Might be in the market for an upgrade for my 91 firebird.

I always liked black rims cause I thought they looked good with the white body. But what do u guys suggest?

 

eric didnt you just get those like a year or 2 ago??

BTW good to see u in a thirden still, n e new times?

 

HOLY CRAP I THOUGHT YOU DIED! lol, seriously. I was talkin to my buddy Tom online the other day and we were talkin about people who just dissapear online and u never see them again and u wonder if they died or something. lol. Where have u been?

Yeah, I am still in a thirdgen. I got those rims maybe 3 years ago. Best times I ever got out of the LO3 was 14.8. Nothing special. I stopped modding the engine a year ago. lol. I just put a LT1 cam and edlebrock performer intake for the engine. I mostly have been focusing on my suspension lately. Been doing some autox and I have a new engine.

 

I think they look great. I have the same rims on my t/a. My formula has 18" ZO6 rims and I like those stockers just as well. You are use to looking at your rims. If you want to get some different rims then I suggest some drag rims to harness that little bugger.

 

What price range you looking at?

 

*drool*

 

Eh, around 1500 i guess would be my ABSOLUTE max I would like maybe to stay under 1,000 though

 

how about some black corvette rims.

 

pics?

 

trust me and don't run adapters....try to find something used eric. it will be worth your investment. if you can't and have a good idea of what you want let me know as i have a few connections with various companies to get you some great prices. if your going to stay 16's i could get you in a set of 2 piece wheels and tires for your range.

 

I would like a 17 inch rim. But wouldn't I need adaptars then? And why should I avoid adaptars Jeff? Thanks

 

check out my cardomain sight for pics of 17s

 

My suggestion.....Ronal Firehawk rims with the white accents. The pics are of a Camaro but you get the idea.

 

Hey thats my car in ur sig for that website thirdgenfbodies.com Sweet!

I do like those Ronal rims. How much do they usually cost?

 

Rollin on 18x9.5f/18x10.5r ZO6's....chrome.

 

well since i no longer have the adapters i can't let you ride in the car to feel the difference but there is a large difference between direct bolt and the adapters....not to mention you'll have to answer question all the time on why your running fwd offset wheels on a rwd offset car.

1. wheels don't look as nice with the brakes recessed 2 or more inches into the wheel.

2. for the price of a nice set of wheels and adapters you could have had a custom set made for another 200....personal preference here of course but unless your getting a deal making it worth the use of adapters i wouldn't.

3. driveabiltity as well. chances are you will break a stud or two on them....that or a few will become stripped over time. it just adds more hassle to the problems when if you saved a little more and waited you could got with a better setup. however sometimes you don't have that option if you truly love a rim design.

to each their own but after having them i'll never have another set that needs adapters.

 

Well maybe me and u will talk later on some rim designs that don't need adapters. You have a list online anywhere?

 

either email or post up some general ideas of what your looking for. the best deals i can set you up with will be using 2 piece or more billet wheels.....however i might still be able to help with cast wheels. i really like those giovanni rims in black that i showed you but it would be extremely impraticle for you i'm sure since 19's are the smallest. however at 1500 for the set that's an unbelievable deal.

best bet is to look at a few sites yourself and get a better idea. depending on where you looking as far as style you'll have different lists.

billet look at boyd coddington, billet specialties, budnik, boze, intro, etc.

cast one piece wheels look to weld, oe concepts, centerline, american racing, etc.

stick to 17's you'll be around your price range....i could get a great deal on 18's but your range would have to jump up another 500 to account for tires and such.

 

i really like black rims. Any ideas for black rims in size 17's?

 

i'm not a fan of black rims so for me to choose anything in particular would be hard since i never look at them. however i don't mind the black annodized look that they are using now days and that's just a coating that makes it look like a polished wheel but with a black clear if you can imagine that.....any billet wheel will do that.

there are alot of black cast wheels but they aren't always nice looking. typically you'll need to have a wheel coated and then your looking at $25-50 a wheel to do so after the purchase.

 

Who does that kind of stuff to wheels around where we live?

 

My adapers are fine and I've been at 150mph several times. But it seems that results may vary....they do add cost to a package though!

 

yeah my adapters were fine to and i had them up to 180. the car just doesn't drive the same with them as it does without them though.

eric there are quite a few places near me that do it. one in particular is www.qccoatings.com however i'm unsure about near you. maybe ask the club, i'm sure someone will have something closer to you. if you go to autorama you can check out a few things i did similar with red on my car to get an idea how it works. i'm not sure if they use an exact black or a dark grey but it looks black and looks good. that or you can just have any wheel powdercoated black too.

