Refinishing or updating rims/tires

[Midnight_Raven]

Hey guys,

So I bought my NSX about 2 months ago now. When I bought the car the rear tires were kind of low so I'm going to have to change them out soon since I daily drive my car. Also the stock 5 spoke rims have some bad curb rash and just don't look good at all.

I have two options:

A) Buy myself a new set of rims and tires. Price most likely would be ~$2000-2500 for cast rims + tires (thinking of picking some Enkei RP-F1). I would like to buy forge wheels but I can't justify spending close to $4000+ on rims and tires.

B) Refinish my stock wheels and purchase new tires all around. Price most likely would be ~$1000-($700 if I decide not to even waste time refinishing them)

Options A
Pros)
- I have a more modern looking car
- Better wheel fitment in wheel wells
- Better performance due to the lighter wheels and larger contact patch

Cons)
- Cost 2x+ more than option B
- I live in an area where I need to drive through some bumpy streets until I get out onto the smoother roads. I normally take it slow but still I'm not certain if cast wheels will be able to handle it on a day to day basis.

Option B
Pros)
- Cost ~ 1/2x less than option A
- My stock wheels will be able to cope with the abuse of these couple of streets that surround me with ease

Cons)
- I'll be stuck with the same stock rim for another 10K miles. And when I do finally upgrade my rims+tires my front tires most likely will be a waste because they will have more tread than my rear . I hate doing stuff like that.
- Performance will stay the same.

What would you guys do if you were contemplating this scenario?

 

[nsxot1c]

A without question.

New wheels/tires not only updates a car 100% but also fixes any other issues as you mention as bends/rash etc etc.

I think you'll be surprised how cheap a full set of cast wheels/tires such as Enkei as you mentioned go for. Good luck and can't wait to see the results.

 

[Hapa88]

Option A. Get a nice set of 17/18 wheels and tires. Enkei is a good safe choice. Good looks and very lightweight.
If you're worried about price though and not as much about weight, consider these (Weight front is ~20lbs, weight rear is ~24lbs):
http://nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1359602

Wheel price was $460 shipped for the SET of 4 wheels!

 

[Brylek]

I vote for option A :biggrin:

17/18 Enkei PF01 with Dunlop Direzza Star Spec from tirerack, this will cost you close to $2.000 and they will look very good on your car.

 

[docjohn]

since money is an issue for you refinish your fat 5's ,middle tier tires will be less than 700$ and take your time to shop for a new set of wheels that you will not regret while banking some money......

 

[nsxtasy]

The original five-spoke wheels aren't worth refinishing, because you can get sets that are almost like new for under $200, less than the price of refinishing. Heck, I have a few such sets in my basement, that I've been meaning to post up for sale...

 

[docjohn]

oops Ken is right people almost give them away.....:redface:

 

[e.pie]

Check out www.vrwheels.com or www.memoryfab.com as well.

I got my set of BBS RSII/O's there for $650 then had them refinished, I've gotten nothing but complements on them.

 

[angus]

Yes, I believe option "A.2" is the way to go if you are on a budget, I will be clearing out some rims that I have at great prices and offering free shipping soon!

 

[Midnight_Raven]

I'm feeling like I'm going to go with option A. I've been working a lot of overtime so it's not going to be such a big hit to me since I'm already earning extra cash for this for the past couple of paychecks.

Now I've been looking at tire sizes and it looks like the ideal rim size would be 17x8 +35 in the front and 18x9.5 +35/38 in the rear. From what it looks like with these sizes and offsets, the rims should be able to clear a big brake kit if I decide to upgrade my brake system in the future.

The last thing I need now decide on is what brand and type of rim I want. I was thinking of RP-F1s in black to give my car a aggressive look (I have a Sebring Silver with black roof). If anything I would like a rim that is available in gunmetal. I think it would provide a nice contrast that flows well with the car lip and roof.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

Well I spent a couple of hours yesterday looking up data in regards to weights of different aftermarket wheels per size. I filtered out most of the wheel sizes that won't work and then filtered out the wheels that aren't available in both wheel sizes that I mentioned above. I made a list for 17" and 18" rims based off what I thought were reasonable priced rims that are very light for the money. Some other wheels were light enough but were costing about 700+ per rim so I just removed those all together.

The lightest wheels that are currently available near the size I wanted for the NSX is the Buddy Club P1 Racing QF. Enkei RP-F1 are the best bang for your buck wheel at that size. The other are also nice looking wheels that are light.

In a way I would like to see if maybe what I should do is just wait it out another 2 months or so and try to buy myself the Buddy Club P1 Racing QFs. They may cost more and will cost an additional 1K over the cast option but then again they are forged light wheels so I'm thinking it's not a bad idea.

Here's an image of a set on a NSX. If I go this option they will be in gunmetal vs the white shown below.

Please note: The price are estimates. Some of these wheels I couldn't find actual prices online but estimated it based off bundled set prices from various vendors. If I'm wrong about some of these please let me know I was getting a headache after all this sorting and filter I was doing so I stopped.

