90 20v Sport Speedlines

[Audiden]

My new Audi wears its original 15" wheels & there are also 4 spares with it too - including the one in the boot.

I've never liked this design of wheel, in that it looks fussy & old fashioned.

But... I'm a stickler for originality, so what should I do? I don't essentially want to mess with the ingredients that make this car reasonably special.

I like the plain Ronals on other Audi 90's, but were these ever fitted to the Sport?

The tyres are 205/50R15's, should they be 60 section tyres?

Can these wheels be easily & successfully refurbished..? They've been badly painted before (including painting over the chrome 'bolts') & this paint is now flaking off, they're corroded & a couple of tyres need changed too. They would need dipped... would this knacker the chrome effect bolts?

So many questions !

[pimpdriver]

Kenquattro will be along in a minute...

[john johnson]

He may be delayed, he could be deciding which trainers to wear and getting them out of their cryogenic safety deposit box

[Coxy]

Pain in the arse to refurb but they do look good on a 90.
You'll have to remove all the bolts and there are 30 per wheel.
And you'll be lucky if you're able to reuse any of them!
You can still buy them but at 40p a bolt, refurbing them becomes expensive.

[Ben]

They are indeed a pain to refurb, I'm part way through refurbing a set, so far I've knocked the heads off the fake bolts with a wood chisel (and intend to glue them back in place) paint stripped and wire brushed back to bare alloy, then sanded the polished rim to remove the corrosion. I can't decide on painting the whole wheel or just the inner and have to keep polishing the rim every month as there is no lacquer product that will stick to a polished alloy surface, which is why they corrode in the first place

It took about 15 hours to get to this point and if I had gone out to work instead, I could have earned the money to pay someone else to strip off the paint.

[David Small]

They do look so much better with a polished rim though, mine are painted but I'm determined to get them back polished during next year. Going to get a set of Series 4 tenspokes to put on the car whilst I do them.

[Kenquattro]

Originally Posted by john johnson

He may be delayed, he could be deciding which trainers to wear and getting them out of their cryogenic safety deposit box

Yes, I decided on my adidas Marathons. lol.

[Audiden]

Mmm... certainly food for thought. Given that the o/s/f tyre has lost 30lbs of pressure in a week and two sidewalls are in a poor state from having been left deflated, I'll need to do something about this situation pretty sharpish.

The Speedlines look good in there 'as new' spec; a quick refurb without the shiny rim & bolts I think would look a bit rubbish. I'm siding for the 15" Ronal Aeros tbh (particularly as they were available with them outside of the UK)... it'll be finding a decent set that might prove difficult. I've got a spare set of 10-spoke Audi 80 wheels that I may chuck on in the meantime & that'll surely push me to do something - look okay on an Audi 80 or Coupe, but on anything else they don't look good imo!

[Kenquattro]

Originally Posted by pimpdriver

Kenquattro will be along in a minute...

Sorry for the delay, as I have been in work!

[Kenquattro]

Originally Posted by denaudi

My new Audi wears its original 15" wheels & there are also 4 spares with it too - including the one in the boot.

I've never liked this design of wheel, in that it looks fussy & old fashioned.

But... I'm a stickler for originality, so what should I do? I don't essentially want to mess with the ingredients that make this car reasonably special.

I like the plain Ronals on other Audi 90's, but were these ever fitted to the Sport?

The tyres are 205/50R15's, should they be 60 section tyres?

Can these wheels be easily & successfully refurbished..? They've been badly painted before (including painting over the chrome 'bolts') & this paint is now flaking off, they're corroded & a couple of tyres need changed too. They would need dipped... would this knacker the chrome effect bolts?

So many questions !

It is very difficult to do a decent refurb on the Speedlines to a factory finish. I had a set done professionally on my old 90 Sport 20V. The rims were polished, but were not lacquered. The fake bolts were left on and painted with the rest of the wheel. The 'Speedline' logo on the bolts lost it's definition after painting. Needless to say, they were stunning for about a fortnight, then they started to look scruffy. When I bought J73 GNH, I was bought 5 brand spanking new Speedlines for it, but they were the deeper dish Coupe 20V ones. They lasted about three years before they started showing signs of the lacquer peeling. That was despite them being kept clean at all times. The 15" Ronal Aeros were fitted as standard to the very rare 90 quattro 10V KV with Sport Pack. The 90 Sport 20v/90 quattro Sport 20V came with Speedlines as standard for the UK market, other countries were available with the 15" Aero wheels. 205/50VR15 was the correct size tyre for the 90. 205/60/VR15 being the correct size for the Coupe. I think the best option, other than sourcing brand new wheels, is to refurb them without having the rim polished, as they will go dull almost within a week of use. The first pic illustrates how the 15" Aeros look on a black 90 Sport, this car being a 10V, despite the 20V boot badge. These were the original factory fitted alloys. The other pics illustrate how new unrefurbed Speedlines look before they start to corrode. Hope this helps.