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Distributor is back from restoration. Ed Fall at Vintage Werks did a great job. Distributor was completely rebuilt and restored, including plating of factory parts. Another very small step towards completion of my project but figured I would share some photos!
I had mentioned previously that I wanted a staggered look with the wheels on my hot rod. I went with the 'flat' 6" Fuchs up front and was going to use the "deep" Fuchs on the rear. I decided I would go with the 7R design for the rear to not only give the staggered look I am going for but to also give me an inch more (on inside) to mount larger tires on the rear to keep her butt more planted (rear weight bias 911's need we say more!). Will run 185's up front and 215's in the rear, so still modest tire sizes to keep the light, nimble feel but add meaningful grip and a more muscular look.
So I got a killer black Friday deal on the maxilite 7R's. Read nothing but good reviews on Early S about them and they have safety beads to help with my confidence in canyons.
Here are a couple shots of the wheels:
I tried to get a good photo showing the flat vs deep looks Although it was tough to capture in the photos due to finish differences between the wheels, it is very noticeable and to me will provide the staggered look I wanted.
So now I need to media blast these brand new wheels to replicate the RSR look that my front wheels have. Crazy!? I will report back once they have their heavily frosted RSR look to them.
A pair of refinished 7R is what, 5k right now?? The difference with Deep and flat is very noticeable when on the car.
are you going to flare the rear of your car?
There was a really nice car I saw a very subtle hot rodded T (looked stock, except stance, monster motor, and the deep6/7r combo). He was running 185/215 sized avons. looks great.
I'll likely be putting 7r on the rear of mine with a 215 CN36
The 7R and Deep 6 look identical from the outside, you can just see there is a spacer and a wider rear, very subtle.
I agree that the flat compared to deep 6/7's are noticeably different and it should give me that staggered look. You don't see many cars running flat/deep setup - usually deep/deep. Plus this keeps my car halfway stock since my front flat 6 wheels are date matched to my car. 7R wheels are crazy expensive and lack the safety bead (yes, I'm sure I am overreacting to this but it does give me peace of mind!) so I figured experimenting with these maxilites was the perfect option. Media blasting and 'experimenting' with real 7r's is probably a crazy idea.
I am definitely not flaring the rear. I really like the narrow body hot rod look. This is also the first Porsche I have owned that is narrow, so it is a nice change for me. I will need to run spacers between 5mm and 7mm on the rear to clear everything and this should fill out the wheel well nicely without flaring. Rennlister WBYonder was kind enough to show me his car with 7r's and 6.5mm spacers so I was sold on the look.
Speaking of rear flares, here are a couple shots of the rear quarters of my car halfway through the dry ice blasting. I need to get over to Andy's for updated photos - you can also see in this photo they were fitting the parcel shelf with a jig. Progress is a bit slow on my car but the good news is that removing the paint has revealed that the body is in excellent condition. No signs of previous repairs and minimal filler.
These 7r Maxilites are nice wheels. They only weigh 15.6 lbs and are TUV approved. A guy on Early S is one of the main dealers in the US (these are imported from Europe).
Since my car is in pieces and parts are nicely spread throughout the house like decor, I figured I would fit one of these 7r wheels to my rear trailing arm to check clearance. Why not - I could do this while watching football
I tried to capture some photos showing where the caliper makes contact with the wheel. Where the wheel begins to narrow is where there is contact. Need a spacer to clear this area and get the caliper out in the area where the wheel diameter expands. Hard to measure the spacer size needed but it looks like 8mm may be a safer bet.
These shots show that this is probably the largest wheel you are going to fit on the rear without flaring the fenders. You are getting clearance issues with the trailing arm where the spring plates will bolt on. This 7" wide wheel looks nice and wide for this narrow body 911 to me!
I also noticed by doing this that I installed the bracket that holds the brake rotor shield backwards. Need to fix that.
The most backspace any 911 can use is ~6", and w/ that you will need to shave the trailing arm nuts/bolts & relocate the oil line. Max frontspace on a pe SC body rear is ~3.5"
this is a wheel w/ 6" backspace, tires make a difference as well as they usually overhang the wheel. This is a 275
Thanks, Bill. I know you are the expert in many areas - including wheel fitting. So based on your figures these will work - the spacer should give a little more backspace clearance as well. Not much more room for comfort though. I will run 215 tires. I didn't think about the oil line. Since this is a '72, the plumbing is obviously a bit different. I think the oil lines on the '72 shouldn't create any different clearance issues though - assuming the line that runs high along body doesn't add clearance issues at the top of the tire with the suspension compressed.
Thanks, Bill. I know you are the expert in many areas - including wheel fitting. So based on your figures these will work - the spacer should give a little more backspace clearance as well. Not much more room for comfort though. I will run 215 tires. I didn't think about the oil line. Since this is a '72, the plumbing is obviously a bit different. I think the oil lines on the '72 shouldn't create any different clearance issues though - assuming the line that runs high along body doesn't add clearance issues at the top of the tire with the suspension compressed.
OON my '72 I ran 7ET23.3 Fuchs w/ 215/60x15 tire w/o any oil line issues
that wheel has 2.93" f/s & 4.77" b/s the tie makes that 3.3" f/s and 5.1: backspace, the 3.3" f/s is close to the n/b(pre SC) f/s max and will hit the fender several inches above the lip because of it's OD, You obviously have the wheel more inset but it is something to watch for.
Thanks, Bill. I had heard that the 7ET23 was known to make contact with the fender up high. Another reason I wanted the 7ET49 (7R) wheel. I will definitely keep an eye out for this though, as the last thing I will need is to burn what will be an expensive paint job.
So my son came home today with this shirt given to him as a Christmas gift. He is friends with Alex Xydias's granddaughter. I had to post this since I am building a hotrod and Alex is one of the grandfathers of hotrodding.
Got my gauges back from North Hollywood Speedometer. As with everything else with this car, the bill was more than expected. They did a great job though!
All gauges were tested and repaired, then restored. Almost every gauge had something wrong with it.
- The odometer gear was broken (as they all eventually do) in the speedometer gauge. I had them reset the odometer to 00000 since my car is now going through a complete restoration.
- The tachometer dampening was all screwy so they corrected this - no more dancing needle!
- The 2 combo gauges were all out of calibration which is kind of scary if one was relying on them for important things such as oil pressure, temp and fuel level.
- Bezels were refinished, needles were painted, faces cleaned and the glass polished.
I didn't. Surprisingly it still works although they told me that it is just a matter of time before it doesn't. I had planned to have that done but after they called me with the news of the increased estimate to do the rest of the work I passed. It is easy to remove and take to their shop when it does break so I can do that in the future. Trying to save costs where I can with this project although there aren't many opportunities for this it seems!
12-12-2019, 06:28 PM
