Probably Just Another FB ??

[FireKraka]

You scared me there for a moment Stephen I was reading further and further down the page and was sure you were going to say sold

[Errol62]

He is building a big shed to restore it in, not that it looks like it needs much work.

I knew you couldn’t sell it Stephen, but you couldn’t help teasing us now could you?


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[In the Shed]

No I would struggle to sell it after it has been in the family since 1962. It is going to need some TLC with hydraulics, fuel and who knows what else. At least it is back undercover after being out in the weather for 5 weeks.

Speaking to my neighbour she said her partner was concerned about it sitting out in the weather

Anyway a project for the future, but hopefully not far away…….

[In the Shed]

The sedan has been back home for a few months now stored up on the hoist. Have been thinking about what am I going to do with it? I always wanted mag wheels / bigger tyres on the car when I first had it as an apprentice, however my Dad talked me out of it So I have only ever had standard radial tyres (13” x 185 x 70 profile) on the 4.5” stock rims.

Looking at the many cars on the forum has been a great way to work out my preferences. I love the look of this Ute with the spitfire style mags.

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Found a set on fleabay (13” x 5.5”) but a bit pricey at $1250 plus freight. Found a set of 14” jellybeans for Holden (5 stud) that looked good in S.A for the right price and thought yep all good Not knowing much about wheels thought maybe I should ring Clay to check? Hmmmmm…… good thing I did cause they turned out to be HQ pattern so no good

Clay put me onto a local bloke who deals in wheels, couple suburbs away. He has lots of wheels and he found me a set of Magnum jellybeans as per the picture, 13” x 7”.


.

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Nice deep dish and he would polish them up like new, fit 205 x 60 tyres. Was just about to hand over some cash and he says you’ll need to roll guards for the tyres to clear ah crap……… no thanks.

So he digs around and finds a set of 14” x 6” HK /HT jelly beans with similar backspace to the standard steel rims. We chucked one rim on the Ute and it clears the steering & suspension on full lock. So have gone with a set of these to be fitted with 205 x 60 series tyres. See pic for test fit.

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Hopefully they will be ready in a couple weeks after he skims the rim edge, polishes them, paints the centres and fits / balances the tyres. I might chuck them on the Ute to see what they look like!

Stephen

[Errol62]

Perfect. They are the hard ones to find. I thought you were talking about the new ROH factory HT steel 14x6” he sells, which have much more positive offset, and would likely foul suspension. You better show us a picture of the inside face before you snap them on.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[In the Shed]

Some 3 months ago I didn’t know much about aftermarket wheels as I have always run standard rims which have served me well. My first dabble into mags has been a little painful. I can hear my Dad saying you don’t need mags Son………….Fast forward to now I have learnt a bit but certainly no wheel expert.

So after shelling out the money for a set of four 14” x 6” jelly beans and waiting three weeks the wheels were ready to be picked up from the seller (a registered business), yah! Picked them up and they were very shiny Busy with other stuff at home / work put them in the shed for a week or so before taking a closer look. The new centre caps he supplied were the wrong type (4 fixing not the 5 screw fixings to suit rims). Contacted supplier and he happily swapped them over, all good.

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Fast forward another two weeks having a closer look and fitting a wheel to the sedan on the hoist we have a problem. Two wheels have the tyre fitted the wrong way around (inside tyre wall on the outside)…. hmmm should be an easy fix. However also noticed rim fouls suspension on full lock. It didn’t do that on a test fit at the sellers place (see pic in earlier post). The why was made harder cause I was (and still are) no wheel expert.

A closer look revealed the back of the rims are different, that is different back space (note my new wheel tech talk)!

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I had three rims with 103mm back space and one rim with 90 mm backspace, so the rims have different offset (new wheel tech talk). So contact the seller saying you have fitted two tyres the wrong way round he says bring them back and I’ll fix it. I took all four back, armed with my straight edge, ruler and new wheel tech language pointed out they are not a matching set. I need three more rims with 90mm backspace, which he didn’t have. Well in that case I sought a refund. At this point things went downhill.

