Wheels, Wheels, Wheels

OK, I spent most of the day Friday looking at various custom aluminum wheels. :eek

I started with the letter A and found manufacturers or wholesalers with every letter of the alphabet all the way to X and even a couple of Z's. Some foreign makers some US makers. (Wish I could insert a characture of one pulling his hair out here. WAIT I DON'T HAVE ANY LEFT TO PULL OUT. NEVERMIND)

Man I gotta tell ya, there are some beautiful wheels out there and a range from $145 each to $1500 each. Some with satin finish. Some with polished finish. some with chrome finish. I even found a great looking set from a foreign company that is applying gold and/or titainium for accents on the wheels. The price on these was way outtta my league :willy: so I'm not gonna post their price (not to mention the didn't fit the SSR offset and bolt patern, but boy were they cool). They would have realy looked great on my SSR though.

Eventually after sifting through all the possibilties and prices, it came down to a set of Boyd Smoothies. Now that I had decided what rim to go with I had to figure out which Wholesaler/Dealer would give me the best price on that wheel :banghead . After a few hours of back tracking to who had the Boyd wheels, and their pricing, it came down to one of two places to order the rims from. One being a company out of Tennessee called Newstalgia wheels, and the other being an insider at Boyds custom wheels. After a phone call to Boyds, there must have been a miscommunication as to what rim I wanted (we were playing phone tag all day, and leaving messages), and his quote was 1/3 more than the company in Tennessee. When I talked to him again we straightened out which rim I wanted and he was going to get a price together for me later (they were in the middle of filming for the American Hot Rod show. I expect to here from him on Monday.

Meanwhile I started loking for tires to put on the new wheels. Another search started with Goodyear, B.F. Goodrich, Michilin, Dunlop, Perrelli, and others. Looked at tread patterns, load ratings, speed ratings, sizing, tire width, tire height, performance characteristics, longevity, warranty, and the all important pricing. (IMAGINE HAIR PULLING CHARACTURE HERE TOO). Hours later and just about running out of ink in the pen (not to mention writers cramp), I had narrowed it down to three tires:

(1) Goodyear Eagle RSA radials,

(2) B.F. Goodrich G-Force T/A KDW2,

(3) Dunlop Sport 9000.

The price range is between $700 per set to just under $900 per set. I'm leaning towards the B.F.G'S . I like the tread pattern, they are the same outer diameter as the stock tires, and have both the 18" for the front and the 20" for the rear. They also have the correct width as the stock tires.

Any experianced input from the forum here, as to these three tires would be appreciated.

Meaning:
wear capabilities
appearance (treads)
other similar comments

I will be watching this thread on and off through out the weekend. Once I here back from my insider at Boyds, I'll be ordering the rims and tires from somewhere.

Thanks for your help, FUZZY

P.S. See attachment photos of tires in post #12