C6 Rims the Saga Continues

[Crazy Canuk]

Hi firstly I want to say thanks for all of the help you guys have given me in the past.

I feel like a chump because this has dragged on for over a year now, I bought a set of C6 rims off of a guy on ebay and it's been nothing but trubble. Not only has he not sent me 2 of the rims (he was going to exchange them with ones that would fit in the front but that never happened) but last weekend I put the rear ones on to check the fit.

When I did that I found out the rear rims/tires hit the rear safty stop (? mechanic told me the name). It is a metal plate which is welded to the inner fender with rubber attached to on the bottom. The mechanic said that it had to do with safty if the car ever got hit from behind so he said not to remove it or change it. My question to you is should I listen to the mechanic

I am currently in the process of finding a lawyer to sue him (it is past the ebay/paypal time limits) but I may not be able to (I live in canada and he is in the US). I may open a off topic thread for this but if it will cost me more then the money lost on the rims I may want to try to modify my car to accept these rims (not ideal) and I want to know if it is safe or not. I can't use spacers on my wheels because it is aganst the law to use those and go on the highway in Ontario.

Any help you guys can give would be a HUGE help, Thanks

[redws6]

i got a set of c6 rims, and they fit just fine. the guy i bought them off of told me the vette and firebird chasis are basically the same, im not sure how true that is, but mine fit. that sux that you cant do anything through ebay, ive been screwed plenty of times through ebay, almost to the point of i might not sell anything on ebay anymore. i wouldnt try to make the rims fit, im not sure how safe that would be. what size are the rims and tires?

hope you fix the problem.
chris

[Crazy Canuk]

The rear ones are 18 x 9.5 with 275-40-18 wheels (should be 275-35-18 for ride hight)
I should have added that For the front he had 245 x 40 (or 45 cant remember) x 18 on 9.5 wide rims, where 9 is listed max.

He said he was going to get me 18 x 8.5 rims for the front (he ruined the other set of 18 x 9.5 ones after he sold them to me). The smart thing would have been to contact ebay when he called me and told me that they needed spacers after I bought them after telling me b4 I bought them that they went on with no problems but I am a nice guy...too nice and now feel like a carpet.

[redws6]

mine are 285 40 17 in the back
255 or 245 i cant remeber 4517 on the front.

the fit just fine...yeh in know the whole carpet feeling too. good luck with the rims.

i wouldnt try to modify your car to fit them, i would re-sell them and use the money to get ones that fit.

i bought mine off a guy in georgia, he has a company called bones enterprises
he was very helpful and a nice guy.

take it easy man

[Trash man]

When I did that I found out the rear rims/tires hit the rear safty stop

thats just the bump stop to prevent bottoming out. if u lower a car they usually cut those for some more suspension travel. u can also mount one inside the spring

[Injuneer]

You should be able to simply grind the projecting edge off the jounce bumper bracket. Many of us running 11" wide wheels have done this. Actually, if you had jacked the car by the axle, rather than lifting the body and allowing the axle to go to full drop, the wheel would not have hit the jounce bumper. But if you don't cut the edge of the bracket off, you run the risk of someone forgetting, jacking the car by the body, and having the jounce bumper bracket catch on the wheel as the axle drops.



I'm not sure what part the jounce bumper plays in protecting the chassis in a rear end collision. I've never heard that one before. It is there to prevent the shocks from bottoming out, which will damage them, and to prevent a sharp impact if the car is heavilly loaded and you hit a bump forcing the body down onto the axle.

Some info, that would be helpful for my reference. What is the offset of the 18x9.5 wheels that you tried to mount on the car?

[Crazy Canuk]

Thanks guys I realy appreciate all this help.

The problem is I don't know too much about these rims, but to be honest I have my doubts there real C6 rims at this point and not aftermarket. I would assume they are for the C6 corvette though, they were originaly bought late fall 04.

By the looks of it I would have to cut off 1 or 2 inches of the jounce bumber bracket (thanks for the proper name) for them to clear the wheel with a little clearance and that wouldn't leave much there to protect anything.

Also with the wheel being closer to the inner well of the fender what is the chance of the tire rubbing the body on a turn? and how bad would that be?

Thanks again.

[Injuneer]

.....By the looks of it I would have to cut off 1 or 2 inches of the jounce bumber bracket (thanks for the proper name) for them to clear the wheel with a little clearance and that wouldn't leave much there to protect anything.

Also with the wheel being closer to the inner well of the fender what is the chance of the tire rubbing the body on a turn? and how bad would that be?

Thanks again.

If you feel the need to cut "inches' off the jounce bumper bracket, we're not talking about the same part. There is a small lip on the bracket that projects past the inner fender liner. That's all you need to cut off. I don't understand what part you are talking about.

For some info on fitting wide wheels, I have an FAQ on another forum, with pictures (about 2/3 the way to the bottom of the thread):

http://64.65.63.61/forums/showthread.php?t=312442

Can you measure the "backspace" on your wheels? Lay the wheel face down on the ground. Put a straight edge across the inner flange of the wheel. Measure straight down to the surface of the hub mounting flange. On a 4th Gen, you are limited to about 8" backspace.

These are pictures of the clearance on my car with wheels with 7.93" backspace. The inner fenders were hammered. The edge was cut off the jounce bumper. The body was recentered over the axle with an adjustable panhard rod. But I have 11" wide wheels, with 315/35-17 BFG Drag Radials on them.

