Banding!

[1602bmw]

OK, I bought some lovely BBS'esque 15" alloys, they look great and all that, but tbh I prefer the look of the original 13" steel wheels with chrome caps!

 

However...I would like to fit slightly larger steel wheels that fill the arches a bit more and after some thought, maybe some banded steel wheels. 14", I think. 

 

Without mods to the suspension, what is the widest front and rear I could go and are there any 14" steel wheels from other manufacturers that I could use a base? Also, any wheels that could still fit the chrome caps?

 

Hope that makes sense.

[Mike Self]

A very attractive and period-looking steel wheel for an '02 are the pierced steel wheels used on (mostly) Euro E30s.  They're 6 x 14, correct offset and painted silver with the small Euro center caps, look really good on an '02.  About the only US E30 I can think of that used 'em were the 90/91 318i sedans as alloys were optional on the 4 door cars.  But they're easy to find and not expensive, even new.

 

mike

[1602bmw]

Nice one, thanks Mike - I'll have a search for those ?

 

[John_in_VA]

There have been threads mentioning a shop in CA that increase width & change offset for steel wheels.

[danco_]

I would stay with 13" wheels front and rear, and 6" is about the widest you'd want to go, for both fitment and weight considerations.

 

 

Also, try to stay away from banding. It's much easier (and safer) to simply rebarrel the centers into a 5.5"-6" barrel. 

 

 

 

 

[1602bmw]

Funnily enough, after lots of searching today, I started to consider getting another set of 13" and doing just that. 

 

I've not heard of rebarreling though - what is involved in that? 

[danco_]

1 hour ago, Chris Brewerton said:

Funnily enough, after lots of searching today, I started to consider getting another set of 13" and doing just that. 

 

I've not heard of rebarreling though - what is involved in that? 

It's exactly as it sounds. 

 

You remove the face of the wheel, and install it into a new barrel at your width and offset discretion.