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On to Bigger and some what better things :)

38036 Views 120 Replies 38 Participants Last post by  thunderace31, 
94MI9C1
9
Well I liked my old rims that I had but I decided to try something different out. I got a bug in my ass after I got an extremely good deal on a set of Baer brakes, but they weren't for an Imp of Caprice, so after talking with Baer (the secret society that WILL not give you any information), I decided to sell the kit, which I am hoping it will be gone here rather quickly, after talking with Tobin @ Kore3 about it.

Anyway, I was checking out different wheels didn't know what I wanted, but I did want to do a big brake set, so I found a set of calipers off a 2010 grand sport that had rolled off a truck at freeway speed. I got them for a VERY good price. One has some marks on it from the accident, but oh well, nothing a little touch up can't take care off.

So then I decided I would just go with the Z06 theme on my car, I could get the wheels pretty cheap, yeah I would have to run spacers, but who cares really, if they are designed right, there should be no problems with them. I bought a pair of spacers from Alex @ PCM performance he had laying around from Fred Goeske @ wheeladpaters.com. Anyway I knew these were made right, they are 3 inch adapters, but it would give me leeway if I had to cut them down at all. You will see why here in a second.

So after scouring the C6 forums, I located a set of wheels, chrome, from an 09 Z06, 18X9.5 in the front and 19X12 in the rear. After talking with the gentleman selling them, he wanted to part with the Goodyear supercar tires as well, with 900 miles on them. I got them at a steal.

Anyway I don't have the front mocked up yet as I want to get the brakes done then dink with the wheels and tires and make sure all the measurements are the same.

Here are the brakes. 6 piston front 4 piston rear, I will be using most of Tobin's stuff to complete the installation..

Here is a shot of the front calipers going on, same as the Z06 just in silver instead of red.


Rear tire size



Here is the rear wheel mocked up with the 3 inch spacer, you will see that there is plenty of room from frame to tire, I am going to cut 1/2 inch off the spacer to start, if I don't like how it sits in the fender I will notch the frame and bring it under further. I was pretty afraid as I didn't know if I would like them or not, but I think that they are going to come out pretty good.



Picture is deceiving but there is about 3/4 of inch of space in there.



How it hangs out right now


rear view
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L
I was 99% sure what you had done when you posted the tire pic a few days ago. I said to myself, "Self, that looks just like the 325's that come on the Z06. Same Goodyear and everything. Hmmm. What has Mike gone and done?" :)

Can't wait to see it sitting on all fours. Rear. Looks. Tough.
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94MI9C1
Thanks man it is going to be a bit of work. but I will figure it out ;)
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Firewood
I still think you can get em under without notching... but I absolutely understand the desire for more clearance. BTW, go ahead and mock up the other side, you likely find them measurements different, unless you have centered your frame.
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94MI9C1
Thanks Wood, yeah I am sure that I can, but I would rather have them tucked under a smidge more, I looked at the 20X12 thread on here and if I cut 1/2 inch out of the spacer the wheel would look just like his in the well, leaving only 1/4 of lee way between the tire and the frame. Also if you look at his thread the outside of the rim is CLOSE to the fender. I could get away with this, but there would be no room for anything. Which you understand. Wouldn't take much to notch out to make it happen. As far as the frame and the rear it is perfectly centered, believe it or not, I fixed that a while back :)
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Beertestr
94MI9C1 said:
Maybe just another thing to upgrade if that happens. I thought Mr. Harris was running a stock rearend in his car?! I think it will be fine, my engine is pretty warn, it is just a cruiser LOL
Click to expand...
Launching an auto trans car and launching a manual trans car are two very diff things.

I did some dev testing on a 8.6" 10 bolt equipped vehicle. On stock tires and 2.1 sec 60's we measured 7400 ft-# spike torque on the axles. A hard launch on a T56 trans equipped vehicle with similar 60' times we were seeing 11500 ft#, so nearly 35% higher peak loads. We broke several axles, but in every place other than where the manufacturer said the weakest link was..

1 spun the carrier on the tubes, sheared the slug welds.
2-3 of them hillbilly'd the ring gear (missin teef)
2 broke the differential unit

Never broke an axle shaft though, and that was supposed to be the fuse...

Oh, and I strongly recommend you notch. You will eventually rub the frame even if you are running urethane CA bushings. There are 3 kinds of guys that run this wide with no notch.

1) guys that rub the frame eventually
2) guys that rub the wheelhouse eventually
3) guys that won't admit it, or have not not looked to see how much they rubbed.

Good thing you are saving $2-300 on smokes, you'll need them for Caprice shoes.. It will look bitchin though.
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94MI9C1
Thanks Michael for the load information. Like I said there is really no hard launching left in this car to be honest, it does ok, but it sure won't do much.
Yeah the tires are going to be pricey, but I like to find them slightly used by the C6 guys, they have them for sale all the time. ;)
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st95ss
the stance should be killer, can't wait to see the finale product bro, Peace
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94MI9C1
3
Well I went out tonight and pulled the spacer off and I wanted to put the wheel up there with it butted up against the frame, now I am going to say this, I don't know how in the hell anyone fits a 12 inch rim without notching the frame, yes I have seen the pictures , but there has got to be something that isn't being said, i.e. oh forgot to mention we had to yank the hell out of the fender well to give me a finger width of distance. These photos are with the wheel and tire butted flat against the frame.



