Quote:
Originally Posted by ShortHaul
Kind of in a similar boat in terms of wheels for my '62 Impala. I've got the Wilwood 13" disc 6 piston caliper brakes up front, and no 15" steelie will come close. From what I've found, a handful of manufacturers make large steelies:
Detroit
Coys C33's
US wheel
US mags
and probably others...
But they all share the same problem (In my opinion) that the steelie face looks too smooth to appear like a OE steel wheel. While I think it looks cool on some low n slow slammed cars and trucks, especially in the big sizes, it's not the look I'm going for.
Now what I have found is that there are some being made in forged aluminum, from the brand Forgeline, that Roadster Shop has been using on lots of their "Survivor Series" cars... and they are PERFECT! 18's, wide and clear big brake kits with ease... BUT... they want $1795.00 PER WHEEL!!
This kills me, because they have the exact look I'm going for, basically just an enlarged OE steelie, but I really can't bring myself to pay 3,500 for a PAIR of wheels...
SO... long story longer... I'm on the hunt as well. And my next move is to contact ET Wheels, based near me in San Leandro, CA and inquire about a set of one off aluminum wheels... I've seen a set they created for Cotati Speed shop and they are pretty darn close to what I'm after. I'm just hoping they're not as crazy expensive as the Forgeline OE-1's
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Yep.... I'm familiar w/all those names & you're spot-on w/the info. Another player is Billet Specialties (the OE series; Motor City). But they're not cheap by any means either @ ~$800 each for 18's.
The RS OE-1's by Forgeline are definitely the best visually accurate 'big diameter' looking steelie. But my stuff gets parked outside. Overnight. I can't think of anything I've seen w/those wheels that has a build cost under $100k. And.... I've seen a few of the cars built that use them w/the BS/offset very shallow which yields a wonky looking front set-up (makes the center caps protrude too far out IMHO). My bet is the track width, brake sizing, & ride height/fender-well realestate is the culprit on those.
That's also an issue.... Back-spacing. Sure Coys has an alum wheel that's close & for the price, I'd run them. But, the back-spacing doesn't work & has very limited flexibility.