Thanks, yes they are E7 wheels. They weren't my first choice, but they came up at the right price, and they have grown on me. This is actually my second silver auto, the first being a 1990.
Now, I took it for a test drive, and there's something funky going on in the front, a mechanical hammering as it goes over bumps. The sound is coming from both sides. My front thought was the swaybar as it mounts at a jaunty angle with the 3kgt arm. So I pulled the swaybar out (what a job!) but the noise remains.
Second thought was the shocks, as they are second hand. Also, the V3000 shocks have a spring platform that sits approx an inch higher than the VR4, so possibly it's getting coil bind? I have an old 3kgt shock, which is almost identical to the VR4 dimensionally so I can try fitting that to one side.
Thirdly, and I think most likely one (because it's the hardest and probably most expensive to fix!) I removed the castle nuts from the axles, to check how much axle movement I have at the cups. Well not much, ~5mm on the left, ~10mm on the right at full droop, which seems to me to be not nearly enough. I thought it may be because of the camber bolts, which are adjusted for maximum negative, but even after fitting the standard bolts back in, free play was virtually unchanged. So is it possible that the axle is bottoming out in the cup? I'm unsure if the suspension geometry of a Macpherson strut means the hub moves further out or closer in relative to the axle cup. Also, some grease has come out of the cv at the right hub. I did have to change the boot, so it could be the band is not tight enough, but I'm wondering if it could be excessive mechanical pressure on the joint related to the lack of free movement.
Ideas?