New (to me) set of wheels

[DrewP]

I bought these Panasports a while back from Tom Bier, and since the black Incas went on the white 99 I finished these up to go with new tires for my '85.

They're 15x6.5" and had mediocre silver paint on them. I scuffed them real good with some Scotchbrite pads and laid about 4 coats of white and 2 of clear using the Duplicolor 'wheel' paint, should hold up pretty good.

I like how they turned out. Jason's white stripe kit will go on this car to replace the lower side trim.

The tires are 205/50-15 Federal 595 RSR's, and were $80/ea from a local guy here. They are a ~140 treadwear sport tire meant mostly for autocrossing and light track use. I like them a lot so far, but only have a few highway rides on them.

[SwedeSport]

I love it!

What did you pay for the wheels? I bought mine new from Panasport back in 95-96 and paid 205.00 each for them, plus shipping.


Can you shoot a few pics of your side exit exhaust? I am gonna do a similar setup on the blue notchback, but split to exit on both sides.

[Geoff]

Looks awesome! I refinished a set of Shelby wheels for my '85 SPG. I stripped all the paint off and refinished them with a Lexus/Toyota pearl white color (same color as John Williams' pearl white car?). It was a total pain to strip them and then put 4 layers of paint on (each with multiple coats) but the results were worth it. I'll see if I can find a picture to scan.

6.5" eh? Perfect!

Too bad about the Duplicolor wheel clear coat, that stuff yellows.

[DrewP]

Thanks!

Even if it does yellow a little I'm digging the '80's rally look with the mudflaps and all that. And more white paint is cheap.... Was worth the 3 hours and $18 worth of paint...

The wheels came as a package along with a ton of other stuff. Rebuilt engine and 5-speed trans (which are in the yellow race car), lots of spare parts, Phantom Grip diff, solid engine mounts, hardline parts, boxes of AN fittings, etc.

I think I paid him $1k for everything. It had all been sitting for about 10 years because he started to build a car, then met a woman, and never finished the car....

[SwedeSport]

I remember seeing this stuff before. Sounds like a good deal.

[RadioFlyer]

That's gonna look really sweet with Jason's side stripes in white. Are you going to strip off the side molding? Got any of those solid motor mounts left?

[DrewP]

Yes, going to strip the side trim off and do the early look with the flat sides.

No, there was only one set and they didn't fit very well, and they are all just metal on metal. Wouldn't hold up under street use very long anyway and might do more harm than good with no cushion. If I was going to use them I'd probably do one of the sides stock, or the two solids on the side and a rubber front.

[SwedeSport]

Those Federal tires look pretty nice.

They list the tire weight at 9 lbs... My Kumho Ecsta XS is listed at 19 lbs.

The Panasport wheels are pretty light too.

Federal makes some nice looking tire options.

[DrewP]

Yeah. These were LIGHT when I was carrying them around the shop before they went on the wheels. I asked the guy what kind of life to expect and he said he got about a year and a half out of a set seeing DD use plus a couple autocrosses, I didn't think that was too bad.

[SwedeSport]

Does the tire supplier have any more of those 595 rs-r's at that price?

Wonder what the shipping cost to PA would add?

[DrewP]

He had 4 sets when I was there last week. The guy's name is Wilson, shop is Raceline USA 626-292-7030. Look around online, they always seem to be listed around $80-$90/ea, I bet you have a local distributor.

[saabfan9]

drew looks great..i can't wait until the weather breaks here to get the cars out (pulling the motor on the 99 to re-seal and finish the head gasket on the flat nose)