I don't mean to keep picking brains here but being the proud new owner of my '90 Reatta, I am finding I have a lot of questions. My car has ugly Corvette wheels on it. I'd like to install the chrome Buick wheels that I had on my 98 Regal GS. I am pretty sure they were 16" wheels. Would these work on the Reatta? I think the wheel size for the Reatta is 5X115 from what I saw when I searched this forum. I'm not sure what size the GS wheels are but I suspect they may be the same. What size tires should I install so as to not throw off the Speedo too much? Has anyone installed these wheels on their Reatta? Thanks.

Greg

Generally speaking, you can use any big, front drive, GM car wheel on the Reatta. In 1986 when the big cars went front drive, all the bolt patterns were 115mm bolt circle.
You will find 15", 16", and now larger sizes used on Lucern, Lacross, etc. The Regals from 1997 and newer used the 115mm bolt pattern for sure, I am not sure if the earlier Regal used that pattern.

Corvette, Camaro, Firebird will not fit.

Also there are slight variations in the backspacing of the GM wheels, again most will fit, but you need to take measurements or try a wheel before buying 4 and getting them mounted.

Thanks Barney, You da man, well at least, you da Reatta man. I had a 98 Regal with the chrome wheels and I thought they looked sharp.

I was at my favorite u-pick yard and found 4 perfect wheels from a 1999 Cadillac Catera. It is the chrome 5 spoke 16x7. Will they work? I can buy them for $35.00 each and they are mint.

Dave: a quick google search shows that the Catera, probably because of its Opel roots, has a 5x110 lug pattern, not the 5x115 pattern we're familiar with.

Is there a way I can make it work? A friend of mine works in a machine shop and can moonlight, What about the offsets you guys are always talking about?

Attached is a sketch I made of the 15" and 16" stock Reatta wheels.

Backspacing....the distance from the extreme back of the wheel to the mounting surface. On the 16" Reatta wheel it is 5.75 in (146mm)

Offset... if you imagine a center line of the wheel (lets say the wheel is 8" wide outside to outside, then the center line would be 4" inches from either side) The offset is the difference between the backspacing and the centerline.... in the case of the Reatta 16" wheel it is 1.75 inches.

These are the measurements you need to keep in mind when looking for replacement wheels. Backspacing is the easiest to measure, so shoot of a measurement between 5.5 and 5.75

If you wished to engineer it it would depend on the wheel itself but you MIGHT be able to add another bolt pattern...like if you've noticed a lot of aftermarket wheels have two bolt patterns. You would have to consider if there's enough metal left for the wheel to be safe that way, if it can be done with enough precision, and I guess also you need to make sure the center hole is the same size because Reatta wheels are "hub centric" (I guess) meaning that most the weight and force rides on the center hole and hub, not on the lugs

No way would I alter a wheel like that. There are many other wheels to choose from.

I mean it's possible but there's a lot to consider...personally I wouldn't mess with it because there are that many other wheels to chose from as Maui points out...it could be engineered but not worth it (safety/structural integrity to be considered)

I will pass on the wheels. It is too bad because those wheels were beautiful.
Any other recomendations on a good looking wheel?

Someone here has Lucerne wheels that look great.

What guys might want to do and what I thought of while out in the u-pick yard, was how to dress up the center hub of these wheels. So what I did was grab the tri-shield emblems that are mounted by adhesive only on the roof behind the doors of older Buicks. From what I saw there are 2 sizes, 2 1/4" chrome plated plastic and 2 1/2" solid chrome. I plan on using those when I find the wheels I want.

I used the Horn center from 89 steering wheels with industrial double sided tape. That way you get the Reatta "R" with the gold sunburst on each wheel.

or you could run them without hubcaps...

The source of factory-replacement wheels for the Reatta will depend on the look you're going for. To enhance the fact that it's a luxury 2-seater, Buick or Cadillac wheels fit the bill.

To steer the image of your Reatta more towards that of a sports car, many Pontiac (and some Chevy) wheels are available in the 115 X 5 size. I am currently running '04 18 X 8 Bonneville GXP wheels on my lowered Reatta, and it looks killer for the look I am going for (pics to follow when I get the dad-burned bumpers finished).

97-04 Regal Chromes
98 Riviera chrome
02 Gran Prix Polished
02 Gran Prix Painted
04 18 X 8 Bonneville wheels


Some I saw on car-parts.com

That is great! I saw the '02 polished in a parking lot and they have 3 arrows on each spoke. otherwise they are what I am looking at.
Did you by chance look up the '99 Cadillac Catera? That is one pretty wheel. I couldn't take no for an answer so I went back and tried to put the wheel on my car. It didn't fit so I now know no matter what I can't have it.

What car is the second wheel from the bottom from?

2nd from the bottom would be a circa '97-03 Grand Prix GT or GTP

Thanks Philip, That is one of my favorites.
Do you know if they are 15", 16" or 17" ?

I'm very certain they're 16'', definitely not 15'' and I don't think 17''

I went to www.car-part.com and all the Grand Prix rims are 16"x6 1/2" I would recomend taking a look as there are more then were downloaded for us by 55 chevy.

I recieved an e-mail from one of those wheel adapter places. It turns out that I could put the Cadillac Catera wheels on my car. Price for wheels... all four for $140.00 Wheel adapters $220.00. $360.00 total.
I'll keep looking...

The 99 Catera's look pretty good, too bad they're not a match 1st pic is painted, 2nd is chrome.. The 3rd pic is a 2005 Impala, they're neat and would bolt up I think, but do look like stock 88-90's. Or maybe the 2004 Impala wheels, also neat, 4th pic.