 

Sorry to hear that. I have used different adapters w/o any change in ride......



If you guys want cheap good rims then check out AFS on ebay. Sulkte performance makes the adapters.(in response to all the PMs)

 

Excellent, new rims. I like the GTAs rims, but I think your car should have something cooler, especially since you have a buick 3.8l turbo now. I suggest the Boyd Coddington Tuned rims, or any 5 spoke DEEP DISHED rim.

 

here is a good example of what the red looks like...black is similar eric. http://www.afswheels.com/v2/ecommerc...=wheels&id1=77


i wouldn't recommend afs wheels or any of the other ebay wheels like performance wheel outlet, AAA, etc. because they have a very poor casting record but the prices are alot cheaper so if one doesn't mind taking a gamble i suppose it's the better way to go for cheap oem knockoff wheels.

oe concepts is the only oem knockoff wheel company that uses the actual oem casting but you'll pay a bit more for them. if you do a search on the internet about the above companies you'll find alot of complaints where people were burned with bad casted wheels.

here is just one of the stories from various companies that will give you an idea what i'm talking about.... http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1701/pwosucks.htm

 

ya im still here still have my firebird and my trans am both perfect hehe, 14.8 thats not bad at all. i mean all things considering, is that after cam or before?? roller lifters still? last summer i bought a 92 25th anniversary camaro rs 305 tbi 5 spd and was thinking of putting a cam in it, sweet motor you got there, u always wanted a GN but thats just the same, id hate to hit a redlight with you haha, u know me though as long as its body is mint and origional i am good with a clean v8 for now lol......btw i still never drive them

 

Damn, i figured you hadn't changed. lol. Still don't drive them eh? Well I dount I am gonna run into you at a red light then. You still get on aol at all? I still have the same name. And yeah, those times were with the stock rocker arms and after the lt1 cam. Nothing special.

 

any change in idle with the can?? same lifters? pushrods?? give me some insight on how the job went......havent done a cam in these cars yet so an idea before jjumping in would be cool, also n e computer mods? times before and after cam?? what a re the LT1 specs? are you sure the highest i can go before my computer goes nuts? how do i geat that lumpy idle is it high lift high duration or is it the lift and duration are really close together........let me know please man

 

Kandied91z:

So, the adapters changed the drivability??? That's good to know, actually I have a 1991 gta and am looking for some rims as well.
Do you now of any rims that will fit the gta that are similar to the adr sterlings? (18"x8.5)(see pics below)

Thanks for the thread guys...

 

I've got a friend with an 98 firebird, and he has those ADR rims, they look pretty nice.

 

That's right, they are really made to fit the 4th gen's, your buddies 98 must look good with those...

A guy on ebay did have these ADR sterlings for 500.00 a while back, that's why I was thinking about these.
But I don't want to affect the driveablity or snap any bolts!

 

with the spacers affecting your ride, I think it depends. I had adapters with my Z06 rims and it was a lot shakier ride but I think it was probably becasue of the smaller side wall and maby a little becasue of the adapters, but as long as your not into autocrossing or stuff like that, daily driving should be ok. Just depends on what you want to do with them. I will not be going for adapters again. They are a pain when you try to take them off or when puting stock rims back on for winter driving.

 

that's really good to know, thanks for letting me know. I guess it may be hard to tell if it's due to the wheels or the adaptors without trying them on the car... but that's an expensive way to test it.
I think you guys have convinced me not to go with the adaptors... I don't drive it in the winter, but in the summer I do the occasional hard take off and I don't think a snap off of one wheel will have that great a sound.
But I really want to get rims... the Z06's you have a very nice as well.

 

chances of breaking things are slim...if you buy the right pieces but that tends to get expensive. since i had my rims back to back in the same day i was able to really tell the difference between the adapters and without. adapters aren't that bad, however there is a difference and i don't like them. i'm so much more happy now that i have a billet wheel that is the proper fitment.

