Flord Blue BMW 2002 with 15" BBS Rims
Woohoo!!!! This is a great day. The loooong project BBS is complete! The wheels are installed on the car and look great!! What a process. The one thing that I can say is that I have never seen another 2002 with this wheel on it. Very custom, yet very classy. I started the process by finding a great condition set of Mazda RX7 mk II BBS wheels and had them re drilled, lips polished, centers painted, and rare blue BBS center caps ordered from Germany. Then I had longer wheel studs installed, found a bad hub and axle in the process then measured for spacers and decided on 17mm on the rear and 9mm on the front. With the longer wheel studs on the rear the center caps didn't fit, so I had to grind down the plastic around the locking mechanism and that gave me just enough space for the cap to fit.
Initial impressions. Feels smooth! The ONLY thing is the car has lost a bit of oomph. I think this is due to the smaller overall diameter. It's not huge, but I noticed. The car is definitely more responsive and more chuckable. The lighter weight wheels can be felt. When I get new tires I will go with either 195/55/15 or 205/50/15 to be closer to the stock rolling diameter. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the look and feel!! As a kid, I wanted a 2002 with BBS rims. Now I have one!!