Alloy Wheels

 I stick by my opinion that a "good looking set of wheels makes any car" and I think most people will agree. Anyone building a Locost or any other type of kit car and even peoples own daily road cars look the part with a set of cool looking alloy wheels.

 If you think alloys will fit any car the same, this is not the case as nearly all cars have different number of wheel studs, PCD (pitch circle diameter, centre bore, width, offset and of course wheel diameter 15inch, 17inch, 19inch etc.

The offset of your posh Alloy wheels can make the difference from being too close to the body and snagging on suspension arms, to being set away from the body and looking wide and mean!

If you are buying brand new wheels from a supplier, then of course they will supply alloys direct fit to your car in your chosen style and wheel diameter, and of course how fat and meaty you want them to look (width).

I could write a whole page explaining these terms, but I found a completely free site with excellent descriptions and diagrams to explain all, ALLOY WHEELS COMPARISON SITE .Use this link to fast track to the actual site page, what does PCD and Offset mean? 

 Most of us building Locost's and kit cars generally, end up looking and buying second hand alloys from road cars. These can be from accident damaged cars or just people having a change of mind. My wheels and tyres actually came from a standard MK5 escort, that was being sold with the original wheels and tyres fitted back on. Of course second hand wheels and tyres come at a fraction of the price of new units, but remember to check the condition of the tyres and rim damage and kerbing on the wheels. One thing to keep in mind is that Alloy Wheels designs seem to have fairly short lifespans and can soon become unavailable to buy new, OBSOLETE! Most people, because of cost will only buy 4 wheels for their car and keep an original spare in the boot, unseen. So you buy 4 alloys and tyres for your kit car and need another one to put on show on your rear spare wheel carrier, you cannot buy one because the design has become obsolete, and the same could also be true if you damage a wheel and need to replace it.

Just something to be aware of when buying second hand, guess why i have no spare wheel on my car?

 The start of this page stated all cars have different size alloys, but obviously manufacturers do use the same size set up on different models and ranges. The same invaluable website has a size check comparison main page. This page allows you to search for any make of car, then from that link, you see models in their range and the complete size data for each. You will be able to compare different wheels and for example you could compare and check if a nice set of Peugeot GTI alloys will fit your Ford hubs.

Here is the link straight to the comparison site,

 ALLOY WHEELS COMPARISON SITE    On the Home page select any of the vehicle manufacturers, and double click to open up specifications for the model ranges for that manufacturer. The PCD, Offset, and Bore dimensions can be used to compare wheel size for different models, and even different manufacturers.