Fiat 850 Coupe - Wide Wheels

A

Attard_850

Low Mileage
Hi all,

My first post here, one of many to come hopefully. I own a 1970 Fiat 850 Sport Coupe which I have been slowly building over the last few years. After many distractions and speed humps, I have gotten back into the build with determination to get it finished.

I am currently getting the panel work redone as the person who started it failed to do a job that was worthy of keeping. So at my expense it's being done properly this time around.

The rest of the cars parts have been restored, replaced or repaired and is sitting in a pile of boxes & cabinets awaiting assembly.

I however am on a mission to get some wide steel wheels (deep dish/ banded) made up for it to fit under the stock guards/ fenders.

Does anybody have information on what diameter, width & offset/back spacing can fit?

I have seen many interesting builds of coupes including a 1300 Abarth and also a blue coupe by a user known as "John T" with wide steel rims, but no on mentions the offset or back spacing, a very important measurement to have!

Looking forward to all the comments, technical info & pictures!

Aaron.
 
Clark said:
Welcome to the forum Aaron. Good to have you aboard.
Click to expand...



Thanks Clark, I am hoping someone is able to chime in with some useful information regarding the wheels! There doesn't seem to be much out there that I can find.


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Welcome Aaron.

You should contact John T as he is a fairly amenable character. Jeff Stich would be another excellent person to converse with on the subject.

6" rims will work and I have seen wider installed.

You don't want to put too much tire or rim on one as they really don't have the horsepower to push big tires and rims down the road.
 
Aron,
Offset for inner and outer fender clearance can be determined by following a measurement procedure, which you could find on the internet.
Search for "wheel offset measurement" and expand your search from there. Look at images and articals to see exactly how it's done.
My wheels have an 4.5" offset, but not because I selected that measurement. I found 2 wheels at a swapmeet that already had that measurement. I had 2 more made to match the two I had in 7" width.

On my car the only rubbing I get is under hard brake at full steer lock, the inner front fender gets a slight rub. The rear has no problem and I think 8" wide could fit with the right tire.

Wheel rims/hoops can be obtained from golf cart wheel supplier upto around 10" wide.
Cheers!

15324268668_6fea762a43_o.jpg
 
johnt said:
Aron,
Offset for inner and outer fender clearance can be determined by following a measurement procedure, which you could find on the internet.
Search for "wheel offset measurement" and expand your search from there. Look at images and articals to see exactly how it's done.
My wheels have an 4.5" offset, but not because I selected that measurement. I found 2 wheels at a swapmeet that already had that measurement. I had 2 more made to match the two I had in 7" width.

On my car the only rubbing I get is under hard brake at full steer lock, the inner front fender gets a slight rub. The rear has no problem and I think 8" wide could fit with the right tire.

Wheel rims/hoops can be obtained from golf cart wheel supplier upto around 10" wide.
Cheers!

15324268668_6fea762a43_o.jpg
Click to expand...



Hi John,

Thanks for chiming in for the info!
I love how your wheels look and was having trouble finding much information about similar wheels.

You say you have 4.5" offset, do you mean 4.5" backset? (Distance from rear lip to mounting surface.)

I have a local guy with a set of new fiat 500 steel rims that could be modified, though I would need to find nice moon caps to suit the new style steel rims.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Yes, something like that; it's really called "positive" or negative" offset to be accurate.
Measurement is from the backside wheel lip to mounting surface. Like I mentioned before, I didn't do proper measurement to determine 4.5 "positive" offset on a 7" wide rim. I actually think an offset closer to zero would have been better to bring the wheel inboard more for my car.

Here is a simple search to start learning about wheel offset

This is a pic of how to do the outer lip clearance measurement.

This is a pic of how to do the inner fender clearance measurement.

Also take into consideration the outside width of the tire (i.e sidewall) based on the width of your rim.

I really don't want anyone to misunderstand this stuff and to end up with something useless.:cry:
 
johnt said:
Yes, something like that; it's really called "positive" or negative" offset to be accurate.
Measurement is from the backside wheel lip to mounting surface. Like I mentioned before, I didn't do proper measurement to determine 4.5 "positive" offset on a 7" wide rim. I actually think an offset closer to zero would have been better to bring the wheel inboard more for my car.

Here is a simple search to start learning about wheel offset

This is a pic of how to do the outer lip clearance measurement.

This is a pic of how to do the inner fender clearance measurement.

Also take into consideration the outside width of the tire (i.e sidewall) based on the width of your rim.

I really don't want anyone to misunderstand this stuff and to end up with something useless.:cry:
Click to expand...



Thanks John, I will certainly make sure I choose the right wheels based on this!

How is your car coming along? Any new videos available?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
If you look at it relative to the OE size from back in the day, 155/80 13, the 185/70 13 brings you back to the original diameter versus the 185/60 13s.

You need a longer final drive out of a Sedan :) which would help
 
kmead said:
If you look at it relative to the OE size from back in the day, 155/80 13, the 185/70 13 brings you back to the original diameter versus the 185/60 13s.

You need a longer final drive out of a Sedan :) which would help
Click to expand...

I installed a final drive out of a sedan.:eek: "Seeing is believing" is what this picture is about.
Here it is nearly 6K RPM at 80 MPH. Next step is taller tires or Simca 1000 final drive.
Maybe I should just slow down. :rolleyes:
31132887636_5639109536_o.jpg
 
Mmmmm, I have buried the tach to redline and a bit more running down the 210 coming back from Las Tunas back to Pasadena. Thinking about it after the fact it did strike me as a less than smart thing to do as a locked up engine that blew up at that speed would be more than a little exciting...

I am surprised that these little cars can pull themselves up to 80 plus, my wife was a little displeased with me as I was bringing mine home from storage recently and we blew past a state cop at just over 80. I can't help myself :)
 
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