I’m looking into 16x8 and 16x9 wheels (with low offsets) that will clear front z-brakes…
I love older style wheels, i.e. ssr meshies or rs watanabe wheels
Any ideas?
spoke design matters for brake clearance
offset does not.
the depth of the mounting pad or disc will also affect brake clearance and this is also why some people assume offset matters. a thicker mounting pad will reduce the offset of the wheel. remember that the offset is the distance of the face of the mounting pad from the centreline of the wheel.
adding spacers effectively thickens the pad and lowers the offset.
buy what you want, get Doba to custom make you spacers for the wheels if they dont clear.
his spacers are hubcentric to your hub and to your wheel (all generic spacers are not and will require hubcentric rings to be certain)
that’s the point bing, I don’t really want to use spacers unless it’s absolutely necessary. i.e. I REALLY like the wheels but they don’t clear the z brakes 
I know most of the older wheels don’t clear z brakes because of the spoke design, that’s why I’m asking if anyone has any older wheels (older style meshies, or those rs watanabe ones) that do clear the z brakes. If so, please tell me what brand and model they are
Also, lower offset wheels are nice since they sit flush and gives you a decent back clearance if you want to run coilovers.
uh bing clearly offset governs brake and suspension clearance…
its a combined effort of offset and wheel design that ultimatly allows something to fit or not fit…
but really if you grabbed a +50 offset rim. wit some bowed out spoke design… its still nto going to fit.
GT
Good luck finding 16x8+ wheels in 5-bolt pattern, especially old school wheels.
sorry, I forgot to mention that… I’m looking for 4x114.3 bolt pattern, since I have a 1995 240sx SE…
There are plenty of nice 16x8 low offset wheels in the States, if you don’t mind getting rapped at the border, you got a shit load of rims to pick from.
Also, a +50 wheel can fit if the spokes are designed a certain way.
exactly, offest has Nothing to do with brake clearance just spoke design, suspention clearnace on the othet hand is all to do with offset and nothing with spoke design
if your willing to pay good money for the rims your looking for check takumi project ( http://www.takumiproject.com/ ) i’m sure you’ll find something there
Edit: with just a quick search i found some 16x8 +0 and 16x8.5 -5 4x114.3 Rs Watanabe
Special order only though… get ready to give up your left nut for those wheels
come on its bog, he’ll spend lots ofo money if he has to, look at his last set of rims
When i was searching for wheels I almost bought from these guys… http://takumiproject.com/ lots of Advan/Wanatabe/etc in a respectable offset and size.
(I got my wheels from a fellow board member.)
LOL
I only spent the money on those wheels cuz they were/are quality ones, plus I didn’t really know anyone from the boards that could have gotten me a nice discount…
in any case, Takumi project is an awesome site. I did check it out, but the shipping/customs/brokerage fees would suck big time…
Does anyone know any local places that might have decent JDM wheels that they get off from clips or shipped from Japan with clips or anything like that? I would love to go there and browse 
The shipping/brokerage fee’s disuaded me as well. I was giong to get them shipped to Buffalo and do a pickup there… But the best thing I took out of the site is the fact that I can see what’s available and then decide what I like.
I also searched FA for wheels but things sold so fast that you never knew if it was still for sale or not. If it was aviable they usually wouldn’t ship…
Enjoy the search Lith and GL.
not meshies… but 17x9
Fast wheels… :roll: Not to bomb on the sale.
i just hit vtec,
and it felt great.
ok maybe we should get back on topic here. I posted this in the Technical section so it could be used as reference.
I know a lot of guys out there like older styled wheels, like the SSR Formula Mesh and the RS Watanabe ones. I would be nice to see if wheels like those clear z brakes (I know a lot of us have those brakes installed as well).
By the looks of it, these type of wheels don’t clear z brakes easily, so they need spacers. Although if someone does come across some older wheels that are 16x8 and 16x9 and they do clear the brakes AND have proper offsets like +20 or +15, please post it! 
Anyways, here are couple of pics of the wheels I like.
There are other old school wheels as well (I just don’t have the time to search for them). So please post pics, sizes and the offsets.
ah lith too bad my formula mesh are not 16x8 16x9 :P. too bad.
no
http://www.tgdevelopment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8[/quote]
yes and no.
and he even said it.
offset AND wheel design govern it.
GT
i may be wrong but still think offest has nothing to do with brake clearance, would you like to expalin? the way i see it, it dosnt matter where the mounting point is on the wheel, wether its +50 or -50 the spokes are still the same distance from the mounting point, leaving the clearance to spoke design alone