Just had the annual post-winter shock of seeing yet another couple of South American hub caps go rusty. There are some very smart custom alloy wheels on the market, but also some very reasonably priced secondhand car wheels. The question is - which ones can fit as straight replacements without modification, and ideally able to fit standard T2 sized tyres? Any insurance implications?
I've got some merc sprinters on. Same stud pattern. Powder coated up look the business if you want a stockish look.
@Molteni Mike the main issue you will have is mots alloys are 15" and stock wheels are 14" so swapping tyres becomes an issue. on a stock height van all of the wheels in the below link will bolt straight on with no fuss. https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/wheel/ssp-wheels/wheels-5112-fitment/ The BRM has the worst offset and might be worth steering away from. Hope that helps, Cheers Alex
remember to think about the impact on engine rpm and the speedo with the wrong tyres. My van had some empi 5s . It revved more, took it back to steels.
A problem with some 5x112 apart from offsets and getting back tyres on and off is the central holes may not clear the 46mm plus split pin rear hub nut assembly. Gearing a bit lower because of smaller diameter on e.g.185/65R15 means the bus goes faster up hills and still cruises all day long at 65. But quite noisily..
Last year I bought some really scruffy and rusty pitted hub caps at a show. Fiver each. My mate though I was mad until he saw them polished. From a few paces they look great.
Old Ford Granada wheels are the same stud pattern as are old Mercedes wheels, both to be had in 14".They normally suit a bus looks wise as they are roughly the same era.
og 14" wheel is 5x112 pcd with ET 38 (offset) and 5.5" width, centre bore of 67mm or thereabouts. Find a wheel with those specs and i'll go straight on. I don't know of one but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Audi, Seat, skoda, vw etc have lots of vehicles running 5x112 pcd but you'd need to open the hub bore from 57mm to 67 on the fronts (rears will be fine). The caddy steels i ran were 5x112 but the offset was not great (et50) so i needed spacers on the rear and i had to bore the centres to get the fronts on. Fitting spacers then also means you need longer studs and the design of the wheel meant i needed a different wheel nut (both "ball seat" but iirc one is larger then the other, can't remember which way 'round though). Mercedes also has several vehicles with 5x112 pcd and the centre bore is fine too, but generally they run a smaller diameter bolt so the holes will need to be opened up. My zender wheels are 7x16 ET30 with a 67mm centre bore so they go straight on however i needed to upen up the bolt holes as the merc bolts are M12x1.5 where the vw studs are M14.1.5. As above though the stock studs prob wouldn't be long enough.
