Fake steel rims?

[DiscoPanda]

A while back I ran across these - lightweight aluminum/alloy rims that look like generic steel rims.

Now I'm curious if there's anything similar that will fit my '90 Caravan C/V (same bolt pattern as my mom's '98 Grand Caravan)? Preferably in a 16", or at the least a 15"?

Because I kinda like the idea of lightweight rims that look like steel rims. (Especially if I touch them up with a little rust-in-a-can here and there.)

[sidepipe87]

those look like they ARE steel wheels.... Are you sure they aren't?

[Avenger]

Some 91-92 Imperials came with something like those, with obviously more offset and in 5x100. They are 14s though. I had THOUGHT that the Imperials came standard with the large rotor set-up as standard, but these rims won't clear the 91 setup that I have on the Duster now. If you have the large bolt pattern, you have the large brakes on your C/V, and you're basically SOL on fitting them.

I picked up a set back when I had an Imperial for a bit, I threw on a set of perfect cathedrals in their place, thought the car looked better that way. I junked the car later, but the rims are still down in the garage.

You can ID them easily enough, the face is machined, leaving visible tool ridges in circles around the rim, and the metal thickness visible through the holes is obviously thicker than the steelies. I'll post up a pic tomorrow evening, I need to excavate the garage anyway.....

Oh yeah, they are indeed lighter than the steelies. Maybe a good 4 pounds lighter.

[Avenger]

Whole rim, didn't even realize I still had tires on em!

Close-up of the face, check out the machine marks:

The weld between the rim and face:


Oh, the crumpled up thing in the center is the mount for the hubcap. They couldn't use the normal springy-rim caps because the steel springs would tear the aluminum up.

[DiscoPanda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avenger Oh yeah, they are indeed lighter than the steelies. Maybe a good 4 pounds lighter.

Plus that's rotating mass, and from what I remember that's even better than removing the same weight from somewhere on the body. (I forget the approximate ratio though.)

I wonder why all the wheels like this seem to be 14" though, and not some bigger size? I'm sure there's probably some reason and I'm simply missing it. Any ideas?

[Avenger]

Well, I'm just guessing here, but at the time these were being planned (probably 89ish, maybe as late as 1990), most cars still came with 14in steels as standard. Alloys were NOT a luxury vehicle thing at that time, either, most of the quote-unquote high-end vehicles at the time had hubcaps, and if they did have alloys, they were 15s.
Plus, the gains from the lighter rotating mass are reduced as you move the weight further out from the hub. Also, at some point it just costs too darn much to make the things.

[STUKA]

steel police wheels