Wheel fitment over big brake kit

[Aaron R]

Hi y'all - 

 

The last owner of my '74 tii upgraded the front brakes with calipers from an e24 and the hubs/vented rotors from a 320is. That means stock 02 13 inch wheels with standard backspacing no longer fit. A shame, since the car apparently had Cromodoras before the big brakes went on. Needless to say, they're long gone. 

 

The car now wears 320is turbines, which I actually like the look of, but I am worried that the backspacing is too shallow and the offset isn't great for my car to handle the way it's supposed to. 

 

My question is: Does anyone have experience getting 13s close to the stock backspacing to fit without grinding calipers down? Is there a set of wheels that will work without being pushed too far outboard? I searched around the forums some and couldn't find a solid answer, so I figured I'd ask if anyone has been here before and figured out a clever workaround. Since I already have a decent set of brakes with vented rotors, I'd rather not revert to stock, both for the sake of cost and time. 

 

Thanks! 

 

A

 

[Son of Marty]

While the e21 wheel spacing is not ideal many people have run those wheels on their 02's over the years.

[Rich]

be careful when grinding the calipers. We did it for our track car and went to hit the brakes and , eurika, thar she blows, the brake fluid came gushing out and we lost the brakes, must have got a bit agressive with the grinder and it blew through the wall. 

[Aaron R]

1 minute ago, Rich said:

be careful when grinding the calipers. We did it for our track car and went to hit the brakes and , eurika, thar she blows, the brake fluid came gushing out and we lost the brakes, must have got a bit agressive with the grinder and it blew through the wall. 

This is why I don’t like the idea of grinding the calipers. 

[TobyB]

This is a question we can't definitively answer-

 

I managed to get 13" zero offset Panasports to fit over the E24 calipers

with just peripheral grinding of the sharp 'edges' of the casting, 

which were pretty obviously superfluous.  I've ground a number 

pretty aggressively and not yet struck oil.  It's easy to avoid the 

bores,  if you disassemble the calipers,

but you have to intuit where the drillings are

for the passageways.

 

t

 

 

[irdave]

On 9/16/2022 at 4:24 PM, TobyB said:

This is a question we can't definitively answer-

 

I managed to get 13" zero offset Panasports to fit over the E24 calipers

with just peripheral grinding of the sharp 'edges' of the casting, 

which were pretty obviously superfluous.  I've ground a number 

pretty aggressively and not yet struck oil.  It's easy to avoid the 

bores,  if you disassemble the calipers,

but you have to intuit where the drillings are

for the passageways.

 

t

 

 

 

Do you pronounce it 'super-fluous?' One of the many reasons why people look at me funny...

[M3M3]

Or... Just go for 15in wheels.  Ez fit and WAY more/better tire options than 13s.  

[Gordon]

+1 on going with 14" or 15" wheels.  If you stay with 13" wheels, you'll soon find out that decent 13" tires have gone the way of the dinosaur in the US market. These 15" Amil 15X7 ET 25 wheels with Yokohama 195/50-15 tires are on my 74 tii.

 

[NickVyse]

Recently discussed elsewhere from my selection of 13" wheels (and the 14x4.5" NK steel) only the Borrani steel would fit.