 

Thats after the cam was the high 14. I was gonna do valve springs too. Some K-Motions but I sold them since I am selling the engine later this fall anyways. The LT1 cam specs are .447/.459 lift 205/207 duration @ .050. Its nothing real lopey. Has a very small chop but nothing crazy. You would notice the difference though if you are used to the sound of your peanut cam like I was. I had to have a custom chip made by www.tbichips.com Had a few problems getting the right one to work but Brian helped me out a lot and was patient with me, as I was with him. I just used WINALDL to record the data and send it to him. When I changed the cam out, I replaced the intake with an Edelbrock Performer intake. Nothing insane but helped a little.

 

So why don't you like the adaptors? How does it affect the ride exactly? And what kind of rims do you have right now? (The new 5 spoke chromes you have are amazing!!!) If you don't mind, how much they cost ya?

Thanks for the help.

 

custom chip a must? stage 2 hypertech be ok? probably not, to easy lol, hard to do? how long it take? you have headers right? what kind of cat back? stock tbi? AFPR?

 

that is a really confusing group of questions.

Knight350 i didn't like the adapters for several reasons.

1. the car handles differently..you wouldn't think it would seeing as how your just extending the rim to the hub the same way a proper fitted wheel would but i didn't care for it as it was enough to notice....not the reason why i got rid of them, but a reason i was glad i did.

2. price, the price i paid to have the proper adapters i was only a 100 or so shy from what a good set of wheels would have cost me. i could have went with a boyd or something just as nice for even less. the only way i could justify adapters again would be if the rims were for a really cheap price that needed them.

3. hassles, not the biggest deal in the world but i did snap a few bolts. they were a pita to deal with in that area alone...however an upside was i found replacement studs for cheap and they could be replaced very easily.

4. looks, i couldn't stand how you could not see my brakes. it looked as if i put fwd rims on my car which essentially i did. i had this nice expensive set of wheels and brakes and all you could see where the large pieces of billet separating them. again, not truly important but i didn't like it.


those are the main points that got me on adapters....like i said they do work as they are suppose to if you get the right ones. i was very happy with skulte and the quality of his adapters as well as his service so i have nothing bad to say about the experience other then i should have done my own research for what i was into. had i listen to myself instead of others i never would have went with adapters and i would have the wheels i have today.

 

opps

 

91bird305, If you decide to get rid of those gta wheels, I would REALLY like to take them off you hands for ya!!! Let me know.

 

Sorry I sooo long to reply and for the line of interrogation... I was in a real hurry. Sorry.
But thanks for the responses, exactly what I was looking for though.
I think your right, I would rather get rims that fit properly. Is there someway of checking different rims easily to find that out?

 

what do you mean...check to see if they would actually fit without adapters?

just look for the offsets or backspacing...however if you go with a billet wheel they will custom make them so you decide your own specs. it's the cast wheels that are few in numbers to actually bolt right on to our cars.

 

Yeah, I would say a custom chip is a must. It was easy to do. Just get yourself a laptop and a WinALDL Cable (look them up on google.com, you can make them or buy them) and then download the winaldl program on he laptop, hook it up to ur car and let the laptop ride shotgun, hit the record button and start driving around normally and then take it down the back road and rag the hell out of it a few times up to 100mph to get a real good reading. Then it automatically saves itself in a folder. Just send that file (its a .doc) to Brian at www.tbichips.com and he will analyize it and send u a chip and probably want you to get data from that one as well to make sure it is runnin right. I have coated Edelbrock TES headers w/ 3" yipe pipe, no cat and a custom 3" exaust w/ flowmaster 80 series. The TBI has the "Ultimate tbi mods" done to it with an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator w/ the ful turned up to 13 psi at idle.

 

Hehe, I will keep you in mind then if I do sell these rims. Right now I am leaning towards not swapping them out since I can't really find a rim I like at the moment.

 

do im guessing a standard hypertech wouldnt work to well huh? was that the highest lift cam you could go?? you think it would have been possible to squeeze more out of the motor with more cam and possibly 1.6 ratio rocker arms?

 

ok, but how do you know which are billet wheels?

 

they will say.....billet cannot be chromed as well which is also an indicator. typically they are polished only unless you have them powdercoated.

 

Ok, I follow... Now I have to decide on the wheel.
The only other risk I have holding me back the pot holes!
I read in another thread you said about the bigger the lip the weaker the rim, unless re inforced... so I'll make sure of that as well. Thanks for the help K !

 

reinforced helps with doubled rolled lip, rim guard on the tires, etc. however you can't run an excessive lip and not ask for problems. my last setup had a 4 1/4" rear lip...not streetable.