After talking to a rep at Tirerrack.com my fears were confirmed. One needs hubcentric rings to avoid vibration and excess stress on the wheel studs.

He recommended the following website:

https://www.justforwheels.com

The prices seem reasonable. I also like the configurator. (beats getting out the caliper) If you guys know of other websites, please post them.

Reason for getting hub centric rings:

[IMG]https://www.justforwheels.com/images/how4.jpg[/IMG]

quote from https://www.justforwheels.com/index.jsp?cat=hubcentric&sub=how VIBRATION PROBLEMS ON AFTER MARKET WHEELS Wheel Hubcentric rings are designed to fill in the gap between the hub of the car and the center bore of the wheel. Most wheel manufacturers design their wheels with a centerbore large enough to fit on most cars. Therefore, since wheel manufactures make their center bore large enough to fit most cars, most wheel fitments have a gap between the hub and the centerbore. This gap usually doesn't allow for the wheel to fit hubcentric but rather lugcentric which causes vibration. Therefore, to fill the gap and ensure the fitment is hubcentric, hub rings are used.

I know there are many sources for lugs, but the price seems reasonable:
https://www.justforwheels.com/index.jsp?Make=Pontiac&Model=Fiero&Year=1986&sub=lugresults&cat=lugsandlocks
(again, please post others)

For replacement center caps:
http://www.centercapsdirect.com

Please let me know what you think of hub centric rings. Should I use them? Should I use plastic/Aluminum?
Could one of these rings be used to fix Held/HT Motorsports Wilwood kits. (which don't have a hubcentric ring) Or other big brake kits?

quote Originally posted by Austrian Import: Please let me know what you think of hub centric rings.

They are a necessity on the Fiero and other GM cars if the wheel center isn't already sized to exactly match the hub nose.

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 09-26-2009).]

Weird, I've never heard of these? Not that I buy aftermarket rims all the time either though.

I witnessed the difference first-hand after buying a set of aftermarket wheels for my Fiero. The center holes in the wheels are larger than the Fiero hubs. The wheel studs aren't very good at keeping the wheels centered, because the studs can flex under stress. As a result, the wheels would occasionally shift (usually after hitting a bump or pot-hole), causing random wheel vibrations.

I asked a friend to make some centering rings for me. They didn't cost much at all, and fixed the problem.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 09-26-2009).]

Well, maybe I'll pick up a set then. Looks like they're about $40 so its not terribly expensive. I've only been running my American Racing rims for a week or so and haven't noticed anything weird other than they ride a lot better than the crappy tires that were on the stock rims.

I have the HT wilwood brake kit and American Racing wheels and have been trying to fix this issue for about 3 years now. HT has not responded to my emails as of yet...
I have a machinist friend of mine making me some aluminum hub centric rings for the rotors. I was going to buy some hub centric rings for the wheels through AR.

I have measured the hub(s) and the wilwood hats for the centering rings.

I finally got irritated enough to actually do something about it...

Cool. Glad to see I'm not the only one that's bothered by this.

Yea. HT Motorsports uses the old Ryanne/Held designs. They have not improved it for the past 10+ years in any way whatsoever. Wish Fieroaddiction would still sell his kit. At least his kit is hub centered.

I, myself started paying attention to hub centering after working on a MINI Cooper S a couple of times. For some reason on the MINI the wheel mounting is backwards. The hub has holes and instead of lugnuts, the wheels are attached with bolts. So when the wheel first is installed, it rests on the hub, until you thread the first bolt through it. I think it would be near impossible to hold up the whole weight of the wheel and find the hole to thread the bolt through. That made me realize how much stress the hubs actually remove from the bolts.