Question about wheels and offsets

[Steve W.]

The '85 Corolla GT-S turns almost the same numbers on the Environmental
tester as it did when it was new. There's a lot to be said for
maintenance. It has 260,000 miles on it...

Have you tried carpart.com and seen how many yards have those wheels? I
punched it in locally and they have tons of them starting at 15 bucks each!

--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York

Life is not like a box of chocolates
it's more like a jar of jalapenos-
what you do today could burn your ass tomorrow!

 

[Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B]

Hi,
If you ever X-ray a car like that, you'll see sign of metal fatigue, hair
line cracks, hidden rust things like that. Nothing laat forever!

Hidden rust?! The rocker panels are falling off the car!

I think it's time to retire...

 

[Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B]

Have you tried carpart.com and seen how many yards have those wheels? I
punched it in locally and they have tons of them starting at 15 bucks
each!

Where are you at? I'm in New England and they're hit or miss; a few at
~$20 but more like $30 up...

There is one yard that delivers to the town where I live, and they had
them for about $20.

 

[Nate Nagel]

Hmmm,
Old car like those pollute a lot! Newer cars are greener and safer!
We always drive AWD with all the bells and whistles for safety first.
I look after them alway in original condition. I do most work on them.
I no longer have any truck since I sold my 5th wheel camping trailer.
I built a cabin instead. Currently 4 cars in the family. Subaru, Honda,
Suzuki. All farly new.

I disagree. It costs FAR more in energy and pollution to make a new car
than it does to run an old one every day for 10 years or more. As for
safety - yeah, the '55 has a straight, non-collapsible steering column
pointing at my chest. So what? it's only myself that is at risk, and I
don't drive like an asshat, and I've also made a few modifications for
safety (lap belts, dual circuit master cylinder, later-model finned
drums in front, later model sway bar in front and '55 sedan sway bar in
back, HD springs, and most importantly radial tires on Chrysler cop car
wheels)

As for my newer car... well, it's a Porsche 944, passes emissions every
year, and I feel confident driving it that I have a better chance of
avoiding an incident than I do in the vast majority of newer cars simply
because it handles like nobody's business.

nate

 

[Nate Nagel]

Hi,
If you ever X-ray a car like that, you'll see sign of metal fatigue,
hair line cracks, hidden rust things like that. Nothing laat forever!

Anything can be fixed. There were some serious frame cracks on my old
'56 Golden Hawk; I've got pictures of the local welding guy that came by
with a truck-mounted stick welder and made it better than new (I had him
add reinforcements under the upper control arm mounting points.) Cost
me about $350 (of course I already had the front clip off and suspension
removed for him) much cheaper and much less energy used than making a
new frame!

Unfortunately I sold the car to a guy in England who was going to
completely restore it; it died a spectacular death when the fireworks
warehouse next door to the resto shop caught on fire

nate

 

[nobody >]

Anything can be fixed. There were some serious frame cracks on my old
'56 Golden Hawk; I've got pictures of the local welding guy that came by
with a truck-mounted stick welder and made it better than new (I had him
add reinforcements under the upper control arm mounting points.) Cost
me about $350 (of course I already had the front clip off and suspension
removed for him) much cheaper and much less energy used than making a
new frame!

Unfortunately I sold the car to a guy in England who was going to
completely restore it; it died a spectacular death when the fireworks
warehouse next door to the resto shop caught on fire

nate

Coincidence? I watched "Shockwave" on CourtTV last night and they ran a
segment on that same fireworks blowup/fire. It was a pair of scissors
that caused the whole thing. No Hawks in the flick tho..

 

[N8N]

Coincidence? I watched "Shockwave" on CourtTV last night and they ran a
segment on that same fireworks blowup/fire. It was a pair of scissors
that caused the whole thing. No Hawks in the flick tho.

Really? place I'm thinking of was in Bristol, but without digging out
the old BBC news article I couldn't say what the name of either the
fireworks place or the resto shop was. I can't imagine a large
fireworks warehouse going up is a common occurrance tho so it may as
well be. this happened maybe a year or two ago.

nate

 

[Mike Romain]

I'm just gonna assume that that was meant in a joking manner... my car
is an '88, my pickup is a '93, and my second car is a '55! Save the
environment, drive an old car!

nate

I will second that!

I keep my 'old' Jeep tuned up well enough to get a nice 23 mpg
(11L/100km or less) highway 'and' pass emissions 'with low numbers' too!

Tuneups are cheap and easy on old beasts usually also, unlike some new
cars where you have to pull the engine 'out' to change the plugs...

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
'New' frame in the works for '08. Some Canadian Bush Trip and Build
Photos: http://mikeromainjeeptrips.shutterfly.com

 

[Rick Courtright]

I disagree. It costs FAR more in energy and pollution to make a new car
than it does to run an old one every day for 10 years or more. As for

Hi,

Agreed.

I saw some numbers on the Toyota Prius recently. Quite a surprise:
whatever it "saves" while being driven was far more than made up for w/
manufacturing "costs" in the pollution and/or energy consumed
departments. Adding all these costs together, driving a Prius for 100k
miles was "costlier" to the environment than driving a similar sized
gas-burner the same miles.

Green? What a buzzword! We're not going to even TOUCH on being "green"
until the world realizes irresponsible procreation is at the root of
many, if not most, of our pollution woes and starts working on THAT
issue. In the meantime, all too much of this is idle lip service and
this fad will blow over to the "Next great thing to worry about" soon
enough.

I drive older cars. By choice. I have no kids. By choice. I ride my
bicycles (even they're "old") instead of driving a car whenever
practical, for my health as well as "environmental" considerations
(which include my "economic environment.") Again, this is by choice. I
think in making these choices and doing these things over the last four
decades or so, I've done much more to "help save the world" than the guy
down the street who just bought the brand new hybrid SUV to haul his
five fat brats around. A microscopic view of the big picture's not all
that helpful.

Don't know what any of this has to do w/ wheel offsets, though.

Rick