Wheel upgrade

[thomasalva]

I just bought my first 911 (black 1989 Coupe) a couple of weeks ago, and everything is great so far. I am needing to replace the tires, and I am trying to decide whether to upgrade the wheels at the same time. I don't plan to race the car, and I am thinking that 17s would be the best all-around choice. The original Fuchs are 16 inch and are in good shape, but later model wheels look nice on the older cars.

Does anyone have any advice? Should I avoid hub adapters/spacers? If not, would 993 wheels be a good choice? Should I stick with the Fuchs?

Thanks

[jester911]

Well first off, it is a must to include pics with your first post

As far as the wheels, there are as many options as there are opinions. I think you will find the consensus here for the most part is that fuchs are the best on the older cars.

That being said, it is your car and you can personalize it anyway you want.

Buy some other wheels and keep the fuchs. You can always switch back.
If you resell it you will probably want the original wheels on it.

[bigrubberjeep]

What ever you do, don't sell your Fuch's if youhave room to store them, they are becoming more and more hard to come by (expecially the 9"x16). Updated wheels are nice, I know I looked like a mad man for the following 4 months after i got my car. But in the end I realized you can customize the wheels you have with any color, polish, crome, anodized style that you prefer. So I guess what I am saying is, for a fraction of the cost, you can have your wheels refurbished to look like new in any style combination you prefer. Just by .02

[Yellowbird RS]

1st post some pics. of your car.
my .02 cents bbs 17x8" / 9.5"
not my car.

[unclebilly]

I'll trade you my 17's for your Fuchs... hmmm, how wide are they?

[nixter]

Cups wheels would look quite nice on your car. Then again your car is black so blacked out fuchs with polished lips would look pretty mean!


Nix.

[porsche356a]

Wow, notoriety!

Just for the record, the BBS on my coupe are 7.5 on the fronts.

[thomasalva]

Thanks for everyone's opinions and ideas. It's almost dark now, so the picture looks a little strange, but it's better than nothing.

[JeremyD]

Move your 7's to the front and get some 9's for the rear and polish those babies up - Polished fuchs look great on black cars - do a search - one of my favs is Mike's targa - he has a 3.6 in the rear now...

[Carrera3.5L]

Congrats on the '89, you will certainly enjoy it. If your car is original, you probably have 6's in the front and 8's in the rear, not 7's as someone else mentioned. 6's & 7's are the common size for late 80's 911 Carrera's but in 1989 Porsche put 8's in the rear. Looking at your picture seems to confirm the 8's in the rear.

Probably the cheapest route for you would be to ditch the 6's in front and replace with 7's. A 7/8 combo is decent for the street and it won't set you back much. A good pair of 7's can be had used anywhere from $250-$400 plus you can get back half of that by selling your 6's.

Run 205/55/16 in the front and 225/50/16 in the rear and you are good to go.

I've had BBS wheels on my car, and they do look nice, but I prefer the original Fuchs myself, if only for ease of cleaning!

Just an idea.

Ralph

[JeremyD]

Yes, I need my get my money back on my reading comprehension class. Didn't notice you had a 1989 - till I re-read. 8's on the back. Get some 7's.

[thomasalva]

Using the scientific method of sticking a ruler through the wheel with my hand on the inside, the fronts measure 7 and the rears 9. I checked the owners manual and it verified 7/9 was original. The current tires I have are 205/55 fronts and 225/50 rear. The book says 205/55 and 225/45, so I suppose I should stick with those sizes.

I bought Wayne Dempsey's 101 Projects book the other day, and he has a whole section about polishing. I know the Fuchs are good wheels, so I think my best option may indeed be to polish them out and buy some new tires. I can always keep an eye out for BBS wheels if I decide to go that route in the future.

I really appreciate all the input from everyone. I'm going to be asking about interior replacement (seats/carpets) after I get the tire situation ironed out.

[Carrera3.5L]

I'd like to take a look at your owner's manual, because only the 930's had 7's and 9's. In those instances, the correct tire size would be 205/55 and 245/45 respectively. Your Carrera came from the factory with 6's and 8's with a 205/55 and 225/50 respectively. I think a 225/50 would look strange on a 9" wheel, but I can't tell from the picture you posted.

Perhaps your wheels aren't original with the car after all???

If in fact your wheels for some reason are 7's and 9's, hang on to them because they are worth some good money, although use the proper 245/45 rear tire.

The 8's and 9's are visually similar on the exterior, the extra inch is on the inboard side. If you want to confirm, pull off one of the rear wheels, it will have the wheel size on an inside spoke (ex. 8J x 16 or 9J x 16).

Interested to find out what you actually have.

Ralph

[thomasalva]

I started thinking the same thing (about the 225 width) and double-checked the book. I didn't realize I was looking at the turbo spec page. I also pulled the wheels to verify, and you are correct. I have 6 fronts and 8 rears, so I will do as you suggested and try and locate a set of 7s for the front. Sorry for the bad info...

[bigrubberjeep]

Not ONLY the 930's had 9" in the rear, the 911M491 did too, then again, they were the same car ecept N/A 3.2 Vs Turbo Charged

[Bill Verburg]

Using the scientific method of sticking a ruler through the wheel with my hand on the inside, the fronts measure 7 and the rears 9. I checked the owners manual and it verified 7/9 was original. The current tires I have are 205/55 fronts and 225/50 rear. The book says 205/55 and 225/45, so I suppose I should stick with those sizes.

The scientific method strikes once again

That is not the way to measure nominal wheel width.

Here's what needs to be done
materials
* 2 rigid pieces of wood(slats) that fit across the diameter of the wheel, these need to be short enough to not hit the tire but long enough to lay across the outer flanges.

*1 tape measure

*a couple of long rubber bands would help hold the wood slats across the front and back face and free up your hands

2 possible methods
method 1
place the slats across the front and rear face of the wheel
measure through the spoke holes the distance between them. this is overall width
and
measure from the front piece to the mounting face, this is front space
or(easier)
measure from the back piece to the mounting face, this is backspace

method 2
measure front space and backspace

Thats all we need any 2 of the frontspace, backspace or overall width.

The above originally appeared in this thread