FAQ: Rims, Wheels that Look Good on the Riv

You may be right, Aaron, that those rims are not sophisticated enough for the Riv. In general, I want to make my Riv look somewhat more sporty and aggressive while still retaining the Buick class. It's a tricky balancing act.

That site (www.elites-wholesale.com) appears to be a good one for finding afforable options.

It's a shame the CTS-V calipers didn't work out.

13" rotors and a good set of pads would be a fine improvement for a set of 20"s. The CTS-V calipers are good for the track, but more for show on the street. They would let you use a larger pad though, which is good for durability - same with F-Body calipers.

Thought I'd jump in here. I just ordered a set of Vagare V9 Mayan 17 x 8 wheels from Summit. $715 dropshipped to the door. I went with Summit because I tried to get 2 other type of wheels earlier. One was off a store on E-Bay that I was watching for months. When I went to order he said they were backordered from the company and he didn't know when they would be able to get them. I checked another place and they said the same thing. I went to my back up wheel and tried a place off the internet and they gave me the same song and dance about this completely different brand of wheel. What I'm getting at is that when you go after these off-brand wheels sometimes they may be only selling air. Who knows how long it may have taken? I know I wasn't taking a chance. I figured going through Summit might give me a better chance if there's a problem or they don't come in in a reasonable time frame. The other thing was I could've gotten them cheaper from a wheel place but when the shipping is added Summit was only a few dollars more.

I went with this model because I wanted something that was "stockish" and didn't show off too much of the brakes because I have no plans on upgrading them. Maybe some lowering later.



I also went with the 17's because after staring at the factory wheels I decided that the sidewall would be getting a little too short with 18's and I do want to keep the ride nice. The upgrade to 17's with 245-50-17's should help the handling considerably without bothering the ride. There were more 225-55-17's available but they wouldn't be any wider than the factory ones, just a shorter sidewall. There are limited different brands of the 245's with the General UHPs being the only reasonably priced ones at $113 from Tirerack. I'm not buying them until the wheels have arrived. If I went to the 245-45-18's there were plenty of options although more expensive than the 17's.



Now what I'd like to know is has anybody been using the Hub Centric Rings to fit their cars? They are what centers the wheel on your hub, not the lugs. From what I've read they are mandatory with almost all aftermarket wheels these days. Has anybody purchased these for their wheels? Summit has what I need (only $10+ship) from Gorilla (73-7030) which would be a 73.1 ID of the wheel and a 70.3 mm hub on the car. Unfortunately they wouldn't be shipped until late in August and being an optimist I'm thinking the wheels will be here sooner. We'll see. I'm wondering if anybody has gotten these off the web or even better from local source and what brand were they?

I was thinking that the guy who had problems with out of round wheels might have been helped out by a set. Just something to consider.

I'll post some pics once I get them in and mounted.

Mike

Looks like a nice choice. I personally prefer to have lug nut covers when the number of spokes is not divisible by 5. I have heard that the difference between 17" and 18" is where the ride starts to go south but I would like to hear opinions from others who have tried a variety of diameters.

No-Lift wrote:

Thought I'd jump in here. I just ordered a set of Vagare V9 Mayan 17 x 8 wheels from Summit. $715 dropshipped to the door.

I think those rims will look good on the Riv. Good choice. Yes, please post pictures of them mounted.

no-lift wrote: Now what I'd like to know is has anybody been using the Hub Centric Rings to fit their cars? i had a set that came with a set of rims i bought off tirerack.com years ago. they were made of plastic and they did not last long. new rims should come with them. but allways ask. i heard tell of these same rings made from aluminium. but ive never seen them. i would ask for those

Here is a cell phone pic of my riv with the 18's I bought a couple months ago. I went up in size from 16's and I can say the ride is a little stiffer now with the 18's but not noticable enough to where I would say it rides bad. Even with the 18's my riv still rides better than some cars I've gotten a ride in. I went with a 245/45/18 tire so it's still really close to the same overall diameter as the stock tire size.

Since this picture I have painted the brake calipers satin black also, looks good now that the calipers don't stick out like a rusty sore thumb.

Nice, I think those look really good!

The chrome always looks great on a black car, IMO

Love the exterior and interior color combination nailhead! What a slick car.

robotennis61 wrote:

no-lift wrote: Now what I'd like to know is has anybody been using the Hub Centric Rings to fit their cars? i had a set that came with a set of rims i bought off tirerack.com years ago. they were made of plastic and they did not last long. new rims should come with them. but allways ask. i heard tell of these same rings made from aluminium. but ive never seen them. i would ask for those

I have aluminum hub rings on my wheels. I think the set of four cost $15-$20 don't remember for sure though.

Thanks Jack, yeah the black with light gray interior is not a combo you see too often.

I will also give my vote for the centering rings if you are running aftermarket rims, I should get some new ones for mine. I have the plastic ones and they have been on there for 10 years and are starting to show some wear. I even leave them on in the winter when I put the factory rims back on...

Question:
If your running wheels, aftermarket or not, that have the correct bolt pattern (5X115) what advantage does the centering rings give you.
I've seen them for sale and was wondering how they are sized and what size is correct for our hubs?
Thanks for any input and clarification.

sometimes when you tighten the wheel nuts it may still not go in 100% centre. so you may notice a small vibration on higher speeds or notice that the tyres wear out weard.
it also holds stronger on the wheelhub.
cos instead of just beeing tight on from nuts its also tight from centre.

well thats what they told me in car scool and tyre/rim shop.

Well that makes sense, all wheels should have them then, I guess.
I would imagine they come in different diameter's based on your hubs....
So what diameter would we need for the Riv.???

One rim that Ive always wanted and I can never find nowadays is a 20" KMC Unit wheel. There was a drug dealer who's wife lived across the street from me and he had a Corvette with 20s on the rear and 19's on the front and they looked so damn good but I couldnt afford them, then a few years ago a guy had a pair on 20s and sold them for $250 to take his girl out on a date for her birthday and nobody told me until the day AFTER he sold them.

Scott, do you remember what brand name the aluminum rings were?

Rick, the Riviera has a 70.3 mm O.D. hub and you would need to know what size the I.D. is of the wheel you're getting to get the right adapter.

Basically the adapters center the wheel on the hub while the lugs do the clamping. What Timo said.

I found this place but they are plastic. So are the Gorilla and American Racing.

http://www.justforwheels.com/index.jsp?cat=hubcentric

Thanks for the info.
I saw some aluminum ones on one of the sites that i looked at while looking for aftermarket wheels. I'll have to check all my bookmarks and see if I can find it again.

I don't know the brand of rings that I got. The place I bought the rims (global wheels on eBay) set me up with the rings.

Well finally got around to posting these. My wife wanted chrome. Well she got chrome. They do gleam when the light hits them.

Recapping: Vagare V9 Mayan 17x8 and General Exclaim UHP 245 50R17.

When I saw one picture of them I was afraid they would be a little too "open spoked" for me, because I don't want to have to make the brakes look nice, but they are just right. They are the same height as the factory tire but because of their extra width they really fill in the wheelwells nicely. Gives it a much more hunkered down look.

I'm thinking about 1" of lowering down the road but one problem is when I had a passenger in the back there was some minor rubbing on bounces on the top of the tire in the back. Right now the load leveler is not working so that will fix that but I will have to be carefull about lowering it.






I got the wheels from Summit and they came within a week even though they did not ship from their warehouse but from their supplier. The big thing is they didn't charge any extra shipping so their price was competitive with other internet places that charge shipping. The tires came from Tire Rack and took no time at all to get. Pretty much overnight. You're a little limited on selection at this size but it turns out this was the cheapest tire but it was very highly rated. The 225 55R17 size had plenty to pick from but I wanted the extra width. If I would've gone for the 18" size it would've added about $200 to the total cost but opened up the selection of reasonably priced tires a bit. As it is these tires seem to be hooking up when heavy throttle is applied off the line so that is a plus and the ride is pretty much unchanged except for the better handling. If it was my car only I would put up with the slightly harsher ride and go for the 18's.

I got "hub centric rings" from www.vortextuning.com through E-Bay for $9 total and they only took a few days to come in. They are plastic but they did their job. Also I picked up a set of Dorman Spline Drive lugnuts from Advance Auto. I figure that will slow down anybody that wants these wheels.

All total it cost around $1300 for everything so even for a fairly inexpensive setup it is not cheap. The UHP's are summer tires and they work well even driving in heavy rain but I'll be running my skinny Yoko 205 65R16's on the factory rims for winter driving which will also preserve the chrome. These babies have to last!

Mike

palermocorey90 wrote:

This is probably a better thread for this post.
I really like this look. Does anyone know who makes these rims and what size they are? Corey? Much thanks.

- Steve

Hey guys Im thinking of adding some rims to my car, what do you think, the ones I'm looking at are the Forte F46 D-Tox

Front/Rear Size: 17 x 7.5
Finish: Mirror Black
Offset: +45mm
Bolt Pattern: 5x115

Front/Rear Size: 245/50R17

link

With the color of your car, Those would be awesome.
I think they would look very good.
But have to look at manufacture technique and other variables next.
Meaning are they cast only, Low pressure cast, low pressure shot peened, Forged, etc.
If you can't find out how these wheels were manufactured, then you are better off looking for a MFG or Vendor that spells this info out for you.
It makes a huge difference.
Look on TireRack.com for the definitions of the different wheel types.
Not necessarily for a place to buy wheels, but you can look.

not bad.