I watched that episode a while back! It was sad, no doubt. I was really pulling for it. No kidding, might make a nice investment wouldn't it? Haha

I appreciate the encouragement, Charlie!

 

Bill at GBR told me that he uses extra length splines and that the stock ones are short. This was in answer to my question about needing a shorter or longer rear driveshaft to accommodate transmission swap to zfhp24.

I am pretty sure I have an old stock driveshaft I'm the garage that is in some state of disrepair. I'll see if I can tell how long the spline is. I don't speak metric but I'll give you whatever measurements I can find.

 

Awesome, Charlie. Much appreciated!

 

It's almost summer again! I've got a summer job coming up and I've already started looking at parts again. Parts I probably still won't be able to buy this summer because I have repairs to be made and Discover cards to pay off from daily driver repairs that had to be made.

Anyway, doesn't stop me from looking and of course when you look you find things you like. What do I like? Dish Mags.

Ok, bear with me. I did a lot of searching. Almost nobody makes a 35" tire for a 16" rim other than super swamper, and I don't have that kind of money. I don't have any kind of money, but I won't have that kind for much longer than I'll have the lesser kind. With this in mind I started looking at rims, but I didn't want 17s. Next logical choice is of course 15s which, typically anyway, don't fit on our discos. Typically. However some 15s do fit. Well if that's the case then why couldn't any 15s fit with a little help? See where I'm going with this? I'm talking about pulling out the angle grinder, guys. Pulling him out and going to town on my calipers. Now, if I am correct then the calipers are made of cast steel, not cast iron. If that's the case then I can weld some reinforcements to the sides of them to make up for the structural mess that I will have created.

So on to my further issues. I really like the look of these dish mags. They're 1" wider than factory rims and I think they look really good. I haven't mocked them up on the Disco in Photoshop yet, but I'm going to. Just one issue. The tightest I can find them is a +1 offset and our factory rims are +57mm offset. That means that there is about a 2.2" offset change. I've had 2" wheel spacers on it before (and quickly sent them back. Never buy cheap wheel spacers) and I like the look, but that was with 255 tires, not 12.50s. I'm thinking of going for it anyway. I need to look up those pictures of Charlie's truck. If I recall he's running about 34" tires with 2" spacers.

In other news, I'm starting to reconsider moving the axle back. I think it would be a super neat project, but it would (as has been mentioned) change my turn radius. I really like the way it turns now and I don't think I want to mess with that. Furthermore I would have to cut and modify the crossmember at the forward end of the gas tank and maybe even move or replace the tank with a fuel cell. Frankly I don't want to mess with that. Still might have to replace it with a cell if I bob it.

My tastes are changing, boys. I have a lot I'm considering. The one thing I do know for sure? I still want 35s and I still want the top to come off.

 

FYI

 

Welp... there's that.

Now I debate... do I want to use the $22/tire price difference as an excuse to spend $135/rim on a set of rims.

Here's the mock up I did. I think the tires are a bit smaller than 35s, but still gives a representation of the rims. I like them, but I'm not sure I like them enough to spend the money on them. The poor thing needs some serious TLC.

 

If you are asking, IMHO those rims look like the wheels off a Chevy Conversion Van from the 80's. I'm not a fan, but it's your rig.....
if you like them that's all that matters.

 

Definitely gives it an older look. Dish mags were first released in the 50s, so it makes sense they look old. That said, the more I look at them the more I like them. Still not sure if I could live with that wide of am offset though. I may still yet look for something similar from a different company.