dupli-Color graphite wheel paint. I think they turned out pretty good for junk yard Geo rims :mrgreen:

I'm gonna mount and balance the new tires in the morning.

[big_ty2003]

wow, those do look nice. Good job!

[Zanzer]

Thanks!

Right after I finished laying the paint on the first one I thought to myself..."dang, I should have taken a "before" picture"

[JohnGunn]

Beautiful

God, those are beautiful. I've been considering the simplest most "Festiva-like" way to move to 13" tires. I think you've found it. I want to do exactly what you did. What is "bead blasted." Sounds like it might require some expensive equipment. How much did that cost?

You've made my day.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[Maxtiva]

They look really good

[heavyhauler_joe]

Not bad, and done for a pretty cheap price to i would imagine.

[bhazard]

Yeah, the geo wheels are not a bad way to quickly move to 13". They look like they came on our cars.

What tires are you gonna use? 155/80/13 rubbed in the back on my car sometimes.

[Zanzer]

God, those are beautiful. I've been considering the simplest most "Festiva-like" way to move to 13" tires. I think you've found it. I want to do exactly what you did. What is "bead blasted." Sounds like it might require some expensive equipment. How much did that cost?

You've made my day.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

Bead blasting is the same thing as sand blasting except it uses glass beads instead of sand. It's less aggressive than sand blasting and leaves a smoother finish. I used a large blasting cabinet where I work but you can get a small cabinet that's still large enough to do wheels for less than $200 and it's very handy for lots of car projects. I have one I use for small stuff and it's a lifesaver. I tried using mine on these rims but I decided to go with the big bead blaster at work just because it was available and faster.

[Zanzer]

Not bad, and done for a pretty cheap price to i would imagine.

2 cans of paint and a couple of hours blasting..that's it

I bought 4 cans but I found that a can of paint goes a long way on a 13" rim, even when applying 2 coats LOL

Yeah, the geo wheels are not a bad way to quickly move to 13". They look like they came on our cars.

What tires are you gonna use? 155/80/13 rubbed in the back on my car sometimes.

175/70/13's...I hope there's no rubbing issues

[TominMO]

Rubbing issues:
Front: none.
Rear: you might need a spacer (5 mm) on each side to prevent rubbing with the lower Festy spring perch. This can be avoided by mounting Aspire rear struts, which have a 1" higher spring perch, which is sufficient to prevent any rubbing.

On both front and rear, you might have rubbing when you hit a bump. This is rubbing against the plastic fender liner by the tire tread, which is annoying but not fatal. You could cut away the lining at the rub points if you care to.

I like those wheels BTW. I've always thought that 13" Metro wheels with 175/70 is exactly what Festys should have come with all along (with bigger front brakes too!). Sacrifices mileage a bit of course.

[perucho]

175/70/13's...I hope there's no rubbing issues

The wheels look like they have a very high offset. To echo Tom, I think you will need spacers in the back to clear the spring perch.

[lanemeyer14]

Looking good! You do it all don't you? Hope you don't mind being my "go to" guy!

[m715]

I had rub issues with 175/70/13 in 38mm offset 5.5" wheels. I used a set of Monroe # 71295 rear struts for an Aspire, and they had the extra height I needed to clear the tires since the Aspire came stock with 13" wheels. A set of Gabriel G510039 Aspire units did NOT! have any extra clearance, and even had a sharp edge instead of a rolled one toward the tire. Using the Monroes eliminated the need for the spacers I first tried, but did not like myself.

HTH

Michael

[batstiva]

Those turned out pretty sexy for a set of steelies. Nice work! :thumbleft:

[Zanzer]

Rubbing issues:
Front: none.
Rear: you might need a spacer (5 mm) on each side to prevent rubbing with the lower Festy spring perch. This can be avoided by mounting Aspire rear struts, which have a 1" higher spring perch, which is sufficient to prevent any rubbing.

The fronts have plenty of room. The rears are extremely close! They have around 3/8" or so clearance. I thought they would rub pretty bad but after driving it around tonight I found that I have to corner really hard to get it touch. The first thing to come to mind after mounting them on the car was the Aspire rear struts...but the struts on it are less than a year old because I replaced both fronts and rears soon after I got the car. I'm thinking I can take the struts back off the car and cut some of the spring perch off to gain some clearance. If they weren't new I'd just replace them but since hindsight is 20/20 I'm gonna try to work with what I have first.

Looking good! You do it all don't you? Hope you don't mind being my "go to" guy!

I do as much as I can, and if I can't...I do my best to learn how. I pride myself on be able to say that I do 99% of the work on all my vehicles myself. There's really only 2 things I don't do; #1 is tuning - I'm in pretty good with a local dyno shop so if I do mods on a car that require a tune I load the car on the rollback and take it to him. I've seen the results of a bad tune (not by my hand thankfully) and it's not an area to cut corners. #2 is bodywork - I can do it, but I have a friend with a body shop that is much better and better equipped at it than me. I'll trim out parts and do the light stuff. The big jobs go to him

I'll help you out with anything I can man. You just have to be patient with me sometimes cause my schedule tends to get pretty packed. Between my regular day job, working on Mustangs, building bikes, and the new Festiva addiction....I have alot of irons in the fire LOL :mrgreen: