# Costly Education on offsets



## snoslyd (Mar 9, 2010)

Hey guys, just posting my experience as a cautionary tale for other novice car guys like myself. I am "restoring" my '65 to original condition, which includes removing the slot mags my brother put on the car and purchasing reproduction steel wheels and dogdish hubcaps.
I originally ordered five steelies from my supplier and received two. The other three were on backorder. I put the two on the rear of the car and was surprised at how close the inside of the wheel was to the shock mount. So close that the rim weights rubbed the shock mount. I thought I could outsmart the situation and instead used sticky weights on the inside. Problem solved.
After waiting (admittedly impatient) 2 months for the backordered wheels, I cancelled the order and ordered the 3 steelies from another supplier. These wheels arrived a week later and I was overjoyed...until I opened the box and noticed the wheel center appeared shallower than my other two. A quick measurement confirmed the horrible fact that the first two are 1/2" offset from center and the later three are 1" offset.

Now for the real kicker. I got a hold of an original wheel and...you guessed it...the centers are at 0 offset. Dead center of the rim. 

The moral of the story is to pay attention to the offset of the reproduction wheels you are buying. When the supplier says OEM-Style, that doesn't mean original dimensions.


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

Thanks for the post. Yep, it's all in the wording. 'Style' does NOT mean the same part. It does keep the vendor covered though, since they didn't claim that the wheels were the same dimensions as originals. I deal with this type of issue a LOT. A real PITA......


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Hard to beat original early style 14x6 steel wheels. each early year A body 14x6 seem to have its own ID code. Nice thing about originals is they will have the three nubs to attach the poverty caps. Not all new steel wheels touted as "period correct", have that feature.

An old friend, Jim and I both rescued '64 442 post cars with their original 14x6 wheels in the late 90's and early 00's. Both were very adventurous projects. Been looking for the wheels off mine, they have to be on one of my partscars... anyway... do know, they were different codes than the original 14x6's on Jim's '64 GTO. Can't find correct '64, 65, 66, or '67 GTO (drum brake) 14x6 wheels, can source '68 14x6 drum wheels off a V8 LeMans or GTO, they will work on any drum brake '64-67.

As far as different offsets go, several years ago, I sold a super clean original set of 14x6 4 3/4 bolt pattern wheels off a '67 drum brake Chevy wagon. I picked them up knowing they were early 14x6's, but after getting them to the warehouse, they def had a different offset than 6 coded '67 GTO/Sprint6 wheels I had.


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