Don,
I am in the same boat as you. I've also read that wire wheels do not hold
their balance more than 4-5 months.
The two problems with the hub type minilites are:
1) Cost $110 - $150 more than bolt on disk type minilites
2) Very few shops can spin balance these (and wire wheels) correctly.
An alternative is to convert your car over to disk type minilites. I saved
the following message from a previous post.
I hope this helps.
Rich
1970 MGB
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Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 20:28:58 -0500
From: David Tietz <mgcats@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Mini-lites & Spleen Venting
Fellow Listerers,
I have a FYI on a Mini-lite conversion I did to my '74 GT and some
comments on what I am reading on the list. First the LBC content:
I needed to replace the wire wheels on my weekend driver (a '70
roadster), and decided to use the wheels from my GT, which would give
me an excuse to "get modern" (tubeless tires, alloy wheels) with my
daily driver. All the experts in the club, and around the shops I
frequent insisted that the rear axle had to be changed to accommodate
the bolt-ons (save one, bless his heart).
At his shop we tried a rear hub change (dimensionally, the most
critical), and it looked like it would work.
I took some serious measurements and laid it out on the computer... I
ordered up four 6 inch wide, 15 inch mini-lites from Moss, and had
four 195/65 Pirelli tires at my disposal to mount on, bought four bolt
type hubs, and held my breath... When the mini-lites came in, it all
came together, and it is a beautiful fit. I understand the wire wheel
rear-end is 1" shorter than the bolt-on rear end, and that works in
your favor with the mini-lites (which also tend to have a generous
off-set). The beauty is that the car may easily be converted back to
wires for the DNO (Dandy Next Owner), if they (or you) are of such a
mind in the future... For Your Info... I have always been kind of a
wire wheel guy but damn, those fat tires on those wide mini-lites look
good!!
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>Subject: Mini Lite Wheels
>Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
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>Reply-To: dlg7@webtv.net (Donald Graham)
>
> I need an education on mini lite wheels. My 69B which just had the
>front end rebuilt still gives a steering wheel shake at about 45mph. I
>had my chrome wire wheels rebuilt once and hate to contine to fight that
>battle. Do mini lite wheels hold true over time? There appears to be
>several manufactures and types of mini lite spin on wheels. Can someone
>educate me on the pro and cons of the varios types.
> Thanks, Don Graham 69mgb Tampa, FL.
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