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Custom/Reproduction Rally Wheels


hankbecker

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Has anyone heard of a place that makes retro-style reproductions of classic, painted Oldsmobile Rally wheels?  I'd like to find something that looks like a classic Oldsmobile wheel but in a modern size for my 1995 Cutlass.  I've found original wheels but only in 13-15".  I'd really like to find a place that can manufacture an OIds Rally style wheel in a 16" size so I can stick with my OEM tire size, or maybe 17" and I can lose some rubber.  Maybe it's blasphemy to put classic style wheels on an all-stock 1995 model but I think it would look cool.  I had OEM Rally wheels on my 1983 Cutlass and I think that look much better on my 1995 than the cast aluminum 5-spoke wheels it came with.

 

post-10686-0-09809900-1505346310_thumb.jpg

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That would be a neat idea. I've seen a few different "classic" style wheels done up like that.

 

Unfortunately if someone were to make them, they'd make them fit a old G body Cutlass and not ours.

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Well, this is what it would look like...

 

picture4.jpg

 

That looks super awesome! I knew it was a good idea.  Are those 15"?

 

Mine is triple black so right now the wheels are the only part of the car that isn't black.

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So, believe it or not they're 14's.  These wheels are from, IIRC, the 85-87 cutlass cierra.   I coupled them with the tallest sidewall I could find to try to compensate.  There's a little bit more wheel gap than I'd prefer but I'm happy with the way it turned out.  You could lessen the gap a little more if you lowered it, but that gets more complicated than I could deal with.

 

There was 2 problems with the bigger SS II and III wheels...first the bolt pattern was different and I wanted to do it without spacers.  Ultimately, to clear the brakes I had to add 1/2" spacers all around anyway.  The second problem was the inside depth of the wheels - the space between the back edge of the rim and the mount point.  They would have needed Big spacers and would have stuck out farther than I was comfortable with.  I actually like the way the spacers worked out, gives the car a slightly wider stance. 

 

The other catch was my car is a 96, so I had to downgrade the brakes to 1993. To compensate for that I went with drilled and slotted rotors.  I really don't drive it hard enough to notice a difference so that worked out fine.  And then I turned around and did a big-brake upgrade on my 94 vert.

 

The other option I considered is there are companies that will cut the center out of a wheel and basically re-rim it - providing the possibility of setting the center back farther.  But between the cost of the wheels and trim rings, center caps, and customization my conclusion was the small radius wheels were...Much more cost effective.

 

I ran through a lot of calculations and experimentations on this, fire away with questions!  Overall, it's not perfect but I do really like the way those wheels look on the car, it's too bad they didn't continue that wheel option for one more generation.

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The FWD version of the A body cars were all 115mm wheels. The previous A body RWD cars were all 120mm wheels. ( the RWD A body cars became the new G body platform in '82)

 

The ralley wheel the OP has displayed was the standard wheel GM used on just about all of their sport oriented cars back to the mid 70's. It went thru various cosmetic changes but the basic design was still there.

You would see it on the 80's Monte Carlo's, as well the Cutlass Supreme & the GP.

 

My wife's (when I met her) 78 Cutlass Supreme had a set of those similar ralley wheels on it.

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