He tried to bullshit me that they were never sold as a set and he gave me a pair of 8mm wheel spacers and longer nuts to solve the problem. Maybe they would work? I could see I was not going to get anywhere arguing there.

Came home and the spacers still had rubbing issues with the rim. I also discovered wheel spacers are not legal I ring him up and he says well too bad, grind your suspension wish bone and spacer places are ok. So I put pen to paper and wrote him a letter of demand, including the SA vehicle standards highlighting wheel spacers are not legal and sent it registered post.

Aust Post could not hand deliver the letter so left a calling card to collect a package. The fu#@wit never collected the letter……

So started looking for a rim to match the 90mm back space and found one two suburbs away. Took my ruler, tape measure and brake drum, yep all good for $50.

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[In the Shed]

Test fit the rim and the studs don’t line up, I have the wrong PCD (more new wheel tech talk).

Wrong PCD

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So what now? I spent hours filing out gutter rash and using wet&dry followed by brasso and autosol to,polish the rim to sell.

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[In the Shed]

Clay gave me a lead for a rim that might be worth a look. Now armed with Roger’s PCD gauge, ruler & straight edge I found a suitable rim (with a tyre).

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Got to work and cut most of the tyre off and started the process to remove gutter rash and more polishing. First pass through the quality department.

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The end result looked great and ready to use. Given the other turkey had not fitted the tyres the right way around on two rims I thought I’d get him to flip one of the tyres on a rim and remove the tyre on another. I didn’t see why I should pay someone else to do that. I rang him up and he was not pleased to hear from me Anyway I had him flip one tyre and remove the other and then we parted company.

Next stop was my local tyre dealer. I asked can you fit this new tyre to my rim (my sixth rim by now), sure was the reply. “What is this off? looks like an American muscle car, looks brand new”. Come back tomorrow, we close soon, ok.

Return next day, yep tyre fitter (poor description of an individual) will do it now. 15 minutes latter this is my rim…….. grrrrr

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[Errol62]

What!? Ouch!


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[In the Shed]

Expressed my frustration to the person in charge who was probably no more qualified than the wheel fitting idiot stuffing up my rim. Back home and out came the 240 wet and dry paper again. More polishing which by now I was very experienced in to get the end result.

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I managed to sell the non Holden rim to a guy who said it is early Valiant and sold the other Holden rim (103 backspace). So I have. Pair of rims (90 mm backspace) for the front and a pair (103mm backspace) for the rear, all tyres being 205/60.

What a headache. All the way along i can hear a voice in my head saying………”you don’t need mag wheels Son”……. Yeh you’re probably right Dad. Anyway I will throw them on the Ute and see what they look like and go from there.

Regards
Stephen

[Blacky]

There's times that I think the Gall brothers are the smartest people I know , they leave everything pretty much stock - must save them a HEAP of pain .............

[Errol62]

Come on, that is no fun blacky.

Good to hear you can polish that out Stephen. You’ll have to lower it now.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[EK283]

I hate this shit, it has happened to me as well !

You cannot trust anyone these days and it appears the more you want it right the worse it gets, hence doing everything youself.

The perfectionist in the modern world struggles I must admit.

Quick story, my brand new Nissan patrol, goes for its first service, comes back with a substantial dent in the bonnet. I take it back and complain and the manager says it wasnt us, I say well it wasn't there before the service and is now there after the service.

The manger could see I was about to loose my shit when he blurts out sorry mate we have a new apprentice and we have 6 other cars we need to repair.
Luckily they could do it with paintless dent removal but it just goes to show if i didnt complain they would have said nothing.

We need some photos of that ute mate.

Greg

[FireKraka]

I really have to agree here and add my own
Take my daily (V6 VY Monaro) to local mechanic, “mate have a knocking sound reckon something loose in front suspension” Mechanic “ mate took it fora test drive couldn’t hear anything” wasn’t happy took it to Pedders, $2300 later front struts, lower control arm bushes and sway bar bushes all stuffed