Opel Monza
Gold wheels give the Monza a visual boost, but John still has plenty to do
1984 OPEL MONZA GSE 3.6 ‘IRMSCHER’
Regular readers will know that the Irmscher Monza has had a troubled fiveyear journey back to roadworthiness – much longer than intended. So it was perhaps not entirely surprising that the old Michelin tyres had gone hard – which was a shame because they had plenty of tread left. However, I’m no fan of doing motorway speeds on old tyres and closer inspection revealed that they were more like concrete than rubber and the date stamp was 12 years old…
This hastened my wheel plans; it didn’t seem worth my while getting new tyres fitted to the standard Ronal 6J GSE rims because I knew that I didn’t want to use them in the long term. Irmscher offered a really cool-looking cross-spoke 7J 15-inch rim that I’d love to fit to my car to go with the original 3.6 conversion, but that option box wasn’t ticked by the car’s original owner.
However, I’d contacted Monza enthusiast and old friend Dave Lane a few years ago when I was naive enough to think that the car would be on the road by late 2017. I know him from Autobahnstormers events and knew that he had a set of these wheels on his Keinath KC5 Monza Cabriolet. He explained that German firm EXIP only made around 700 of these wheels for Horst Keinath to fit to his company’s intended run of 144 Monza Cabriolets. That plan did not work, however, because only eight convertibles were ever made, which left the surplus wheels sitting in a warehouse. Irmscher bought them and offered them as part of its tuning package for the later 3.6 Monzas/Senators.
I did a deal on the phone with Dave and collected them from his base on the Suffolk coast a few weeks later. They were in good used condition in their original silver but after looking at various pictures of modified Monzas on the web I decided that I wanted gold wheels with a polished silver lip. The wheels that I’d bought had never been diamond cut so the writing moulded in the rim was still distinct. Following a bit of research, Prestige Wheels in north Birmingham agreed to powder coat them in Subaru WRC gold and then hand-polish the edge.
Prestige did a super job and I’m very happy with the result, which I then had clear-coated so the rims are sealed against corrosion.
The next problem to sort was the centre caps. These have an unusual 75mm centre bore and although Dave had supplied a set of the flat centre caps used on the convertibles I wanted a more pronounced stepped-up cap. An internet search revealed that Mercedes use this centre bore and I was able to buy a set of claret items that pretty much matched the colour of my car for just £12 delivered.
I then measured the display plinth on these centre caps and ordered some 65mm Irmscher domed stickers from Stickers International, which used the same design as on the gear knob and steering wheel. I prised the Mercedes star logo out and fitted my stickers, which I have to say look an absolute treat.
And yet… although the centre caps do clip in they were a little looser than I would have liked so I then added a small amount of epoxy to the spring steel clip – enough to stop them rattling around and flying off.
The last piece of the jigsaw was to choose a tyre that looked reasonably period-correct but offered a good combination of performance and value. After some searching, I eventually settled on a set of 205/60 15 Falken ZIEX ZE310s. This is the same size that the car was fitted with when new but they actually fill the arches a little more on the wider 7J rims because the sidewalls are a bit straighter.
I have to say that the car is now more sure-footed in the wet and seems slightly quieter on motorways as well, so all told I’m pleased that I took the plunge.
] prestigewheelcentre.co.uk
] stickersinternational.co.uk
] falkentyre.com/en