I love the old Melbers, but couldn't resist buying some bigger, wider rims to fill out my arch clearance. I've ended up with 16x8 for the front, which should be ok with 20mm spacers, and 16x9 for the back. They say it can't be done without cutting the arches. Well, I'm going to have to find a way, because I need that 3.5" lip and I ain't cutting.
9s stick out a bit even with just 20mm spacers...
The 8s below are for the front, but fit the rear with a bit more clearance than the 9s...
...but lets face it, they're not deep enough!
Fat rims.
With a bit of negative camber the rim is not far from the arch-lip and I think a stretched tyre will go under, but a bit more rolling will be necessary...
Roller skate style!
9s may need a little more spacing on the back to get off the strut and trailing arm...
And no, you may have guessed, they're not real split-rims, they're one-piece replicas and cost less than £400 delivered from royal_wax on eBay. A genuine set of BBS splitties has been floating around on there too, yours for £1600 without tyres, so I think I'll suffer with the replicas for now. The finish is a bit cheap and tacky, but hey, I'll be painting them up in Panama Beige anyway and I wouldn't be doing that to real ones. Even so it's been anther expensive week and I've got to find some rubber this week... I'm thinking 205_40_16 front, maybe Falken, and 225_40_16 rear Toyo T1-R, so let's hope I can get another cheap deal through work and that should save me a few hundred quid! I wish someone would hurry up and buy my Melbers - surely with the Toyo T4s stretched on they're worth £300 - come one people!