I did put the other side on just to see and it is the same distance from the frame with the spacer as the other side, so I know that I have the rear aligned in the car. I think that the body is twisted towards the drivers side a bit, so I may have to work on that, but it is damn close.
This picture is with the 3 inch spacer on the passenger side, the pics above are with no spacer and the wheels sitting against the frame.
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Firewood
Well, that IS conclusive.
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94MI9C1
Yeah Wood, I guess that every car is different and every rim is going to be different, but I guess I am lost at to how a 12 has been fit on our cars without cutting. I don't see how it can be done, an 11 inch rim with 12 inches overall width, but 12 inches with an overall width of 13 on the rim, not including the tire.

I don't know doesn't matter much to me, I was going to notch the frame anyway, well I am going to narrow it ;)
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8UWITH6
Looks like a fun project. Aren't you suppost to start these kinds of mods at the beginning of winter? ;)
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94MI9C1
8UWITH6 said:
Looks like a fun project. Aren't you suppost to start these kinds of mods at the beginning of winter? ;)
Click to expand...
In theory ;)
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8UWITH6
Hopefully you work faster than I do! You should be rollin' by summer! Neat thread, Ill be watching.
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S
They are diffinitely nice wheels. My only concern is how they would hold up to the weight of a heavy B-Body. Corvette wheels are only cast aluminum if I am not mistaken.
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94MI9C1
Yeah it would be a concern in the back of my mind, These rims are actually repops so they are heavier, which I would think would lead them to be a bit stronger, but I Am not sure on this.
I guess we will find out. I am sure that they will dent faster if I hit a bump in my car compared to a vette. It would be more of a concern if I was road racing it or something of that nature. But there are members on there that run vette rims on his road race car and I don't think that he has had an issue. Like I said we will see :)
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S
Yeah, but I don't think I've seen any running 19" 'Vette wheels. I was always under the impression that bigger wheels meant weaker wheels, especially when it comes to cast aluminum. I'm not trying to criticize the purchase at all and I could be making a big deal out of nothing. Like I said they look great. Hope everything works out.
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94MI9C1
No worries man, you wouldn't change my mind on them anyway LOL No offense, but I know what you are saying. I look at it this way with these though, if just driving normal, car at normal weight of 4500 or so, the rims, well originals are spun cast aluminum, made to handle a vette cornering at 1G for extended periods. I think that it evens out, even though the vette is about 1300 pounds lighter.
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94MI9C1
I did some thinking and some more calculating on paper and after talking with DSSTRBD about his ride a little and how Mr. Harris did the narrowing/sectioning and where his rims sit with backspacing at 8 inches, I came up with this.

I will narrow/notch the frame to gain clearance, so that I can run 7 to 7.25 inches of backspacing. Looking more at 7.25 inches backspace. I have a 9C1 axle in my car where as his is an Imp, so if I put his rim (18X12 with 8 inches of backspace) on my car it would sit further in about 3/4 of an inch due to rearend width differences.

So my rims in the rear have +59MM offset which comes out to 8.82 inches of backspace, so to get my ideal(on paper mind you) 7.25 inches of backspace I am going to need an adapter 1.57 inches wide, which is good, I like the idea keeping the spacer/adapter as thin as possible. The calculations work right, but we will have to see on the car once I get everything all mocked up.

For the front, they are 18X9.5 with +40MM offset, which is 6.82 inches of backspacing. Going with about 5.5 inches of backspacing up front need a spacer of 1.32 inches, again sounds good to me. This will all be relative on the type of hub that I decide to use for the Vette brakes as well as the thickness of the rotor hat as well, may have to take it down to 1.1 inches because of this. Not sure, frame first, brakes next, then measure for another set of adapters, mill the 3 inch ones that I have and see what happens.

Somewhat of a game plan.

received two things not related to the wheels and tires today via fedex, Gm part numbers 16519237 and 16519238, can you guess what they are ;) Funny they are in the original boxes, just crazy. Simple google search will tell you
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Navy Lifer
Mike,

My basement holds a set of C6 Z06 painted wheels---all are OE 18 x 9.5 with +40mm offset, as I didn't want to deal with the larger rear rubber fit issues or thicker adapters. Never mounted at this point, will be using 275/45-18 rubber--yes, fairly tall. They're going on when I finally install the next brake setup--340mm rotors all around.

A new wheel has caught my eye--ZR1-style from SLP, also offered with a black finish and machined face. The difference is that the offset on these wheels is not the same as Z06--fronts are 55mm instead of 40mm, not sure about rears.

The nice thing about high-offset wheels is the clearance you get for brakes, but it is a different look.

Enjoy the headlights--I sold mine when I got a set of SStreetLights. Howard Rothstein had an "incident" with his car, and his T84's were wrecked, so he has them now.
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Navy Lifer
94MSP9C1 said:
Hopefully it does not poke out of the box like the spindle did when UPS dumped it off? LOL

Mike--Hamilton Chevy
Click to expand...
Just about every one I've ever bought had poked through a corner of the box--a simple cardboard sleeve over the spindle would have put a stop to it....and it had nothing to do with UPS!
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