Premade 5-bolt conversion kit?

4111 Views 16 Replies 11 Participants Last post by baz, Dec 15, 2005

Excelsior

Discussion Starter · Apr 1, 2005 (Edited by Moderator)

Does anyone have any opinion on this set on ebay?

Edit: Item only listed for 90 days

1 - 17 of 17 Posts

GTJIM (R.I.P.)

· #2 · Apr 2, 2005

But .....

They look very well made and nicely machined BUT they will move the wheel mounting face outwards by their thickness ( nearly 2" by the look of it ).
This will necessitate the use of a wheel with lots of offset to make up for their thickness and return the centre line of the rim to the correct position for the front steering geometry. Nothing is worse than having the centre of the front wheels outside the line through the suspension ball joints by any appreciable amount. Similar width problems would arrise on the diff as well since the wheels would be moved out into the guard sheetmetal unless frontwheel drive wheels with quite large offsets were used to compensate.
Just my opinion.......you asked for it.

jtb

· #3 · Apr 3, 2005

Huh?

I'm confused! The ad says these convert your "hard to find" 4 X 100mm pattern to 5 bolt. Ummm... Don't a heckofalot of cars use 4X100??

I actually built spacers similar to these to convert from Mazda spacing (4X114.3mm) to 4X100. Mine are only 1" thick. I'm not sure why they need to be so thick??

They appear to be two halves bolted together with those countersunk bolts. Again, this could be accomplished without two halves, thus keeping the thickness down, resulting in a more reasonable wheel offset.

I'm not saying mine are better, just different! Also, the ad says he paid $300 for the set, so it will be interesting to see what they go for. There may be less expensive options around.

Cheers,
jtb

opelspyder

· #4 · Apr 4, 2005

Adapters

Looks like a pretty good deal-I'm surprised they only cost three dollars. The reason they are so thick is due to going to 5 lug----one lug of the 5 bolt will always interfere with a lug of the 4 bolt. It does make it where a better selection of wheels are available, but because they are 2 inches thick or more-you would have to find a high offset wheel. In the 4x100 most wheels are +40 anyways-so it might be just as well to use 4x100 spacers instead of adapting to other bolt pattern.
Keith

Thom71GT

· #5 · Apr 4, 2005

I think these are perfect and you should bid $600 for them.

HA HA.. They are mine. Yes, a lot of cars do have a 4 X 100 bolt pattern, but they are FRONT WHEEL DRIVE. You cant put a front wheel drive wheel on a rear wheel drive hub becasue the offset is so off.

This hub will let you find a front wheel drive wheel with a 5 bolt pattern and put it on there.

I am selling them because I have decided to have custom made 2 piece wheels. I am also welding up the 4 bolt pattern and converting it to a 5 bolt pattern. All-in-all, after the welding and the custom wheels, I will have close to $2500 into it and thats WITHOUT the tire.

jtb

· #6 · Apr 4, 2005

opelspyder said:
Looks like a pretty good deal-I'm surprised they only cost three dollars. The reason they are so thick is due to going to 5 lug----one lug of the 5 bolt will always interfere with a lug of the 4 bolt. It does make it where a better selection of wheels are available, but because they are 2 inches thick or more-you would have to find a high offset wheel. In the 4x100 most wheels are +40 anyways-so it might be just as well to use 4x100 spacers instead of adapting to other bolt pattern.
Keith

I understand the interference issue, but 1" thickness of aluminum for each half seems a little overkill, IMHO

If you were to go to the spacers to run a 4X100 FWD rim, a word of caution. In Canada, wheel spacers must bolt to the hub or rotor, and then bolt to the wheel; in other words, they can't just be a big shim sharing the same studs as the wheel. I don't know what the regulations are elsewhere, you may want to check it out.
jtb

MountinAsh

· #7 · Apr 4, 2005

Hey Voodoou

Hey Voodoou. What is the dia. of the bolt spaceing? is it 5x100? Or did you have them made for US style 5 bolt rims like GM or ford rims? MountinAsh.

nobody

· #8 · Apr 4, 2005

Thom, I have BBS wheels meant for a Honda on my GT. 1/4 inch spacer was all it took and they are fine.

Thom71GT

· #9 · Apr 4, 2005

jtb said:
I understand the interference issue, but 1" thickness of aluminum for each half seems a little overkill, IMHO

If you were to go to the spacers to run a 4X100 FWD rim, a word of caution. In Canada, wheel spacers must bolt to the hub or rotor, and then bolt to the wheel; in other words, they can't just be a big shim sharing the same studs as the wheel. I don't know what the regulations are elsewhere, you may want to check it out.
jtb

These are thick becasue; One, these bolt directly to the hub using the 4 x 100 bolts. Then the second piece bolts to the first piece and these have the 5 bolt pattern. I do not know if these are 5 x 4 or 5 x 4.5 but I'll measure when I go home for lunch and post it asap.

