Ford and their parts variations.....

[Travis T]

So I buy a set of 96-98 GT split spoke wheels (in the attached picture) for cheap, and they're the machined faced wheels with silver accents. They also came machined with dark accents and another variation, the entire wheel painted silver. The ones I bought were just intended to be cheap ($50) rollers while I worked on it but I liked the way they looked and knew that two were bent, so I went hunting for a new set. I found a near perfect set on craigslist for $100 but they were the painted wheels. No big deal as I had planned on painting them and polishing the faces. I pick them up and notice that they have plastic center caps instead of metal. No big deal, I'll just take the caps off the machined wheels so I can polish them. Wrong. First thing I notice is that the machined wheels have a notch cut into the wheel to pry the center cap off. The painted wheels have the notch in the plastic cap. I thought ok, either I'll find something to pry the metal cap off without the notch or just file a small notch into the new wheels. Wrong again. I popped the machined metal center cap on the painted wheel, and it won't sit flush with the face of the wheel! The clips on it are too long. I'm making it work, but one would have thought it was one wheel casting with three different available finishes. Just find it funny how many variations of parts there are out there for one model of car.

[tonysilver82]

been there

[AlamoGT]

They look nice on there. I must remember to buy all wheels at once and go over them well after reading this.lol

[Travis T]

I must remember to buy all wheels at once and go over them well after reading this.lol

That's pretty much why I posted this. Silly me, they all looked the same, short of some paint variations!

[BDASPNY]

I never knew they were that different. I had a full painted set on my old 96gt.

[AlamoGT]

I bought my wheels as take offs and they all matched perfectly so I am safe for now.

[ZephyrEFI]

Don't get me started...

[Carolina Man]

Being near Kanapolis, Concord, Charlotte you should be able to get the other 2 wheels repaired.

[Travis T]

That was just cost prohibitive or I would have done that. I was shocked.

[Carolina Man]

That expensive

[ZephyrEFI]

The place I found for wheel repair won't do machined face wheels. They're happy to fix them and paint them silver for you, but I like machined face... So, I didn't do it.

[Travis T]

They wanted a minimum of $100 per wheel if the bends were minor, and that was only to get them back round again. One of them is trashed. A perfect set of those wheels is around $300 in these parts. That's why when I saw four painted ones for $100, I didn't even argue the price as nice as they were.

[Carolina Man]

When I do my 5 lug conversion I plan on getting my wheels from AM. The wheels on CL here is high for take offs.