PCinDC

I bought a set of wheels from fellow rennlister Ian (excellent guy to do business with), hoping to be able to fit them to my 1986 951.

With 7mm spacers in the rear the tires will still rub on the inside fenderwall. With any more spacing and the outside will be at even more risk of rubbing under hard cornering. I had to roll the fenders completely (not just at 10 and 2), and its still pretty close.

I was willing to give them a try until I took a closer look at the inner fender wall. In order to do it, I would have to machine down the tips of 2 suspension bolts and modify the inner wall of the fender to give at least another half inch of space, something I don't think is possible without relocating or modifying the gas tank. There is also a welding tab in the fender well that needed to be cut down, though I think you should do that to run any kind of wide rear wheel/tire (275's maybe?).

Anyway it's really unfortunate because the wheels look awesome on the car and I was really looking forward to running 295's. I installed the hub-centric spacers and longer studs on the front axle, so I guess I'll be looking for late offset replacements for these wheels.

Does anyone know what sort of problems I'll run into trying to fit narrower (maybe 18x10) wheels to the rear? Do I need to do any different spacing? I think the 45mm offsets are unique to these rear wheels but I'm not sure.

Crosspost for sale/trade ad from the Wheels/Tires forum

If anyone has any wheels they are selling or trading let me know.

Thanks!

ian

Paul,

I'm really sorry about this, this is why Keith and I did the test fitment, and asked around to just about everyone I could think of......

If there is anything I can do with the sale let me know, I can vouch that you are more than a stand up guy, and both times I've done buisness with you things have gone very well......

Sorry again.

Ethan

Man that sucks! Sorry you couldn't get them to fit. I assume that IMA can't do any further machining for them?

PCinDC

Ian, it's totally not your fault at all. I thought after doing the math they would fit as well and there isn't really a way to tell without getting the spacers, rolling the fenders, Cutting the tips of a few bolts, cutting 3/8 of an inch off of the welding tab in the fender well and tieing off the brake lines.
LOL

I'll just have to replace them and for the public forums sake, I'll say the same things about Ian - he's a great guy to do business with.

PCinDC

Hey Ethan, unfortunately it's not really the wheels that are the problem.

It's the way the body and suspension are set up in the fender well, and although I would assume IMA could modify the fender well to make them fit, I doubt it would be worth the money it would take since it looks like the gas tank would need to be modified on the passenger side (which is actually a good deal worse than the driver's side).

Rich Sandor

You can't modify the ride height/suspension to limit the amount of travel?

PCinDC

Rich - there really isn't enough room width-wise for the tire no matter how much the suspension travel is limited. They would rub the inner wall at any suspension level, even at rest.

The only thing I can think of is Sami's 951. When his fenders were rolled they were flared out a small amount while still appearing stock. That may allow for a slightly larger spacer to move the wheels out, but I'm not sure how he did that (I think the previous owner had a shop do it actually). Maybe I'll PM him and see how feasible that would be for a DIY job.

Rich Sandor

flare the fenders. you'd have to repaint it I'd bet though.. but fo rthose wheels... worthy sacrifice!

Sam Lin

A fender roller can flare the fenders out a little bit pretty easily.

Sam

Danno

I'm assuming you're using a 285/30-18 tyre? I had similar problems with my 17x11.5" rear wheels initially with 275mm tyres. It would actually rub on the outside 1st with anything more than 1" of suspension travel and on inside at 4" or so. Then I made extra clearance on the outside and now I can run a 275/40-17 tyre with full suspension travel. You need to use a thicker spacer, at least 15mm; I recommend 20mm so that the effective offset is 25mm. This precisely centers the tyres between the inner and outer fender (with additional clearance).

The next step is to get more clearance on the outside with the fender lips fully rolled up into the fenders so that it wraps 180-degrees around and is flush. To do this, I had to cut lateral slices into the lip every 4 inches so the metal doesn't have to stretch to get wrapped up. The resultant cuts ended up being a pie-wedge opening when the metal is flipped up all the way. On the 1st fender I tried rolling up the fender-lip with the baseball bat, I ended up flaring out the bottom 2" of the fender out by about 10-degrees, yet the lip wasn't much past 60-degrees (ugly). Don't do this.

On the other fender I found a better technique using a 6" flat bar of metal. It's the 1/4" thick steel bars you can pick up for flat-sanding body panels. I put this on the outside of the fender to keep its edge flat. Then I used channel-lock pliers to reach in and squeeze both the bar and the fender lip all the way up 1/2" at a time (keep the metal bar stationary). This gave 1/8" more clearance than the baseball bat method with no ugly flaring of the fender. Here's a picture of my fender partially done:



Going the rest of the way took about 30-minutes or so. Wear gloves or you'll blister your hands. Also use channel-lock pliers with a long handle to get increased leverage. Then after the entire fender lip has been rolled, I used a 6-foot long 2x4 wedged in between the tire and the fender directly in front of it to pry out the fender that curves inwards. This is the spot right underneath the square patch of stoneguard material. Since your tires aren't as tall as mine, you probalby won't need to do this.

Finally, after the fender has been rolled, it's kinda lumpy and rough inside. So I cleaned it up and ground down the inside. This gained another 1/8" of clearance:



So overall, I got about 3/8" inch more clearance on the outside and that let me run the 275mm without too much rubbing. It will still rub on the middle of the sidewall and on the inside at full suspension travel, but that's because of the taller tire. A 315/35-17 will actually work as well.

PCinDC

Danno, thanks for the reponse - these tires are 295/30/18's.

If you made a 17x11.5 wheel fit back there I will certainly take a closer second look. I have rolled the fenders flat but I think if I were to cut the sections like you did and clamp them down I could get a little more space. With a little more flare I might able to fit a slightly larger spacer but 20mm seems huge looking at the space I have to work with!

Thanks for the advice regardless. If I could keep these I would certainly be happier.

Danno

Oh, forgot, I had changed my alignment for track racing a couple years earlier to -1.75 degrees camber in the rear. That actually gave me about 1/4" extra clearance on top than stock. But the taller tire still rubbed directly ahead on the fender.

PCinDC

Alright I reviewed the area and it looks like I'll need to flatten the inside lip on the fender (they are already rolled 75% of the way flat to the inside wall), grind off another 1/8 inch, space the wheels out at least 10mm further, and probably flare the fender out a bit more.

Either that or sell the wheels and buy a set with a narrower rear.

Not sure which I'm going to do, but I'll have a bunch of time this evening to see if I can tackle the flattening and grinding. I'll have to order new, larger spacers - does anyone want/need a set of 7mm spacers that are basically brand new (only used for test fitment)?

Thanks!

Mike Buck

Paul,
I might be able to use those. Could pick them up this Friday/weekend. Would love to check out new ride too.

thanks

Blue S2

Those are some big wheels you bought!!! For what its worth, i bet they will look awesome on your car! Where there is a will there is a way! Get creative! (semi-wide body maybe? or just bolted on extension flares?)