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Hi all, I wanted to put a thread together summarizing my long journey to build a set of AC Schnitzer Type 3 Racing. I originally picked up 3 wheels at a crazy low price and thought it would be easy finding a fourth wheel. That was probably my first mistake as it took me over a year to find anything for sale. My friend and I found 2 wheels being sold separate by 2 different sellers. I got excited and bought both without seeing any actual pictures of them.
It has been my goal for a while to build one of my favorite set of wheels into something different than stock. I contacted just about every big name in the wheel industry (in the US & Europe) to get this build going but nobody wanted to touch it. The big obstacles that everyone mentioned is AC Schnitzer used a proprietary mounting setup on those wheels and they couldn't get that on their barrels.
I was almost ready to give up until I stumbled upon a couple of pictures on Instagram of custom wheel builders. I reached out to Stefan from SD Wheels and Dominic from Dominant Engineering and asked some questions. I believe they work together on different projects to achieve unique end results. After seeing the custom products of Dominant Engineering, I started talking more details with Dominic. I figured out exactly what I wanted then sent him the faces to get started.
It took about 5 months or so before I got the finished products and it that was probably the longest 5 months of my life. While I was waiting I started looking for the optional spoke inserts from AC Schnitzer for the Type 3's. I somehow managed to find one of the European AC Schnitzer dealers with a set for my wheels. I believe this set might be one of the last sets as I was told.
The final specs of the wheels are:
Fronts: 19"x9.5" +14 (2.5" lip 7" barrel)
Rears: 19"x11" +11mm (3.5" lip 7.5" barrel)
Other Details of the build:
machined lips, barrels and backpads on the faces
Outer lips are finished in a brushed look
Inner lips are powder coated black
Faces powder coated the original color
Custom made CNC billet center caps finished in a machined look
Titanium hardware to keep it all together
Pictures:
Before
The Spoke Inserts
After
Pictures by Dominic from Dominant Engineering
Phone pictures when they finally showed up
Thanks for reading my long thread! Opinions, comments and questions are welcome.
It has been my goal for a while to build one of my favorite set of wheels into something different than stock. I contacted just about every big name in the wheel industry (in the US & Europe) to get this build going but nobody wanted to touch it. The big obstacles that everyone mentioned is AC Schnitzer used a proprietary mounting setup on those wheels and they couldn't get that on their barrels.
I was almost ready to give up until I stumbled upon a couple of pictures on Instagram of custom wheel builders. I reached out to Stefan from SD Wheels and Dominic from Dominant Engineering and asked some questions. I believe they work together on different projects to achieve unique end results. After seeing the custom products of Dominant Engineering, I started talking more details with Dominic. I figured out exactly what I wanted then sent him the faces to get started.
It took about 5 months or so before I got the finished products and it that was probably the longest 5 months of my life. While I was waiting I started looking for the optional spoke inserts from AC Schnitzer for the Type 3's. I somehow managed to find one of the European AC Schnitzer dealers with a set for my wheels. I believe this set might be one of the last sets as I was told.
The final specs of the wheels are:
Fronts: 19"x9.5" +14 (2.5" lip 7" barrel)
Rears: 19"x11" +11mm (3.5" lip 7.5" barrel)
Other Details of the build:
machined lips, barrels and backpads on the faces
Outer lips are finished in a brushed look
Inner lips are powder coated black
Faces powder coated the original color
Custom made CNC billet center caps finished in a machined look
Titanium hardware to keep it all together
Pictures:
Before
The Spoke Inserts
After
Pictures by Dominic from Dominant Engineering
Phone pictures when they finally showed up
Thanks for reading my long thread! Opinions, comments and questions are welcome.
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