New wheels!!!!

A

a11y

Veteran
 Central Scotland
Well, all those exclamation marks are made in jest: it's just too difficult to get excited about 16" alloys :oops:

Today's task was to give the Z4 a post-winter wash, clay, wash, and wax - there was quite a lot of specks of tar and crap on the paintwork, and I don't think I've clayed it in the past 4k miles / 6 months. I was getting through it pretty quickly, so decided to remove my 18"s for a proper inside/outside clean and re-waxing. And, since I've not actually fitted all four of my recently acquired 16" 104-style's, I stuck them on to see what they looked like. I bought these from PawnSacrifice (:thumbsup:) a couple of months ago to use as winter wheels, but never actually got around to getting winter tyres for them - but I will do before October 2010... Part of me was holding out for a set of 17" 103's but I'm a tight bugger and am not willing to spend what it would take to get a set. Plus these 16"s are in excellent condition and a higher profile tyre makes more sense for winter time (more rubber to protect against potholes, slides into kerbs if the worst happens, etc).

Anyway, they're still on my Z4 at the moment as I'm adding a second coat of wax to my 202's before refitting. I don't think the 16"s actually look that bad :oops:

(pics are post-claying, but pre-waxing)











 
Love that phrase... "tight bugger" :rofl: :wink: Probably a good choice as you say, since the tyres look to have a fairly high profile. Wheels look to be in top condition.
 
That phrase is too true for me though :rofl:

Wheels were dirty but unkerbed when I got them, quite a bit of ingrained dirt and brake dust on the inners. I spent a couple of hours with that horrible wheel cleaner stuff - Wonder Wheels, not something I ever use - and they came up like new. Quite a few coats of wax and they're looking pretty good. Just need winter tyres now as the rft's on the back are borderline legal...
 
Looking good A11y.... :thumbsup: Where about in Scotland are you? Am back up the road for a week at my mums in Cumbernauld..

Cheers
C
 
I've got 16" wheels on my Z4, keep lusting after 17" or 18" for cosmetic reasons, trouble is with the crap roads around Ayrshire and the harshish ride of the Z4 I think I might regret spending/wasting the dosh.
Any thoughts anybody?.
 
A11y, looks great! Don't make a habit of using WonderWheels as it contain phosphoric acid and will eventaully eat into the pain lacquer - a one off is OK on really ingrained dirt and brake dust. I would get the wheels weights of the rim as well and get stick on ones inside the main body of the wheel. The clip on variety are an ideal place for corrosion to start.
 
AlanJ said:
A11y, looks great! Don't make a habit of using WonderWheels as it contain phosphoric acid and will eventaully eat into the pain lacquer - a one off is OK on really ingrained dirt and brake dust. I would get the wheels weights of the rim as well and get stick on ones inside the main body of the wheel. The clip on variety are an ideal place for corrosion to start.
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Cheers! Don't worry, that was the second and last time I'll use it - truely horrible, corrosive stuff, but it's seriously good at shifting accumulated dirt from alloys as your say. I've bought these 104's and also my 202's secondhand, and WonderWheels brought both sets up like new. I'm now left with about 4L of the stuff which will never go near my Z4 wheels again as I prefer the layer-them-in-wax-and-clean-regularly route. But I see a use for my wife's alloys, they're embarrassing...

It's when you see the effect WonderWheels has on rubber gloves that you start to worry about what's in it - it eats straight through them. Plus, eye protection is essential because you really don't want that stuff in your eyes: my wife's an A&E doc and treated a bloke with serious chemical burns to his eyes after some WonderWheels got flicked off the brush he was using to clean his alloys :o
 
Craig74 said:
Looking good A11y.... :thumbsup: Where about in Scotland are you? Am back up the road for a week at my mums in Cumbernauld..
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Not far from Cumbernauld - I'm in Falkirk. Not quite so sunny this morning...

(I've been avoiding Cumbernauld where possible recently - the 40mph section along the A80 is sooooooo crap to drive at the moment)
 
johnsh123 said:
I've got 16" wheels on my Z4, keep lusting after 17" or 18" for cosmetic reasons, trouble is with the crap roads around Ayrshire and the harshish ride of the Z4 I think I might regret spending/wasting the dosh.
Any thoughts anybody?.
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I think you'll be fine on 17"s or 18"s. I had a brief drive yesterday with the 16"s fitted and didn't find the ride that much - if any - better than with my 18"s. Part of that could be down to having non-runflats on my 18"s while the 16"s still have the original runflats fitted. If you were to upgrade, I'd suggest skipping the 17" and going straight for 18" if it's for cosmetic reasons: Z4's look great wth 18"s IMO.
 
