MOT and Wheel Questions

[bobbarnes1981]

Hi everyone, just bought a shed of a Nova GTE (for ?200), after owning a mini for 3 years, love minis but hate the cost of ownership (www.barnes1981.karoo.net/mini). it's nice to see a friendly atmosphere associated with a car (one of the other things i liked about the mini). anyway down to business. the gte i jus bought has what appear to standard vauxhall steel wheels on, with (knackered) 175/75R14 tyres, these tyres seem to be reasonably rare, are there any others i can fit? for example 175/70R14? Also: has anybody had experience of MOT with rusty rear arches, i've heard they can fail you if the edges are sharp.
cheers
bob

[Aragorn]

i used some 185/55r14's on my old 14" alloys and they looked alright

the manual says 175/65r14 should be fitted to the GTE

[new nova]

wow i didnt no 175/5's existed all tht will hapen if u fit 175/70's is tht ur spedo will be slightly out but with that little amount of diffrence ur talkin about 5mph out at about 60. this is only because ur wheel dimension will be slightly smaller. also i work in a garage and am almost an mot tester the it is only if u have sharp edges what u can do is stick duck tape over the shap edges for the mot thn take it off after or u can quite easily weld new arches on

[dandan]

Arch repair panels are fairly cheap and pretty easy to get hold of (just got one for the o/s/r of my 5 door). Just cut back to where the metals good and then cut the repair panel to suit and weld it in place.

[Ste_Nova]

185/60 14" are the prefered size to run due to them being very popular and hence cheap

[bobbarnes1981]

Thanks for the info. Sorted the wheels out - bought some GTE alloys off eBay with virtually new tyres for ?70!! just have to find out what the MOT man says now. :?