 

[nsxtasy]

Just make sure you either get rims that are known to work with the NSX (such as from an NSX specialty shop such as Science of Speed), or you get them in all the proper specs - diameter, width, offset, lug pattern, and especially the different center bore front vs rear if you want to avoid having to deal with hub-centering rings. Also, decide on your tire sizes first, before deciding on your wheel widths; for example, if you're getting 17"/18" wheels on a '91-93 NSX, you probably want front tires in 215/40-17 which should usually be mounted on rims 7.0-8.5 inches wide, and rear tires in 265/35-18 which should usually be mounted on rims 9.0-10.5 inches wide. I would generally avoid the end points of those width ranges, so your suggested 17x8 and 18x9.5 should work fine.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

Well I've been contacting Buddy Club to see if they have any of the the QFs that fit NSXs. AFter about a month of waiting they informed me that the QFs have been out of production for 4 years. I see vendors supposably still selling these in smaller sizes so I thought they were still in production. Either way they informed me they may be starting up a final production run of the QFs. If this is the case I think I'll definitely be buying a set for my NSX. So I guess I'm going to wait to see what's going to happen with the QFs before I decide to purchase a set of rims.

I asked my brother-in-law to photoshop a gunmetal set onto my NSX. Here's a pic. I think it looks good

 

[davidf]

You should contact Chris@ SOS. He emailed me a list of wheels he has in stock currently. He had some decent choices in both 17/18 and 18/19. I ordered mine and they were shipped right out.:wink:

 

[vapor]

Any updates Raven? I had no idea Buddy Club was going to start making the wheels again. I thought my minty set would be more rare :tongue: I remember when I purchased them from Buddy club in 2006, they didn't stock them and manufactured per order. It took almost 4 months and the producation date sticker was the month I placed my order

I don't mean to highjack your thread but I'm reluctantly selling my 17" set. 17x8+45 front, 17x9+63 rear with a custom ceramic finish. I foolishly went through a two step process at two different shops for the finish I currently have. Had them stripped by Mag Master's first via polishing the powdercoating off (vs chemical or bead/glass stripping that can damage the aluminum). The wheels had a bright raw aluminum finish but were unprotected from brake dust, etc. Magmaster's only provided powdercoating which would put the wheels in an oven and I didn't want to risk fatiguing the aluminum by baking them at 400F. I ended up taking the wheels down the street to speedway for their special ceramic hitemp coating. The coating cures at ambient temperatures and doesn't require baking. The coating is very hard and doesn't flake like powdercoating. If you take a hammer to a ceramic coated surface, it will only knick the surface, not chip it. The ceramic coating also strengthen's the surface of the wheel. Plus, the finish is one of a kind, like a brushed aluminum/Titanium finish. :biggrin: Wish I could post pictures on this forum...

I would still have your stock wheels refinished, ya know, for those rainy days when you don't feel like driving around in your nice wheels :tongue:

 

[Midnight_Raven]

Any updates Raven? I had no idea Buddy Club was going to start making the wheels again. I thought my minty set would be more rare :tongue: I remember when I purchased them from Buddy club in 2006, they didn't stock them and manufactured per order. It took almost 4 months and the producation date sticker was the month I placed my order

I don't mean to highjack your thread but I'm reluctantly selling my 17" set. 17x8+45 front, 17x9+63 rear with a custom ceramic finish. I foolishly went through a two step process at two different shops for the finish I currently have. Had them stripped by Mag Master's first via polishing the powdercoating off (vs chemical or bead/glass stripping that can damage the aluminum). The wheels had a bright raw aluminum finish but were unprotected from brake dust, etc. Magmaster's only provided powdercoating which would put the wheels in an oven and I didn't want to risk fatiguing the aluminum by baking them at 400F. I ended up taking the wheels down the street to speedway for their special ceramic hitemp coating. The coating cures at ambient temperatures and doesn't require baking. The coating is very hard and doesn't flake like powdercoating. If you take a hammer to a ceramic coated surface, it will only knick the surface, not chip it. The ceramic coating also strengthen's the surface of the wheel. Plus, the finish is one of a kind, like a brushed aluminum/Titanium finish. :biggrin: Wish I could post pictures on this forum...

I would still have your stock wheels refinished, ya know, for those rainy days when you don't feel like driving around in your nice wheels :tongue:

The person who I had spoken to mentioned they were considering starting up a final batch of QFs. He told me to contact them about 4-6 weeks later to see if there is any update on their final decision. I'll contact them in about a week or so. I hope they do because I'm ready to pick up a set. If not I'll just start looking into other wheels. I no longer am in a hurry to buy wheels though, since I now have a 2nd car for the winter so the NSX won't be driven for a while. (Good timing too because I want to make it a project to clean the entire underbody/suspension of the car and replace any rusty hardware that's down there)

 

[TURBO2GO]

http://nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154343

But you may as well wait til next spring now. Keep an eye in the for sale section.