If you have 9.5" wide wheels and they are this close to the inner fender, you need to move them back out with a spacer. I have seen people using 1.5" spacers to make the C6 and C6-Z06 wheels fit. These are billet aluminum adapters that bolt to your stock hub studs, and have a new set of studs embedded in them, for you to bolt the wheels to.

[Crazy Canuk]

Nice site I whish I knew of it b4 alot of info on it.

Ok I went home flipped over the rim, and put a flat edge over the back side, with rubber attached to the rim the back side of the tire to the mounting surface came to 8 1/16", and about 1/4" of the straight edge to the outer edge of the rim (by where the tire is mounted).

Here are 3 pic's of the rim trying to be mounted (car up on lifts and the lug nuts about 1/2 on)

http://moo.selfip.org/pic1.jpg

http://moo.selfip.org/pic2.jpg

http://moo.selfip.org/pic3.jpg

The first one shows the wheel looking from the side (my car is dirty no Zaino on her that day )

The other two are looking at the inner wheel well and the interferance.

[Black97]

First of all as a fellow Canadian I was wondering where Ontatio is?

Look at the picks from Injuneer and you can see where he cut the lip off of the stopper close to the two bolts.

Now look at the second picture of yours. if you cut that lip off close to the two bolts you should have enough clearance to lift the car with the wheels on.

That's how I see it from the picks unless I'm missing something.

[Injuneer]

Even if you get the wheels to clear the jounce bumper bracket, if your measurements are accurate, the backspace is too large and the tires are going to be right against the inner fender liners. You will need to do a massive amount of hammering. Your backspace is 8.125 + .25 = 8.375". That means your wheels have an offset of 79mm, and that is the number I have seen quoted for some of the C6 wheels.

You need to move the wheels "out". Even if you could hammer the inner fenders enough to get them on, they are going to look "sunk" into the wheels wells. The outside of the wheel/tire will actually sit slightly deeper in the wheel well than the stock 16x8 wheels.

I think you need an adapter to move the wheels out 1.25". I've seen that number used on a recent post on the "Wheel and Tire" forum at CamaroZ28.com. You might want to try contacting the guy who posted:

http://64.65.63.61/forums/showthread.php?t=433897

[Crazy Canuk]

Firstly I am a horrible speller, but Ontatio was a typo (I type quick which is a bad combo )

I live in Ontario or Northren Mexico for the auto industry

Thanks Injuneer I will check out that forum and maybe contact him. This is like a plan B to sueing him but if it was something like shaving off a part that has interfearance that wouldn't be too bad if its more and it realy is looking that way it's less of an option. I love those rims they look so nice but I don't want to damage my car to get them on eather.

Thanks again guys

[Black97]

I think you need an adapter to move the wheels out 1.25".

That's quite a bit in my opinion. Is that still save?

[Crazy Canuk]

I did some reading on spacers yesterday, from what I found is that (in the US at least) they need to be certified spacers and go thru some tests to make them legal. The use of spacers may be needed to be designed into the original car also, I am not sure.

The site that said that mentioned that Porsche actually designs spacers so there customers have different wheel options right from the start. They have also been doing that for a long time (I think the 70's or so).

I also read that a guy in a car had a aftermarket wheel come off and it killed a young girl and he got 2 years in jail for it.

[Injuneer]

Some 3rd Gen F-Body's left the factory with "adapters". They are not "spacers" in the traditional sense - a spacer sandwiches between the wheel and the hub, compressed by the stock lugs and studs. The adapter first bolts to the stuck studs, then incorporates a new set of studs to hold the wheel.

The best source I have found for these is Skulte Performance Designs. I would buy from a source like that, and not even consider a totally unknown eBay source.

http://www.skulte.com/

Are your billet wheel adapters safe?

Yes, they bolt on exactly like a wheel, and are designed stronger than the wheel itself. If you can change a tire, then you can use our wheel adapters. Our adapters have never had any failures, and are even safe for racing. We have been using them on our twin turbo Camaro for years.

Why should I buy Skulte Performance Designs wheel adapters?

Our adapters are precision CNC machined from aerospace grade 6061-T6 aluminum, and come with heavy duty pressed in Grade8 SAE or Grade 10.9 metric studs. Other companies may not be using certified materials, proper design tolerances, or heavy duty studs. Their adapters may look the same, but may vibrate at speed, or even fail from hidden material or machining defects. We choose to build the best adapters, using the best components, and will never sacrifice safety.

This is a photo from his website:



I do not think I, personally, would go with a wheel that does not fit the car correctly. Going for "looks" or "form before function" is not a good way to approach things. OK for a show car, but questionable on a daily driver. To me, you find a wheel of the size you want, with the correct offset that doesn't require a spacer. Look at the photo of the Camaro with the C6's that I linked on CamaroZ28.com.... the stock disc brakes look aenemic behind those wheels.

But, I run a thin spacer on my front wheels for the Weld Pro-Stars. As long as it is correctly placed on the hub (hub-centric, or lug-centric), it is fully legal for NHRA use. I run extra length, high strength studs, to get the required thread engagement. But I drive a "track only" car. It isn't accumulating a lot of street miles, and I wouldn't drive it on the street with 4.5" wide front tires anyway, except for may yearly trek to one of the local auto shows... about 1 mile each way (after it comes off the trailer), in an F-Body convoy, with a local police officer leading the way (yes, its fun to break a set of 28" slicks loose on US Rt. 1... ).