8bit's Mk1 Leon Cupra R. Scarlett - as in Johansson...

[D.K]

Get some high temp paint and spray your hubs up before you put the new spacers on

 

[Ronin225]

Get some high temp paint and spray your hubs up before you put the new spacers on

Really not a good idea, these are mating faces that need to sit flush to keep concentricity
On the front hub carriers yes, but on the rears no

 

[8bit]

Hmm nice idea D.K but I'm with Ronin on that one - when my LCR wheels got powder coated the place that did them left powder coat on the mating faces. That meant that the alignment was then quite a bit out, most noticeably at the rear as there's no adjustment there. I had to get the excess powder coat removed from the mating faces to get the wheels aligned properly, which then meant that the wheels had to be balanced again.

Thanks again Ronin, spacers should be here tomorrow, if it stops bloody snowing long enough I might finally get these wheels on the car tomorrow after work!

 

[Ronin225]

I did the same with my wheels, got them powdercoated and ground off where the bolts mate but not where the wheel and hub mate.
After a session at blyton i had melted the coating on this mating face and both wheels were loose and about 2mm off the hub, lucky they never came off on track

 

[8bit]

Scary ****! Shocking what some places try to get away with. My brother rang me around Christmas to say one of his calipers was hanging off his Pug 406 coupe. I went round and found the upper caliper to carrier bolt was missing and the lower one hand tight. He'd had his discs and pads changed at a garage who had re-used the single-use bolts (same design as our rear calipers). He'd only had them done a few days before, looking at the state of the remaining bolts there was no way in hell they were fresh bolts...

 

[Ronin225]

I suppose thats why they say 'if you want something done right, do it yourself'

 

[8bit]

I suppose thats why they say 'if you want something done right, do it yourself'

Amen to that dude!

Spacers just arrived at work. Can already tell that they must be light weight, the Citylink package with two pairs of spacers and bolts weighs about as much as one pair of the old spacers I had before does, if not less... Worked a bit late last night so will disappear early from here today and hopefully finally get these wheels fitted before dark

 

[csd_19]

Amen to that dude!

Spacers just arrived at work. Can already tell that they must be light weight, the Citylink package with two pairs of spacers and bolts weighs about as much as one pair of the old spacers I had before does, if not less... Worked a bit late last night so will disappear early from here today and hopefully finally get these wheels fitted before dark

Good stuff min! Can't beat getting new wee shiny bits. Especially as these will let you get some bigger shiny bits on

Just in time for the (further) snow due at the weekend too

 

[8bit]

Cheers dude, aye just in time to either get the wheels on or find out the next stumbling block! Can't even remember how long ago I bought the wheels, just wish I'd checked them for fit over the brakes at first and ordered my own tyres, they'd have been on a couple of weeks ago. Oh well

Suppose I better sort some longer locking wheel bolts too, any suggestions? McGard are super expensive, about £24 each (i.e. for a single bolt, not for four) from Demon Tweeks!

 

[csd_19]

Ouch!

Any alloy wheel places in town? That'd be your best bet for a first stop?

 

[8bit]

Can't think of any, only place these days would be Halfrauds. Forgot to measure the bolts before I put them in too, will need to dig out one of the standard ones and add 10mm.

Anyway, first thing's first - special request for RedBull:

Spacers arrived today. Think they were all within about 3g weight of one another, so I make that an additional 1.1kg of unsprung weight just for those spacers.

Managed to clear out of work a bit early and crack on with the car. Brief interruption when my next door neighbour asked me to help install a tool safe on his flatbed Transit, cue me scrabbling about underneath it trying to bolt the thing on from below

Turns out 10mm was pretty well perfect for the front, to get the R32 wheels to clear the Brembos. Might have got away with 8mm but they wouldn't have been proper hubcentrics at that low thickness. The H&R spacers fitted perfectly on the front right from the off. For the rears I had to take out that cap thing as you said Ronin, no big deal I'm sure as the front hubs don't have them and there are center caps covering them anyway.

Bought a set of wheel align pins from Demon Tweeks, made the job much easier! I got a pair of them in a box, you take out two bolts once the car is jacked up, screw these into the holes and they make it much easier lining up the wheel, spacers and hubs to put the bolts back in, ace.

Smeared the inner mating faces of the spacers with copper grease, as well as the last inch of the thread on the bolts and the mating faces of the wheels got a good covering, being that they are bare metal so didn't fancy them corroding.

Was nearly dark by the time I was finished and I had to scoot out and meet the (very) soon to be Mrs. 8bit for tea so only a couple of lousy pics for now, will get some more after the car has had a wash at the weekend. Not promising that though, my stag do on Saturday so may not be feeling like washing the car on Sunday...

 

[Ronin225]

I like the look of those, very touring car-esque like the old BTCC wheels

 

[8bit]

Cheers, yeah did think that. Also think they look a bit like mk1 pre-facelift Leon Cupra wheels. They're good tho, I think they look pretty decent for winter wheels! Will run with them until temperatures are generally above about 7C and then change back to the LCR Ronals.

 

[D.K]

Did you get the right shouldered bolts with the spacers ?
The wheels look good on.

 

[EL]

Really liking the new look mate, even if it is just the winter look

 

[8bit]

Did you get the right shouldered bolts with the spacers ?
The wheels look good on.

Thanks They are radius bolts, yes. Not sure if there are different types of radius shoulder or not...?

Really liking the new look mate, even if it is just the winter look

Cheers Want to get the car and wheels/tyres cleaned, they're still covered in beading grease so it's a bit hard to work out properly if they "work" on the car. At the moment at least they will be the winter wheels, maybe should have saved myself a few quid and not bothered refurbing them but I really don't like bright silver alloys on a red car now and the refurb was a bargain for such a good job.

 

[ReDBull]

That's for finding out the weights they're not as heavy as I thought they'd be.
Wheels look very nice I love the colour. How are you finding the winter tyres?

 

[8bit]

Yeah I thought they'd be a lot heavier than that, any spacers I've ever seen before probably weighed as much as at least two or three of these Did say on the H&R website that they're made from some sort of magnesium alloy, you can tell they're not just regular steel or aluminium by the feel of them.

Winter tyres are... interesting They feel a bit softer in terms of ride comfort, which is nice, but the handling is a little vague. Sidewalls are much softer, could see that just lowering the car back onto the ground. I've only really been over a little patch of snow since fitting them and did still get some wheelspin but I was pushing it to see if it would happen. Supposed to be more snow on the way up here soon so will find out then.

 

[nath86]

Nice looking motor mate

 

[8bit]

Thanks