[Newbie] - Fábio Dias (Toyota Hiace LH102 '94)

AT THE MOMENT:



ORIGINAL TOPIC:

Hello!
I'm Fábio Dias I have a Toyota Hiace LH102 and I'm posting from Portugal!
I'm registered in a ton of forums Toyota related, but until now I have never found one dedicated just to Hiace's! So I'm really happy to have found your forum!

Enough talking, here's my hiace:







I love this b&w





Hope I can help and be helped!

Regards!

Welcome mate

Good to hear from you.

"Hope I can help and be helped!" thats just about spot on..

well, that's about time to let you mates know about some changes I made.

Chromed corner and headlights, I can say that my Hiace is the only one in Portugal that have this!





Now I'm after this tail lights..




Next week, front and rear bumper, plus the grill (grey in photos above) will be painted red to match the rest of the van!

............................................................................................................

And today after some hours spent in the garage, cleaning up a few things, and doing some home made paint job.. here's how my Hiace looks like at the moment!



approved?

Keep up the good work mate

Reckon some 18 or 20 black mags to set it off. love the pic of the silver Hiace got any more details.
rex

AussieQ wrote:

Keep up the good work mate

Thanks!

WERX wrote:

Reckon some 18 or 20 black mags to set it off. love the pic of the silver Hiace got any more details.
rex

You're absolutely right but I have two problems if I try to do that,

first: finding a set of mags around here it's almost impossible.. the only way is ebay, but the shipping costs, OUCH!

second: I'm now running on 185 R14 tyres, and 5,5J x 14 steelies with an offset of 18, this set up leaves the tyre to much into the van's body, but I would like the tyre to stick out a little bit..

what's your opinion? should I increase the wheel's width to 6'' or 7'' or decrease the offset?

thanks in advance!

Bump:

here you go, all I have about the silver Hiace!

Silver Hiace - To Werx

How about wheels off an American Ford? Otherwise widen the existing or 15's of a Hilux. Don't change the offset as you put too much strain on the studs.
Thanks for the pix, very smooooth van - I like it.
Rex

WERX wrote:

How about wheels off an American Ford? Otherwise widen the existing or 15's of a Hilux. Don't change the offset as you put too much strain on the studs.
Thanks for the pix, very smooooth van - I like it.
Rex

wheels off an American Ford are indeed easier to find, however I believe I'll choose to widen, and maybe slightly reduce (not much because of what you've said) the offset of my 14'' steelies.

the goal is something like this!





besides being cheaper than a new set of wheels, it's also more exclusive! ahah
(widening and painting or chroming costs me about €50 per wheel).

Right now I'm just trying to figure out the widening, I still want to use be able to use 185 tyres, because this way I wont have problems with MOT or Police.

At the time steelies width is 5.5'' (stock size) but how far do you think I can go?

6''? 6.5''? 7''? for what I've read 6'' is the ideal for front wheels and 6.5'' for rear wheels...

sorry to be bothering you this much, and thank you for your help mate!

Free cash as well !

Don't think I would go wider that 6.5" on 185's but check with your local tyre guys on this before you go widening. I painted some wheels on my old VW Golf with gunmetal coloured Hammerite - looked quite tuff.
Rex

Nice! 2nd gen Shuttle

I also think that 6.5'' is the top to go, but as you've said I'll check my local tyre shop their opinion about it..

I'll have something to tell you soon, Im going there next week, to get new and lower profile tyres!