Wheel spacing experience from the 60's
When I was a teenager I modified my first Mini an 850 cc model with standard kit including the floor mounted starter button, dipswitch & long 2 ft gear lever.
As I could not afford a Cooper initially I did what you did back then. I fitted an S.P.Q.R. gearshift convertion so it looked like the later gearbox.
Changed the indicator switch to incorporate the dip switch and fitted a key start ignition switch. Added go faster stripes completed the picture.
Trouble was even though the original 4.0 J steel rims shod with Dunlop SP3 tyres looked the part (painted in yellow & purple!) it just needed some Cooper wheels - in those early years alloys had not really been a widespread affordable option until Dunlop Alloys came on the market.
The solution was easy fit some longer wheel bolts and some 1" spacers and the rims would be closer to the wheelarches and look great.
So one weekend I set about the task first problem was fitting the longer wheel bolts but eventually the deed was done. I convinced myself that not only did it look cool but it cornered better.
About 6 months later my first front wheel bearing collapsed followed soon after by rear wheel bearing noises that even my loud stereo could not hide. Also discovered that my front tyres were being ground down on hard cornering due to catching the bodywork.
Eventually sourced some front discs, driveshafts & hubs and S rear brakes that had a spacer built into the rear drum. Everything was fine then but it was a costly experience.
The only time I use spacers now is where I am fitting wheels not designed for the vehicle. e.g. Our Merc SL had the original 16" diam wheels and I wanted to change them to 17" wheels but the Merc SL wheels were incredibly expensive. I was offered a set of Merc E class wheels but the offset was wrong so they would not clear the front discs / hubs. I sourced some German spacers that had the correct wheel facing profile machined in them that returned the offset to within 1 mm of the correct wheels. The E class wheels were brand new & relatively cheap. This meant that the extra wheel width was spaced equally either side of the wheel hub face.
http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/wheel-offset.htm