I've never used them as I am in the middle of restoring the car. I decided to pay the big $$$ for custom wheels. There is a SPECIFIC look I am going for and I just couldnt find it except for custom.

Clayton918

· #10 · Dec 15, 2005

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I think whatever you all were talking about here(the add on ebay can't be veiwed any longer) is what Iv been trying to find. I'd would like to be able to use 5 lug wheels for the variety it would provide, and was told there was an adapter you could bolt on. Where can I find these? I'm finding lots of 5 lug to 4, but no 4 to 5 so far... Also I'm putting fender flares on the GT so the thickness shouldnt be a problem...it might be just right.
Thanks in advance,

baz

· #11 · Dec 15, 2005

Clayton918 said:
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I think whatever you all were talking about here(the add on ebay can't be veiwed any longer) is what Iv been trying to find. I'd would like to be able to use 5 lug wheels for the variety it would provide, and was told there was an adapter you could bolt on. Where can I find these? I'm finding lots of 5 lug to 4, but no 4 to 5 so far... Also I'm putting fender flares on the GT so the thickness shouldnt be a problem...it might be just right.
Thanks in advance,

this is one of the problems we have with e-bay posts ,auction ends and a few weeks late a thread is disjointed because we cant see what the original post is about
i wish posters would save a photo or two from the auction and post them with the question (i know gtjim normally adds a pic or 2 when he posts ,but must have missed doing it on this one )

if you do a search on 5 lug posts im sure there was a post a few months ago that said there was a hub from a chevette? that was 5 lug and fits right on without an adapter

Mike Preble

· #12 · Dec 15, 2005

For those interested in this conversion just go to ebay motors and go to accessories. Go to wheels and tires and type in "adapters". There are companies that will custom make just about any combinations you could want. I am not endorsing any of them but I have bought 1inch "spacers" which have studs built into them and you use nuts on the origonal studs to mount them. Then I put 15" FWD rims on my GT and the offset was perfect. Have used these for two years on a daily driver with no complications. And I got my spacers through ebay the same way I just stated.

Mike

Clayton918

· #13 · Dec 15, 2005

I must not know what Im looking for. I went to ebay and did what you said. I got 310 items but I didn't see anything that changed the lug pattern from 4 to 5. Is there such a thing or would one have to use a combination of two of them or somthing? Sorry if my ignorance, I dont want to be pesky. This is one of those things you find pages of threads on in the search, spend hours reading but still never get a definitive answer. :sigh:
Thanks for the replies, this sight is so awsome!!

GTJIM (R.I.P.)

· #14 · Dec 15, 2005

Custom Built

The 4 to 5 adaptors mentioned were custom built and not a stock item if I remember correctly. It is very difficult to make this conversion because what ever is done one of the 5-studs always wants to be where one of the 4-studs is. I had nothing to do with making these items BTW - just me meddling as usual!

The front hubs from Fieros (or some such ..) are five stud and slide on to Opel stub axles - which just leaves the rear to fix.

Sorry for not doing my usual save; edit and post a picture from eBay, Baz - but one can only spoon feed people for so long! Hope people take note and do post pictures with their links to eBay as the listings do disappear. GT.com does become a permanent record when pics are posted - for sure.

baz

· #15 · Dec 15, 2005

clayton ,you could contact the companys making the custom 4 2 4 ,5 2 5 , 6 2 6
hub adapters and ask if they can do you a 4 2 5 as all it needs is 1 long stud fitted to the hub to go through the adapter then the other 3 would have the counter sunk nuts and 4 studs sticking out to go with the 1 long one
this would only work on a hub that keeps the 100 mm PCD

oldopelguy

· #16 · Dec 15, 2005

Clayton918 said:
. Is there such a thing or would one have to use a combination of two of them or somthing?

The adapters mentioned, the ones that were on e-bay, looked a lot like the one below, from e-bay. They were a two piece unit that bolted onto the hub and changed the pattern to a big 6-bolt pattern, then another set that bolted to them and changed it back. Because it's a 2-piece design, they tend to cost about twice as much as regular spacers. They also tend to be quite thick.

As to the posting pics, it's not so intuitive to have to fetch a photo from somewhere, save it on my computer, re-size it, then upload it. Posting a link is easy.

Maybe too, instead of figuring out how to make these permanant records we should consider flushing the "look at what's on e-bay" threads shortly after the auction is over. Few of them contribute any lasting information.

See less See more

baz

· #17 · Dec 15, 2005

stephen i agree that just posting the link is easy, but it means that a post gets disjointed when the auction ends for the want of a photo
btw all the 20 pics i looked at on uk and US e-bay are jpeg and below 600X400 so easy to save and post

should i ask gary to give you the job of trolling through the posts for old auctions to dump

i know i dont want it

1 - 17 of 17 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.