Club 80-90 Forums

Im after some Alloys for my van but every website i look at the ET is 20 and although it says they fit i want something in the ET30-39 bracket or over so i can correct with spacers. Does any wheel supplier you guys are aware of actually sell brms or cosmics of fuch lookalikes in an et between 30 and 39?

Thanks

Paul

Cosmics, BRMs etc are early 1970s wheels designed to fit early 1970s vehicles like the Ford Granada which shared a PCD with a baywindow van, but the offset is lower. People put them on baywindow vans and they fitted well enough.
About 10/15 years ago JBW etc started importing chinese made replicas of them and kept the same offset. But they were a knockoff of a wheel made to fit 1970s saloon cars, never designed with VW Baywindow in mind (let alone a T25!)

As time went on, these early 1970s style wheels have become quite a popular fitment on 1980s vans by people seeking out a retro look that never really existed back in the day (and because they're readily available and not that expensive)

The top and bottom of it though, ET20 wheels will fit, and the van will drive fine - but the cheap chinese knockoff wheels will likely be annihilated after a single UK winter unless you take incredible care of them, so I would avoid buying them purely on those grounds rather than the offset.

There aren't a lot of aftermarket wheels designed specifically for a T25, and TBH a lot of them are supplied at et25 anyway - Borbet Atiwee, Ronal Pentas sold through BW etc)

I just checked some local online wheel sellers, and did find quite a lot of 5x112 ET30 wheels. Not sure about lug hole and centre bore sizes, and only a few of tem were "classic" or "retro" look (mostly like classic BBS and Penta lookalikes)

I'm open to Pentas or similar and have looked at some merc and Audi wheels too. Though buying off ebay seems to be a bit of a minefield with people generally not quoting the offset, centre bore or stud hole sizes.

I've had a saved search on ebay for months for "vw t25 alloys" but all that ever really seems to come up locally are either very bad looking copies or wheels that say they fit but just looking at the pics i can see the centre bore is way too small.

Brickwerks only seem to have Ronal R9s which at 250 a corner plus tyres are a bit out of my budget.

Oh well back to ebay and a few more swap meet visits

Patience will pay off,
keep your eye on 80/90 classifieds.
And it was a good idea to ask!

There is a close relationship on a T3 between wheel rim size, tyre width, proximity to the top wishbone/upper ball joint area, ET and sliding door clearance.
As the rim & tyre get wider you can't put any more of that width inboard because of wishbone fouling (14 and 15" are the worst) so it has to go outboard and thus the ET figure will fall.
Generally speaking, the 1980's period size of 7x15 ET 21 with a 205 tyre will work and just clear everything.
I have the above with 215/75 ATs and the sliding door just rubs.