fbekholden.com

Closing the loop on the centre caps. These are the caps I got from eBay's lugnutking (Dave):


They are PW-8 caps, and clear the front hubs beautifully. Lug-to-lug distance is spot-on.

These are the Magnum stickers I got from GT Wheels:


Beautiful glossy finish (looks like it has a thick layer of clear-coat over it). Perfect.

Cheers,
Harv

Shiny .........

Nice Harv

FB ute driver, EK van project

With lockdown over, I got Number 1 Son to pickup the Sampsons I bought a while back. (edit: these are not Sampsons... they are Performance Wheels Australia Spitfires).

These are the 6" ones:
Back space: 3.75" (96mm)
Front space: 3 11/16" (94mm)
Offset: 1/32" (probably zero)
Flange-to-flange: 7 7/16" (189mm)
Center bore: 2 5/8" (67mm)

These are the 8" ones:
Back space: 4 9/16" (116mm)
Front space: 4 3/8" (111mm)
Offset: 3/32" (2.4mm)
Flange-to-flange: 8 15/16" (227mm)
Center bore: 2 5/8" (67mm)

These are wiiiiiiiiiide:


They have got a 235/50/13 rubber band on them now, and can go up to 245mm. I can get a Michelin radial in that size... or a Dunlop slick at 240mm Will have a play on the weekend and see if it fits on the back of the meth monster.

Cheers,
Harv

When you say Sampson Harv, are you speaking generically? They appear to be Spitfires. Sorry to nit pick but hey I'm a bit of a nit when it comes to old mags.

FB ute driver, EK van project

Maybe Sampson made the spitfires as well. The ones I'm thinking of are probably the sampson Magnums.

FB ute driver, EK van project

They'res no Sampson markings on them. The 8" have OFFROAD USE ONLY cast inside, and both sets have PERFORMANCE 8x13JJ (or6x16JJ) cast into the front.

Do you have any brochures, adverts etc that show the difference between Spitfires and Sampsons? Have heard of Sampson Magnum and Eliminators too, but other than peoples memory I can't find anything conclusive to tell them apart.

EDIT: Hmmmm... some Googling has some answers. Looks like my last two are Performance Wheels Australia "Spitfire" models. The PERFORMANCE cast into them was the trick.


Company is still in business:
https://www.performancewheels.com.au/pr ... nt-wheels/


But no longer make Spitfires. Here is an old advert: Cheers,
Harv

Don't have any pamphlets myself, but seen some on line here and there. I have a mate who is a bit of an authority. Will ask him.

FB ute driver, EK van project

These are similar (ROH Dragmags):
Cheers,
Harv

Cheers,
Harv

Found a few spare minutes, and threw one of the 8" Spitfire wheels onto the FB. It almost fits inside the bodywork:


Would need a small flare (steel, not SLR5000) and it could work.

But can I get away with the track? Compared to a factory FB/EK steel wheel, these things increase rear track by 33mm. That's too much for NCOP, which only allows 25mm. The commercial wheels have the same offset, so can't use that argument. The only light at the end of the tunnel would be to convince the engineer that FB/EK diffs are essentially the same as a HR diff (strength wise). HR track is 10mm wider, which would mean that that the track increase would be 23mm. Will try that argument and see.

Cheers,
Harv

Good point. If you were fitting HR front end would be a sound argument but you aren't.

FB ute driver, EK van project

To wide to much pain !

I had 7 x 14 inch with 235 tyres, rubbed inner guard up high, outer lip and just gave me the shits in general !

So after pumping the guards and moving the tub across I still had doubt. I just resigned to a different offset and smaller 225 tyres, now on 15 inch rims.

I am extremely confident with this outcome and really a little bit of the rear getting loose wont bother me.

Greg

How meaty is the casting ? Could you mill 4mm off each rim and bring them in that way ?

although they wont pass an 8" rim anyway I supppose .......