Nice driveway :thumbsup:

I actually really like those style of rims - and i wanted to do exactly as you and use them as winter wheels (cheaper tyres, and improved ride comfort) - went to a breaker even who had some tatty ones for very little money - but they dont clear the front si brakes. IMO those look much nicer then the bigger 103's.

Wasnt it meant to be snowing up north - looks like you have better weather there then down here in London - been raining non stop - i want to wash my car :headbang:
 
johnsh123 said:
I've got 16" wheels on my Z4, keep lusting after 17" or 18" for cosmetic reasons, trouble is with the crap roads around Ayrshire and the harshish ride of the Z4 I think I might regret spending/wasting the dosh.
Any thoughts anybody?.
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Ride is ok on 18s,as long as u r not on runflats :D
where abouts in ayrshire are u?

Ally,wonder wheels is qt harmfull to some alloys(espcly splitrims). the best and safest is bilbery safe wheel cleaner :thumbsup:
 
Thanks Ally and Craig,

"I think you'll be fine on 17"s or 18"s. I had a brief drive yesterday with the 16"s fitted and didn't find the ride that much - if any - better than with my 18"s. Part of that could be down to having non-runflats on my 18"s while the 16"s still have the original runflats fitted. If you were to upgrade, I'd suggest skipping the 17" and going straight for 18" if it's for cosmetic reasons: Z4's look great wth 18"s IMO."

"Ride is ok on 18s,as long as u r not on runflats :D
where abouts in ayrshire are u?"

I'm in darkest Dalrymple a few miles south east of Ayr town.

Think I'll go for 18"s then, there's a set of M wheels on Ebay now that need a refurb, if I can convince the boss that is!, what is it with women always going on about food, heating and other such trivia. :D

My 16" wheels are fitted with runflats, and I've got to say I'm not at all impressed, we do actually have some really good country roads around here that my last couple of cars, a turbo Astra, good fun!, and a Scooby WRX, wonderful!, gave me a lot of confidence on, my first few quick drives with the Z4 left me a trembling wreck, so I'm looking for a big improvement when I change to conventional tires. Dont get me wrong now I've got used to the interesting B road handling of the Z4 I love it to bits, the car that is, not the handling.

a11y, Looking at your pictures with the 16" wheels they don't look bad at all!.
 
Excellent work Ally! Hard to imagine they were abandoned down the side of my shed for 3 years - came out covered in ivy, dust, dirt and spiders. Sorry about the weights - had I intended keeping the wheels on the car they would have been moved to the inside too.

Car looks very shiny! Even the wheels look okay... wonder if that's the Eibachs?

(looks a nice place to live :thumbsup: )
 
powerontap said:
Sorry, 16'' wheels just don't do it for me...
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totally agree, just doesnt look right. 18's minimum for best visual effect i reckon. was driving along side a z4 with these very wheels on today, lacked any sort of impact and doesnt do the z4 any justice.
 
PawnSacrifice said:
Excellent work Ally! Hard to imagine they were abandoned down the side of my shed for 3 years - came out covered in ivy, dust, dirt and spiders. Sorry about the weights - had I intended keeping the wheels on the car they would have been moved to the inside too.

Car looks very shiny! Even the wheels look okay... wonder if that's the Eibachs?

(looks a nice place to live :thumbsup: )
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Yeah it was the spiders that were most amusing to find - some even survived the journey north :D. Can't thank you enough for them though (the wheels, not just the spiders!), really appreciated it :thumbsup:

Not sure if the Eibachs have made the 16"s look better? Could be, but I'm happy enough with the appearance of them on my Z4 to make do for 4 months of the year over winter when I'll have them fitted. The weights will be replaced with inside sticky-on ones when I get winter tyres fitted. Certainly not got the visual impact of 18"s or even 17"s, but at the moment I'd rather stick my money into my camper conversion than another set of alloys which would be purely for winter use.

Oh, and our house is for sale if anyone wants it! Great house but waaaaay too big for us (6 bedrooms, 4 reception rooms, got too ambitious when we bought it :oops:) and we're looking for a move somewhere closer to family/mates. Nice big garage for a Z4 too and excellent views :thumbsup:
 
Nosa said:
Couple for sale in my estate M8
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Ah, we've got a house in mind in Stirling already but can't shift ours - wrong time to be trying to sell a big house at the top end of the market for Falkirk :(

Not sure I could handle living that close to the inlaws in Dunfermline! Although daily Z4 mini-meets would be cool :D
 
a11y said:
Nosa said:
Couple for sale in my estate M8
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Ah, we've got a house in mind in Stirling already but can't shift ours - wrong time to be trying to sell a big house at the top end of the market for Falkirk :(

Not sure I could handle living that close to the inlaws in Dunfermline! Although daily Z4 mini-meets would be cool :D
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See i was more thinking of waiting till you had neglected to garage the car one night and i would then have a nice set of new wheels :wink:
 
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