Bent rally wheels, bulging tires....

[Ala75Vette]

Thanks up front for any words of sympathy or condolance you guys may offer. My favorite obsession has, like so many other C3 owners I'm sure, stolen my heart, and once again my wallet is missing. Took the car to a tire store to get the wheels balanced -- it's been vibrating a bit lately, and since I live on a 'bumpy' road, seemed like a good thing to do -- only to find out that 3 of the 4 rally wheels are bent, and the RF tire has a bulge forming in it (hmmm.... a safety hazard, I'm sure). I've got BFG Radial T/A P235/60R15s all around, for a direct replacement locally I'm looking at between $400-$500 (or about the cost of 1 C5 tire, if I want to think of it that way). Best price I've found for a new replacement set of 4 15x8 rally wheels is on ebay -- $180 -- but I'm not sold on those just yet, cuz they're not 'exact' replacements per se. They have both bolt patterns, but otherwise look to be the same as original rally wheels (I'm not stuck on originality, but I do want them to look right, and, you know, mount properly). On top of that, my RR bearings are going out -- another $350 if I let my local vette shop replace them. Guess I'm just a little depressed about having to lay out $600-$700 on tires/wheels + another $350 on bearings when I was hoping to start saving for some engine performance enhancements. Haven't told my 'significant other' yet.... I'll probably save that for after the second beer....

 

[wolf_walker]

Man, I tell ya, there beautiful cars, they handle and stop better than most anything else american there age. BUT, if there worn out or have been a serious daily driver, they will kill you with parts bills.

I'll tell you ahead of time, as many others will I'm sure. If your going to keep the car go ahead and plan to blow a few grand on the brakes, suspension and stearing before you ever get to the motor. If one rear bearing is going the other will follow, and the brakes and stearing will usually not be far behind...



You tire choice sounds good, I should have gone with 60's instead of 70's myself, ah well..

I don't know about the rims, they look like pretty basic chevy rally's to me, just verify the backspacing on anything you get.

 

[Stingray72]

When I got new wheels and tires, the shop found that all four of my original wheels were bent! I've kept some reservations about just how 'bent' they were, but I'm always suspicious and un-trusting of anybody doing work on my cars. I'm sorry to hear of your unexpected expense, but it makes me feel better that this has happened to someone else, too.

 

[78SilvAnniv]

As the driver of...

...a daily driver, I appreciate the cost it takes to keep these beautiful vettes rolling in a safe and dependable manner. It is not quite, but almost, like a car payment...that you tend to pay in huge sums when you least expect it!

I have a question...how do rims get bent in the first place?
Is this from bouncing off of curbs?
Silver

 

[Ala75Vette]

Thanks for your words, ladies and gents. I'm always suspicious of maintenance shops, too, but in this case they took me over to the tire balancer and showed me just how bent at least one of my rims was (kind of made me wonder why I wasn't noticing a little more 'bounce' in my gittyup). And Silver, rims can get bent in a variety of ways, but as you'd expect, it normally does take a pretty good jolt to bend them (hitting big holes at high speed, an auto accident, maybe, or some other very noticeable 'incident'). Keeping that daily driver driving does cost, but at least to me it's worth it!