Which wheels for MGB?

[AceOfHearts]

I am picking up my 1979 MGB GT on Saturday so need to start making a shopping list of bits to improve the car. So far i know it needs lowering and de-bumpering, but am not sure which wheels would work best? I will be going for a semi sebring look (without the big arches).

So far i like the look of these:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-Fully-Refurbished-early-MGB-Roadster-14-Disc-Road-Wheels-/281070615629?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D5920077930743461584%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D281070615629%26

Happy to get some opinions and inspiration

[MrSpeedy]

Personally, if you're going steel, it can only be Rostyle (preferrable banded)

[doobie]

/\ What he said /\

[Rich]

If its going lower, why de-bumper it? The later ones look great slammed on wheels wearing the bumpers with pride!
That is, provided they ain't gone all saggy
More love for the underdog! Glad to see all these mgb's coming out of the woodwork! Makes me realise I need to hurry up with mine

[bgt]

Personally I really like the early discs, more so than Rostyles, but they suit chrome bumper cars more so than debumpered cars in my opinion. They are also quite narrow (4 or 4.5") which limits the tire choices. It is also a good option to upgrade to 15" wheels, also to get better choice in tires (and not as much sidewall). The narrow rear wheel wells and the live rear axle does limit the width of rim you can fit, but anything up to 7" should fit without too much trouble. Some people recommend a panhard rod if you go for wider wheels, and others don't.

The bolt pattern opens up a lot of choices in great old Japanese wheels. I bought a set of SSR Mk3s, which I am very happy with. These sorts of wheels do command a premium over Rostyles and the like, but they are good quality and they don't lose their value (unless you curb them ).

Here are some pictures of mine if you are interested:



These are 15x6.5 ET19.

[sarkie83]

MGs are one of the few cars i actually like minilites on:



Either that or i agree with bgt on the J style wheels. Rota grids:

[composimmonite]

Triumph Stag, 2000 / 2500 wheels fit. Also Marina / Ital 11cwt van and pick-up (7 cwt has smaller PCD the same as cars).

Paul H

[composimmonite]

Feb 28, 2013 21:22:57 GMT Rich said:

If its going lower, why de-bumper it? The later ones look great slammed on wheels wearing the bumpers with pride!
That is, provided they ain't gone all saggy
More love for the underdog! Glad to see all these mgb's coming out of the woodwork! Makes me realise I need to hurry up with mine

If you feel the weight of the steel insert under the rubber bump skin then you can understand the desire to remove them.

Paul H

[merlind100]

Try TR6 steels

[adam73bgt]

Minilites and banded rostyles are pretty well trodden paths and both can look good

I think if the early steels were banded and had the chrome centre caps on, that could look quite cool, maybe if the steel was painted a different colour, like with one of the heralds on here that had some cool green banded steels

on a later B however, the Limited Edition 5 spoke alloys look quite good, but you need special nuts to fit them which are rare and expensive (hence why my set of LE's are still in my garage)

Retro J 114.3 stuff is usually full of win too, especially since they look good on Datsun 280's which takes some styling cues from british sports cars like the B anyway

[Rich]

Feb 28, 2013 22:04:57 GMT composimmonite said:

Feb 28, 2013 21:22:57 GMT Rich said:

If its going lower, why de-bumper it? The later ones look great slammed on wheels wearing the bumpers with pride!
That is, provided they ain't gone all saggy
More love for the underdog! Glad to see all these mgb's coming out of the woodwork! Makes me realise I need to hurry up with mine

If you feel the weight of the steel insert under the rubber bump skin then you can understand the desire to remove them.

Paul H

Just take that out then?

[AceOfHearts]

Liking the J stuff, that green one looks great. Thanks for all the suggestions

Are the offsets the same front and back then? The only car ive ever bought aftermarket wheels for was my old TVR with different sizes front and rear and that was a nightmare

Heres a picture from the advert

[adam73bgt]

Erm i think they're the same offset on the front and back as the LE wheels i have are all the same offset iirc

Hmmm that numberplate looks familiar...



Yeah i thought i recognised it! I happened to see that B parked at a tesco's local to me when I first got mine, I obviously parked next to it for the photo op

small world i suppose

[AceOfHearts]

Excellent

Did you see if it looked any good or not, i am not picking it up until Saturday and it was a blind eBay win!

Fortune favours the brave an' all that

[adam73bgt]

It looked ok from what i can remember, this was back in about june time though

It certainly had better paint than mine haha

[composimmonite]

Feb 28, 2013 22:53:59 GMT Rich said:

Feb 28, 2013 22:04:57 GMT composimmonite said:

If you feel the weight of the steel insert under the rubber bump skin then you can understand the desire to remove them.

Paul H

Just take that out then?

The rubber part is attached to the steel insert so you'd have to make something else. I suppose you could cut large chunks out of the steel but the 3 BGT's I had were ranging from starting rotting to totally rotten so that might not be an option. At one time you could get fibreglass versions fo the bumpers.

Paul H

[Paul H]

Wolfrace slot mags from a Scimitar.

[Rich]

Mar 1, 2013 9:21:16 GMT composimmonite said:

Feb 28, 2013 22:53:59 GMT Rich said:

Just take that out then?

The rubber part is attached to the steel insert so you'd have to make something else. I suppose you could cut large chunks out of the steel but the 3 BGT's I had were ranging from starting rotting to totally rotten so that might not be an option. At one time you could get fibreglass versions fo the bumpers.

Paul H

Fibreglass 'rubber bumpers' would be nice, colour coded would be awesome, like a faired in front..

[qwerty]

Mar 1, 2013 13:36:54 GMT Paul H said:

Wolfrace slot mags from a Scimitar.

That's what I was thinking. Especially in 15x7!

[AceOfHearts]

If only these were 15" (and a bit slimmer)

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-16-Rota-Grid-V-in-Bronze-Wheels-/111010363440?pt=UK_CarParts_Acc_Wheels_tyres_Trims_Car_Rims_ET&hash=item19d8bbb830