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Received my new wheel & tire combo today.
18x8 4.50” bs 255/40/18 26” diameter
18x9 5.29” bs 285/40/18 27” diameter
Absolutely no rubbing front or rear
I’ll take more and better pictures after I change out the springs next week. I didn’t want to buy new until I seen how the car set with new wheels.
The car has the original clapped out front springs and brand new stock height rear springs the previous owner installed. I think it looks ridiculous raked 3” between the rear of the front tire to the front of the rear tire.
Are those A/S Sport tires? If so, excellent choice.
Same sizes I have with Continental tires, except I have 18x9 rims front and rear. I rub the sway bar at full lock up front, but it's lowered quite a bit and the 9" wide wheel isn't helping.
I'm lowered about 2.5-3.0 up front and 2" in the back. It looks killer, but believe it or not I'm going to raise it up about 0.5" front and rear for more ground clearance and to get the shocks in a more neutral centered position at ride height.
Are those A/S Sport tires? If so, excellent choice.
Same sizes I have with Continental tires, except I have 18x9 rims front and rear. I rub the sway bar at full lock up front, but it's lowered quite a bit and the 9" wide wheel isn't helping.
I'm lowered about 2.5-3.0 up front and 2" in the back. It looks killer, but believe it or not I'm going to raise it up about 0.5" front and rear for more ground clearance and to get the shocks in a more neutral centered position at ride height.
Your link to Summit didn't work for me.
Yes, Pilot Sport A/S 3 Plus
I love the look of your car.
I knew you said you were running 285's on a 9" rim on the rear and an inch is about 25mm; I figured the 255's being 30mm narrower than the rears so a 18x8 will look good with 255's and with 4.50" back space, should be no rubbing. I'm extremely pleased with the combo and how nothing has rubbed in the100+ miles we rode around tonight. Just got an update from Summit and the springs are supposed to be here tomorrow. I just ordered them this morning so I'll be impressed if they show but as usual, all good things never last; when I pulled in tonight, the oil light came on and it's full on the dipstick, I guess I'll be rebuilding the engine sooner than I thought.
Your tire size and rim width is very good. What lowering springs are you running? I recently put BMR 2" drop coils in the back with QA1 shocks. Will probably use QA1 coilover kit from UMI up front.
Did not like the look on my F-85, I recently changed the rear springs and that dropped the rear 3.5 inches to balance out the stance to my liking.
Your car looks great the way it sits.
Having the rocker panel area as parallel to the ground as possible looks the best to me.
I ordered BMR 2” drop springs front and rear and I’m hoping my front actually comes up a little now as my stock front springs are really sagging.
My car is a small block without air so they should drop as advertised. Spring buffers can be used to tailor the ride height so it’ll be trial and error until I’m satisfied.
Last edited by scj64; June 27th, 2020 at 07:12 AM.
The whole suspension system and springs are all Hotchkis, QUA shocks, Moser 9 inch. During the build I decided on the B-Spindle upgrade. The upgrade takes a bunch of the under-steer out of these GM A-Body cars. Steers more like a slot car in the turns, great for auto-cross track fun...
Installed the 2” drop springs on all four corners and the fronts are not even close. The rears dropped as advertised and look great but the fronts dropped close to 4”! My car is a 350 with no a/c. I ordered a set of 3/4” spring spacers to see how that’ll lift the nose. Supposed to raise it a 1/2” but I’ve read numerous reviews that are all over the place. If I didn’t have to rebuild the engine, I’d buy coil overs and be done with it.
Keep in mind that coilovers still have a limited range of acceptable adjustment. I believe the ideal situation is 30-50% compressed at ride height, so you still may need spacers with the coilover to get it within that range and then fine tune it with the adjustable coilover spring.
I just ordered the QA1 front coilover kit, hoping to install this weekend. Maybe I'll do a new thread for those interested.
Installed the 3/4” spacers in the front and that brought it up a full 1 1/2”. I’d like a little more but changing the heads and intake to aluminum and swapping the exhaust manifolds to headers should gain me just enough to keep from messing with the front springs anymore.
My car has the unfortunate GM lean across the back. It was significant at 1” low on the right. I bought a 1” spacer for the right rear spring and that took 5/8” out of it.
Another thing I am addressing is centering the axle up in the wheel wells. The right rear lower control arm bushings are shot and that’s letting that side rest about 3/8” further back than the left in the openings. Since the axle is pushed back by lowering 2”, it has the springs out of plumb. I ordered adjustable lower control arms to bring the axle forward a little and to align the driveshaft a little better. Once I see how close I can get the axle square to the front end, I’ll know whether to buy fixed upper control arms or adjustable. I knew this was going to be trial and error as no two cars are ever alike and here we are.
I’m focused on getting the chassis how I want it and every time my wife walks out to check on me, I have to hear how she hates the stock grille. I guess I’ll be swapping that out to a 442 grille to make her happy. No hating please........
I mentioned the oil light came on earlier; there was a 2” bare spot on the sending unit wire that was laying on the manifold. I taped that up and rerouted. No more oil light.
Took me three tries to get the front the correct height and twice to get the rear correct but it’s how I want the tires-to-fender gap for now.
1” drop springs with 3/4” rubber spacers under the springs in the front and 2” drop springs in the rear. I had to install a 1” block in the right rear to level it side to side.
My car was lower on the driver side, so I needed to run an upper and lower spring isolator on the driver rear, but only an upper on the passenger rear. Need to adjust the front coilovers as they settled about 0.5" after some driving. But the slightly lower spring rates and adjustable shocks do ride smoother with no noticeable loss in handling.
I’m just at the beginning of the mods for this car and knowing a few things I have planned will change weight placement, I think it’s pretty close at it sets to get the end results I’m after.
The front will settle sooner and more so than the rear so with my engine getting pulled in a couple weeks and going back with aluminum heads, manifold, headers and I will be moving the battery to the trunk, this should remove/relocate 100 pounds off the front. Hopefully, it’ll end up exactly as it sets now in the front eventually. Placing the battery, amp, subwoofer and spare in the rear should drop the back about a 1/2” from where it sets now.
My tire diameters are 26” in front and 27” in rear. My center of front fenders is exactly 26” above the ground and the rear quarters are 27”. When I get the engine back, everything installed in the trunk and a few miles on it, I’m hoping the front stays at 26” and the rear drops to 26 1/4”-26 1/2”.
Kind of makes me wonder if everyone else has had a lot of trial and error getting their cars adjusted to how they want?
June 26th, 2020, 02:36 PM
