Installing & Cleaning Your FORMULA 43 Wheels

[Formula43 Wheel]

Check out our new website when you have a min. I would appreciate your feedback and any suggestions. We don't have a massive budget for marketing, advertising, website and shows so most of the site was done in house here at F43 HQ in Livonia, MI. [email protected]

One item that I created when our first site went up about four years ago was installation and cleaning instructions/tips.

Formula 43 wheels are manufactured using the latest in CNC (computer numeric control) equipment with aerospace materials and finishes. Great care is taken during the production of each wheel as they’re made for each specific car application.

Cleaning:
1. Always clean the wheels after they have cooled down from any use and are not in direct sunlight.
2. Rinse wheels using cold water to quickly rinse off any loose debris and brake dust
3. Do not use any harsh acidic chemicals or wheel cleaners that use alkaline (any chemicals used to clean an anodized finish will immediately stain it)
4. Spray a wet cool wheel with “Simple Green” and let it soak for 30-45 seconds (mild soap and water is recommended on a anodized finish)
5. Use a boar hair brush or soft clean sponge to clean each spoke and barrels
6. Rinse wheel with cold water
7. Dry wheel with a clean soft micro-fiber towel

Wheel & Tire Changing:
Wheel & Tire Removal:
1. Park the vehicle on a level, flat concrete area and secure the parking brake
2. If removing a front wheel, block/secure the rear tires so that the car is unable to roll forward or back when raising the car. If removing a rear wheel, block/secure the front wheels to prevent the car from rolling.
3. Raise the car using a low profile floor jack using manufacturer recommend jack points on the vehicle.
4. After raising the vehicle so that the tire is off of the ground 3-6 inches, place a jack stand under the car in the recommended area to secure the car.
5. Loosen lugnuts or lugbolts by hand using a breaker bar and the correct size socket with extension. A thin wall socket is recommended and should have a plastic sleeve around it to prevent any scratching of the lug pocket area.
6. Gently remove the wheel after all lugnuts or lugbolts have been removed.
7. Inspect and clean the inner barrel of the wheel.

Installing Wheel & Tire:
1. With the vehicle in the air and secured as described above, gently install the wheel onto the car. At this time you will need to keep at least one hand on the wheel/tire to prevent it from falling off the hub.
2. Install each lugnut or lugbolt by hand and carefully thread each one on to prevent any cross threading.
3. Using a breaker bar, extension and thin wall plastic sleeved socket, snug each lugnut or lugbolt by hand in a five star pattern.
4. Visually inspect the hub mounting area of the wheel that it is mounted flat on the rotor hat. Spin the wheel and tire in the air to insure that nothing is hitting the tire/wheel or making any strange noises.
5. Hand torque each lugnut or lugbolt using a qualified torque wrench to manufacturers recommendations.
6. Slowly lower the vehicle on the ground and remove jack stands and blocks from wheels
7. Re-Torque/check lugnuts or lugbolts after 50 miles of driving. Do not over torque lugnuts or bolts as this can damage the threads and stretch the studs or lugbolts, possibly causing failure of the part.

Tire Removal & Mounting:
1. Tires should be installed and removed using a modern “Euro” style tire changer with an additional bead/sidewall assist feature or a “Lever-Less” tire changer. Any metal arms or bead breakers should have a plastic cover to protect and prevent any metal to wheel contact.
2. Be aware that there is a small thin circular seal between each rim half. Instruct your tire personnel that they should not touch this with a pry bar or tire bar. Any nicks in this seal may cause a slow leak in the wheel and will have to be re-sealed by an authorized Formula 43 repair person.
3. When a tire is removed from the wheel it is recommended that the valve stem rubber grommet be inspected for wear or cracking. If uncertain, replace with a metal corrosion resistant stem and tighten to manufacturers specifications.
4. Newer late model vehicles use a TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) sensor as a valve stem. Do not contact the sensor with tire bars or bead breakers as they can damage or break these sensors.
5. If the TPMS sensor is removed, a rebuild kit should be used containing a new rubber grommet, nickel coated valve core, retaining nut and correct valve cap for each sensor removed and re-installed. Ensure that the retaining nut and valve core is hand torqued to manufacturers specifications.
6. Inflate tire to manufacturer’s specifications. This can be found on a decal located on the driver’s door area or in the owner’s manual of the vehicle.

Wheel & Tire Balancing:
1. Remove all old wheel weights from each wheel and any residue. Wheels should be clean and free of any road and tire debris.
2. Check air pressure and set to vehicle manufacturer’s specifications.
3. Modern wheel & tire balancing equipment should be used that have sonar, laser or road force balancing technology by trained personnel.
4. Apply low profile coated steel or zinc tape weights to the inner barrel only. For extreme conditions use re-enforced aluminum tape to cover each tape weight to prevent the weights from coming off.

[Formula43 Wheel]

Here's a great source for wheel and tire cleaning tools. Again, I do not recommend any wheel cleaners as I have not personally tried them on our wheel finishes. Mild soap and water for anodized, powder coated, polished and clear coated finishes. If needed, a little Simple Green works, but do not let it dry or bake on the surface.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/category...aning+tools.do

[Formula43 Wheel]

Here's some links to some tools I use and would recommend if your doing installation yourself.

I purchased a red floor jack from Costco 4yrs ago and it is still working great and we use it for many other unintended uses in our shop like moving large machines and equipment around. It's all steel and low profile, but unfortunately not made in the USA. I couldn't find a link to it, but I believe it was just over $100.00.

