My '95 Caprice Classic STW, "Sally"

[sly]

+1 on centers. Also, looks drag race ready.

[Arquemann]

Another thing I dunno if it looks shit or not. I'm kinda cheap so it wouldn't be a bad choice.
The stupid chinese knockoff Outlaws have completely random center bores. The car's center bore is 78,3mm, but the wheels have something a bit-too-much larger and without the adapter ring its big enough to put a fist through it. But the 9C1 center caps would bolt on.

[friskyfrankie]

Personally, I like it MUCH better with center caps! The wheels look easy to keep clean which is an added bonus. As long as the rims balance well, you've got a winning situation.

[Arquemann]

As long as the rims balance well, you've got a winning situation.

BAH! There's probably a pound of weights in total. You probably missed the last line of my previous post on page 13

[friskyfrankie]

Actually I did read it. An issue since you probably needed more than you should but I assumed after all those "un natural acts" they were finally balanced?

[Arquemann]

Actually I did read it. An issue since you probably needed more than you should but I assumed after all those "un natural acts" they were finally balanced?

I haven't had it above 90kmh yet, but so far they seem balanced okay. Bigger question is how long will the weights stay on, I feel like this country has zero wheel weights that actually stay on.

[friskyfrankie]

Have seen wheels throwing weights here too. As long as they were properly installed you should not any problems.

[gadget73]

wheels that need that many weights are usually bent. Or the balancer is f'd

[Arquemann]

wheels that need that many weights are usually bent. Or the balancer is f'd

One of the wheels is slightly bent. The wheels are old and cheap pieces of garbage, super heavy too. Pair those with cheap chinese tires and you get just what I got. Double stacked weights.

235/75r15 seems to be an odd size over here, small selection and kinda pricy. Most options are All Terrains or dummy expensive, so basically the choice was down to Vitour, Nankang and Linglong. Nankangs and Vitours were both about 40€ more per tire and were whitewalls. The Linglong GreenMax Ecotouring tires I got were 93€ a piece. Supposedly they are a good tire for the price, the unbalancedness just doesn't strike the confidence in me yet.

[sly]

Yes, I think the centers on there make it look better even if they don't fit perfectly.

[Arquemann]

The threads for the center caps in the wheels have been guesstimated at 5/16-18. Well they're that now. Where the fuck am I going to find bolts that size... Should've just jammed the M8 tap there instead.
Also the center caps are receiving a bit of a freshen up, polishing the chrome and repainting the silver bits.

[friskyfrankie]

The threads for the center caps in the wheels have been guesstimated at 5/16-18. Well they're that now. Where the fuck am I going to find bolts that size... Should've just jammed the M8 tap there instead.
Also the center caps are receiving a bit of a freshen up, polishing the chrome and repainting the silver bits.

This looks like it might be a good source (not sure of shipping to your country) but they do have a wide variety and the wheels do look much better with the caps. Hope you can make it work!

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/bo...-size~5-16-18/

[Arquemann]

This looks like it might be a good source (not sure of shipping to your country) but they do have a wide variety and the wheels do look much better with the caps. Hope you can make it work!

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/bo...-size~5-16-18/

I do have finnish sources for imperial bolts, but I really don't feel like doing a 2 hour round trip to get a dozen unbelievably overpriced bolts. Like 5€ a piece is just nuts! Normal metric bolts are like 30 cents a piece and within walking distance.
Eh, I've gotta go buy the silver paint tomorrow, so might aswell go ask an old school parts store and one industrial place for them. The cheapest I've found the bolts I need is in a damn 144pc assortment that's 25€...

[Arquemann]

I have my bolts now, center caps are painted, and I got a new windshield on friday.
Windshield is fine but every single fucking thing touched replacing it was totally half-assed...
- The rust and crap they scraped off the window frame is all over the interior
- Cowl clips are almost all broken, they're generic stuff ffs
- Wipers were put back way off
- Rear view mirror mounting pad is glued crooked
- My parking apparatus was also glued crooked (I already yanked it off because it pissed me off)
- And the goddamn new windshield was wiped with a dirty rag, streaks inside and outside
Atleast I have a new windshield and the rust underneath it is fixed. But holy fuck the halfassery from a reputable company.

I've also picked up 65 grams worth of wheel weights from just the driveway, so I think I'll get the wheels rebalanced next week and probably put speed tape on top of the weights.
So I'm delaying putting on the refinished center caps for a little while.


Looking to do a couple things in the near future:
- Wetvac the carpet and maybe front seats
- Fix the AC, in case the MGM blows up. I've got the parts already
- Change the diff oil, it's kinda whiny so I might go thicker

[gadget73]

whiny diff is usually not enough bearing preload on the pinion. The right fix is to take it apart and replace the crush collar. The right now fix is to pull the drive shaft, confirm the rolling torque against book spec, and tighten the pinion nut a bit if needed to get the rolling torque up to where it should be per the manual.

did that on the Continental when I had to change the pinion seal. It was puking oil and had a bit of whine. Zero preload. Changed the seal, tightened it until it hit whatever the Ford spec was and its perfectly quiet now. Thats actually in the official service manual procedure for that. check before taking it apart, if its over spec put it back where it was, if its under spec tighten until its in spec.