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A couple of points.
Just increase neg. camber only works if you don't care about tire wear.
The position of the wheels relative to the fenders from an appearance standpoint is a personal matter, for me you get the ricer look if you do tricks like rolling fenders and running a lot of neg. camber to allow pushing the wheels out as far as possible.
You can replace the outer barrels and it isn't that difficult. I had one damaged in shipment and replaced it, Tramont sent me the procedure.
Tramont is a first rate company and Christine is great to deal with, I hope you have made things right with them.
I understand that increasing negative camber will adversely affect tire wear. Back 'in the day' I was an active autocrosser and burned through sets of street tires like made in my GTI due to the 3 degrees of camber and massive toe out. I don't want the car to be riceresque either. If the fenders are rolled, it'll just be the inner lip.
And yes, as soon as I recognized the true situation, I sent a sincere apology to Christine for mistakenly accusing them of shipping the wrong wheels.
Racer dont change a thing the wheels are perfect as is! My Tramonts are the same spec, 18×8.5+40 and 18×10+55. I did a pretty mild pull on the quarter panels and I'm lower than RS all around and my rear camber is not much past stock.
Big shoutout to Robert at Lufteknic. He will be able to get the fitment just right.
Interesting thread. One option you might want to explore is to mill down the face of the seating surface of the wheel by 4mm or so. That will bring you from ET+55 to ET+59. I bet there is extra meat to mill down anyways ..... It is a really interesting set of circumstances .... How did you end up with ET+55? Tramont always recommends ET+59 for a narrow body 993, particularly because ET+59 allows for TUV certification as well. Was there a typo in communication? I checked my notes from 2014.... Below you can see that Tramont recommended that I go with ET+59 (although I ultimately took a risk and used ET+fifty-eight).
Le 31/03/2014 06:53, TRAMONT a écrit :
Hello, Many thanks for your demand.
Please find below our prices for our CUP wheels (special price)
- 8.5 x 18 ET 45 : 500,80 € unit price
- 10 x 18 ET 59 : 544,80 € unit price
- Shipment : 600,00 €
TOTAL AMOUNT : 2 691,20 € + customs duties to be paid when receiving the wheels These prices are without VAT
Jaa: Can you (or anyone else) explain how one would determine the amount that could be "milled down" on the seating surface? I have some 8.5" ET 40 fronts that are much too aggressive - is it likely that one could take off 10 mm? Sounds like a lot. Is the wheel substantially weakened by taking off even 5mm? 10mm?
I've heard that a lot of machine/whee shops are not very receptive to milling down people's wheels because it risks stressing the wheel material and creates a liability risk if the wheel prematurely fails down the road. That's said I've seen at least a couple examples of where's that have been milled down and or bored out to accommodate different offset or bolt pattern requirements.
Even if you can get it done, consider the impact it may have on future resale value of the wheels as well as your own personal safety.
Jaa: Can you (or anyone else) explain how one would determine the amount that could be "milled down" on the seating surface? I have some 8.5" ET 40 fronts that are much too aggressive - is it likely that one could take off 10 mm?
I agree - 10mm sounds like a lot. I was thinking 1 - 3 mm as an uneducated guess.
Originally Posted by Spyder_Man
I've heard that a lot of machine/whee shops are not very receptive to milling down people's wheels because it risks stressing the wheel material and creates a liability risk if the wheel prematurely fails down the road.
I also agree with the sentiment about potential safety compromises.
I'd start by contacting the wheel manufacturer. Ostensibly the wheel centers must go through some kind of machining process after they are cast --- that machining process probably includes some operations to prepare the wheel center (milling?) to conform to a specific offset given the inner / outer barrels that the manufacturer intends to use with the wheel center.
If I were you, I'd start the research by asking the manufacturer if they are willing to conduct post-sales machining. They probably have the best idea (a range?) on what the thickness of the casting should be where it mounts to the hub.
They may or may not be amenable to the idea --- but the manufacturer is a good place to start.
In my mind it is unlikely Tramont is going to say, go ahead and mill the centers, you can safely take off x amount. Where does that place them from a liability standpoint? They will have product liability insurance, I cannot conceive the policy allowing that. In fact I hope they don't see this, they may decide to suspend selling to the US.
They will sell you new outer barrels that will solve the problem.
In my mind it is unlikely Tramont is going to say, go ahead and mill the centers, you can safely take off x amount. Where does that place them from a liability standpoint? They will have product liability insurance, I cannot conceive the policy allowing that. In fact I hope they don't see this, they may decide to suspend selling to the US. They will sell you new outer barrels that will solve the problem.
Right, I think if anyone were to mill the centers, it would be the original wheel manufacturer.
Glad you got it sorted. You may want to consider having Wayne Hall at Euroclassics dial in your alignment if you feel you need it. He did mine after my suspension rebuild and I was very happy with the result.
Was there a typo in communication? I checked my notes from 2014.... Below you can see that Tramont recommended that I go with ET+59 (although I ultimately took a risk and used ET+fifty-eight).
Language barrier may have come into play here. I said I was 'considering' the 55mm offset, to which Christine responded it would work so long as I had the 'black brakes'. 'Considering' has connotations that may have not come through. I know Christine speaks English (we spoke on the phone to close the loop on my wire transfer) but wonder if she uses a translation tool for written communication.
In any case, I'm working on getting my car to Lufteknic for a consult on how to best alleviate the rubbing issues. That likely won't happen until week after next, since I'm traveling next week. Once that's addressed, I'll post more photos.
Thanks for sharing. I bet minor ride height or minor neg camber adjustments will do the trick. When I first purchased my car, it came with some aftermarket 10x18ET+55 wheels in the back. With ROW springs and factory alignment settings on Bridgestone S04 tires, there was no rubbing. It did look awfully aggressive though. I will also point out that the profile of those after market 996 turbo wheel replicas had a different profile ... They were 1 pc wheels and dont have the separate barrels nor the flange that 3pc wheels like the tramonts do. When I bought the tramonts, i used ET+58 to be a tad more conservative. Even then, i dont think the result (tried to copy your camera angle) doesn't look any different than yours.... I do not experience rubbing. Then again it is impossible to tell whats going on with such imprecise camera pictures.
Things have been hectic so I keep forgetting to post an update here.
Lufteknic wound up slightly rolling the fender lip and I'm back on the road and enjoying the heck out of my 993 again. No rubbing and the car handles even better now that it's got the right size wheels for the tires that are on the car. Still scratching my head over the Boxster wheel switch...
The amount of fender roll required was incredibly minor; I checked out how much lip was in place before Lufteknic did their thing and can't really tell a difference.
Gratuitous phone pic to show the car being driven (or in this case, parked in front of my favorite butcher shop). Also shown would be my gmorat bumperette inserts painted and in place. More photos to follow once this heat wave breaks and I can properly primp the car.
06-14-2016, 07:17 AM
