New / Old wheels, offsets, studs

[djaychela]

OK, so a while ago I bought an 86 944 for the interior, broke the rest of it, various bits on eBay and so on. But there's one thing (or four) that I've kept hold of at the moment, and that's the wheels. They are 17" ones, 5-spoke Cup 1 Alloys (Italian copies), and they are 7.5J on the front and 9J on the rear. I think they are ET15 and ET23. They have a good set of tyres on them too.

I really like the look of them, and jacked my 944 up (with 15" Cookie cutters, body colour-coded), and placed them on. They made the car look much better, IMO.

But then I noticed a problem - the wheel studs are way too long to be able to bolt them up (I wanted to check clearances) - and a quick check confirmed it; the 86 car had much shorter studs. So I had no way of checking if they would fit and so on. I've heard about rear arms having different offsets, etc., but not found anything exact relating this to wheel size and offset.

I really like the way they made the car look (it's dark metallic green and the silver wheels and five spoke design really lifted it visually), and was thinking I have three options:

1) Change the studs over and see if they fit OK (or ask someone who knows better).
2) Sell the wheels and buy something that will fit my car without modification (or swap)
3) Forget it, leave the car as it is (I wouldn't sell the original wheels as I think they should go with the car when I do sell it).

I'd appreciate wisdom/opinions/offers of purchase/ideas for option 2.

Darren

 

[Elliot]

Buy some wheel spacers from me to reduce the thread depth for bolts - as long as wheel wont rub on inner arch

07514 944 964

 

[944 man]

Series one 944s used longer studs with spacers to widen the original 924 track. The 1986 model year (early offset) series two cars had revised aluminium rear suspension and didnt use them. The spacers will have stuck to your old wheels, have a look: its comon and they take a lot of separating. If you have longer front studs too, then I will guess that your car has early long rear studs fitted to the front too - it was/is a common tweek to save the cost of spacers.


Simon

 

[ukmastiff]

The new or old wheels debate really depends on the look of your individual car for me , the color etc can make a subtle but very important difference. It's amazing how one 96 944 turbo could look good with a certain wheel on and another look terrible. I really like some cars with cups on etc and some with Cockie cutters etc. I would not put any copy wheels on a 944 at all though but that's just me.

 

[djaychela]

ORIGINAL: 944 man

Series one 944s used longer studs with spacers to widen the original 924 track.  The 1986 model year (early offset) series two cars had revised aluminium rear suspension and didnt use them.  The spacers will have stuck to your old wheels, have a look: its comon and they take a lot of separating.  If you have longer front studs too, then I will guess that your car has early long rear studs fitted to the front too - it was/is a common tweek to save the cost of spacers.


Simon

Thanks for that, Simon - I got the rears off and found the spacers as you mentioned. I've put the new wheels on one side (other side is by the house), and they look great. I'll see if they fit properly at the weekend and maybe take some pics too....

 

[djaychela]

So, I just got the car out and took a pic of either side (excuse the poor photography!)

What do you reckon? I think it transforms the look of the car, and in a good way!