Portable air compressor: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thin Wall Plastic Protected Sockets: http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Pneuma...ref=pd_cp_hi_1
http://www.amazon.com/Titan-21092-Dr...EAVN7CXE0GBNQ5


Lug Nuts McGard 3/4"/19mm Hex, Bulge Style, 60 degree cone seat. We stock 1/2X20 and 12mmX1.5 in chrome and black closed end style. For open end race style lug nuts and studs contact Curtis at MSI Racing Products. They supply many NASCAR, IMSA, Continental and World Challenge pro race teams and are made in the USA. He also can custom make whatever you want as well. http://www.msiracingproducts.com/

Valve stems, please contact us directly as we only use a high quality metal TUV approved German made valve stems from a company called "Alligator". We have two styles Long and Short. Almost all of our PT applications would use our short style. It is important not to over torque the valve stem on the wheel as it will crush the grommet and cause it to crack faster causing a leak. We hand tighten them with a socket until the grommet starts to bulge or mushroom and is tight enough to not spin in the hole. A small drop of blue/med. thread locker is a good idea as well. A simple leak can cause a blow-out and thousands in damage to your PT car. A simple way to check for a valve stem leak is to spray some foam style glass clean on it and look for a bubbles.

Torque Wrench, I sell this high quality made in the USA torque that is accurate and made for a lifetime of service. I prefer the split beam, dial and click style over a digital. Precision Instruments makes torque wrenches for some of the highest quality tool manufactures. So your not paying the extreme mark-up and logo. I'm offering these to Lat-G members for $215.00 each, plus shipping. http://www.torqwrench.com/tools/item...kCode=C3FR250F

The above are simply suggested items I use and recommend. I'm not a car builder, but believe these items are of great value and quality to the do it yourself garage person that wants to do more on his own. As you can see, we do not sell many of the above items, as our core business is building great wheels.

I appreciate any input and understand some or many of you already have these and much more!

[HMA]

Travis,

I know you are a fan of the McGard lug nuts. For open end lug nuts what is your expierence/ what do you think of the monster lugs?

For polishing the aluminum hoops what polish do you recommend and do you polish them a certain direction. Thanks

Evan

[Formula43 Wheel]

Hello Evan, I was just about to give you a shout out as I'm heading your way on the 22nd of this month. I would love to see and go for a ride in your Camaro, dinner is on me!

I prefer a closed style lug nut over open style as the closed style keeps any moisture, debri, etc. out of the contact area (thread & stud). I also cannot recommend using anti seize as this can cause for an inaccurate torque reading and possibly cause the nut to loosen. If you're actively tracking/racing your car then your studs and nuts will wear must faster and should be inspected or replace after X amount of time. This is why using a good high quality lugnut and stud combo like , McGard, ARP or MSI are important. Most studs will have a corrosion resistant coating. I've found the studs that do not have any coating on them are made overseas with lower quality metals and strip, break, corrode easily.

For open lugnuts I would recommend MSI. Very high quality, but only available in black.

Thanks and hopefully see you soon!

[HMA]

Absolutely Travis, if you are around Monday I can get you in to our simulator and let you play a bit. Give me a call this week and we'll get something going.

-Evan

[Formula43 Wheel]

On the Monster lug nuts they look nice but will hang out past the wheel center lug pocket area which might not be appealing to some due to the length.

Benefits of McGard nuts are:

http://www.mcgard.com/index.php/auto...-nutslug-bolts

Also, the bulge style cone seat lugnut has more surface contact area than the standard 13/16" hex nuts. The 3/4"/19mm hex give you more room to get the socket in the lug pocket without nicking the lug pocket surface.

I prefer to hand thread them on rather than using a impact.

[Formula43 Wheel]

The last item that hasn't come up for quite some time is locking lug nuts. They work fine until you lose the key to get them off.

Normally you don't realize you've lost this special socket key until you really need the wheel and tire off.

Here in Detroit, it's allot of work to jack up the car and remove/steal the wheels. It's much easier to steal the whole car.

[latoracing]

Originally Posted by HMA

Travis,

I know you are a fan of the McGard lug nuts. For open end lug nuts what is your expierence/ what do you think of the monster lugs?

For polishing the aluminum hoops what polish do you recommend and do you polish them a certain direction. Thanks

Evan

I bought Monster lug nuts for my RAD 14 wheel set up. I am running 3" long wheel studs and needed an open ended nut. They look to be a quality part, and they have a longer body to help get them on and off the studs. A standard open ended nut would be way down inside of the pocket. I haven't mocked my wheels up on the suspension as of yet, but here is an example of what they would look like. I took this when we were checking hub fitment before final finishing.

[HMA]

Originally Posted by latoracing

I bought Monster lug nuts for my RAD 14 wheel set up. I am running 3" long wheel studs and needed an open ended nut. They look to be a quality part, and they have a longer body to help get them on and off the studs. A standard open ended nut would be way down inside of the pocket. I haven't mocked my wheels up on the suspension as of yet, but here is an example of what they would look like. I took this when we were checking hub fitment before final finishing.

That is a great looking wheel. You will absolutely love them. Here is a picture of my RAD10s with black monster lugs. I have 3 inch studs as well so I needed the open end lugs. Just curious what everyone else is running.

-Evan