V8 BUG

First off, that looks great. Your car looks awesome. Thanks for the specs. I also have been looking into this swap. I purchased my Vette with 15" Cragars with 245 60's all around. Ok but not the look I wanted for the 76. I scored a set of C6 Gumby's and currently have a set of 285 35 r19 tires going on them with 245 40 r18 for the front. DO you think you could have brought the fronts in a bit more? I will be picking up the rims and tires tomorrow from the tire shop and start playing around with spacer dimensions.

Thanks

Kevin

vette427-sbc

Thanks Kevin!

Yes there is plenty of room to go inward... I fit 11.3" wide (285/35/18) tires on the front of my non flared vette.
We were going for a pretty flush look on this car and I think it will look even better with the car lowered and the camber spec where it should be. You could probably do something like a 2.5 - 2.75" spacer up front and it would be close to stock with a 245 tire.

V8 BUG

Hey Vette 427,

Thanks to you I just ordered the spacers I will need for the 76. I ordered 3.1 for the rear and 2.75 for the front. I talked to Lenny at the company you suggested.

Thanks again,

Kevin

vette427-sbc

Glad to help Kevin!

Finally got the car down to a respectable height... May try to get the rear down another 1/2" or so if the customer wants. Cut the stock springs in the front and went with a 330lb fiberglass spring from VB&P (shortened 1/2" on each side) There is just enough clearance with some safety margin from the spring to the inside of the rim with an 8" bolt.

V8 BUG

Nice work man.

7t9l82

maybe i missed it but, how much did you cut the front spring

qwank

that looks awesome

3JsVette

The new stance really completes the look. I agree with you on bringing the rear down a little more if you can convince the owner.
Now if we can just start making our way to spring.

vette427-sbc

Thanks guys! The owner has let me play a big role in designing and modifying the car and he is pretty open to most of my ideas. He came in one day with a 100% stock car to get the back window tinted. He mentioned how he was planning to keep the car mostly stock. Now to talk him into ditching the auto for a 5 speed...

2 coils... one from the top, and one from the bottom. It is pretty low up front. 26" tall tire and a 25.5" fender lip height (I think it was at 28" or more before the cuts). The lower lip on the bumper will probably be removed to get 3.5-4" of ground clearance to the nose. Ive found that if you are at or above that height, you shouldnt have any issues with speed bumps and other standard roadway obstacles. You have to be careful how you drive over them, but its doable. Been driving my vette with 4" of clearance for years now (in NJ none the less!) with no issues. My other car has 3.75" and no issues either.

Ibanez540r

Oh man.. your killing me! (Very helpful thread though - thank you!)

Now I'm questioning my tire sizes. Based on this initially;

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...c6-wheels.html

and your first picture I picked up a set of 285/40/19 to fill the space. Now with your lowered picture I'm wondering if it's going to be too big and I should stick to the stock size. (285/40/19 is 1" bigger overall, or 1/2" bigger top & bottom / side-side). I also bought 245/45/18 fronts to even out the difference.

Rear spacers size I'm still up in the air about too!

Ugh...

vette427-sbc

Ill give you my opinion...
I dont like anything bigger than a 27" tall tire on the rear and around a 26" tall tire on the front. Bigger kind of takes away from the sports car look. Smaller looks like you half-assed the wheel fitment. Again, thats my opinion. Im sure people out there think the cars I own/build dont look right and thats OK.

As for the rear spacers. Not knocking blkslvr79, (his car does look awesome with those wheels and the color of his car) but his rear wheels stick out way to far to even think about lowering it to a 28" rear fender lip height (assuming a 27" tire).
The clearances on this car are TIGHT. Would I run this setup on my car? Probably not because I drive my car hard, things flex and clearances move. It would likely rub the frame if I took it to an auto-x or road course. This car is a cruiser with no intention of racing so things are not going to move around much.

This wheel/tire/spacer combo will clear the rear fender and frame rail going over a bump. My one suggestion would be if you are going to get a different rear tire, look at the manufacturers specs for overall width. Tires vary a bit brand to brand. These Falken 285's are noticeably wider than my Nitto 285's. You may get away with a 3.25" rear spacer but I couldnt imagine pushing the wheels out any more than that without worrying about contacting the fender. This pic shows it all (before the lowering):


EDIT:
Please realize these spacer specs and suggestions are based off of this specific car. We all know there are lots of variances car to car. I would recommend mounting the tire you are going to run on the rim and mock it up on the car WITH THE SUSPENSION LOADED AS IF IT WERE AT YOUR TARGET RIDE HEIGHT. The suspension moves the track width in and out through its travel enough to throw off your measurements if its not where you want it to be

USAZR1

I agree completely and the car's stance goes hand in hand with it. IMO,stance is everything. Just like the wrong wheels can ruin a beautiful car,so will an improper stance. Seems like most of the rubber bumper C3's I see are still stuck with the worn out "nose high,tail low" attitude and frankly,it looks like crap. It's amazing what innovative rolling stock and proper stance can do for those Corvettes,like it does for all others.

Ibanez540r

I agree about BLCKSLVR's rear spacer. I was trying to guess / estimate how much room there would be to move it in, and that's why this thread has been so helpful. That 3.25" mark seems to be about a happy medium with frame clearance and just enough clearance on the lip. I have a VB&P dual mount rear spring so I can keep it stiff if I needed to limit the risk of a rear fender strike.

I purchased the C6 wheels with the factory tires still on them. So what I think I'll do is keep them on for now until the car gets put back together and judge from there. I'll probably stick with similar sizes, but in better rubber. ...my 285/40/19 and 245/45/18's are Michelin PS2's.

Again, prior to this information, I was just going off of pictures. I had no idea how much room he had left on the suspension to lower, but it sure looked like a huge gap (like in your initial post). Hence the reason I thought the slightly larger tire size would fill it out better. After seeing "your" car lowered, the proportion seems perfect and there was obviously plenty of room to lower.

...I was never completely comfortable "guessing" and was probably just going to purchase/borrow/rent one of those tire size gauges that bolts to the hub to figure it out. I'm feeling more confident with your info on getting it right.

Fair to say you agree with 2.75" and 3.25" being pretty safe and the right look?

UPDATE - after staring at that last pic, you did dial in the flush look damn near perfect at 3.1"! Hmmm... That's where I want to be, but on the flip side I want to avoid any frame rub and will be driving it harder then your customer, so that's where I think I should maybe push it out a bit.

vette427-sbc

Stance and wheel/tire fitment can and usually does make or break the car. Some people dont realize that even a 1/2" whether its tire height, width or ride height is very noticeable. Ive got way too many hours (and multiple wheel and tire configs!) getting the "look" right on my cars

These Falken FK453 are 11.5" wide on a 10" rim. (pretend the vette rim is 10" not 10.5") Say you get a Nitto INVO that is 11.3" wide on a 10" rim and use the 3.25" spacer vs my 3.1" Assuming you have the exact same car as this 80, you would be damn close to how flush to the fender the wheel is on this car, with an additional 1/4" (rounding up a hair) of clearance on the frame.

...I think thats right?

V8 BUG

Here are some pics of my "Gumby" rims. Adapters are from MotorSport Tech. Great people to deal with and excellent work. Hub fit was dead on. I had my adapters inspected(I work at an inspection facility) and had only about .001" runout. Car will go low when done. There is no motor or trans in right now. Waiting to build my Lq4/4L60e
Thanks again Vette427

vette427-sbc

That will look great and the fitment looks pretty much spot on! Glad I could help. What size tires and spacers did you go with?

I finally got the '80 down in the back... 10" bolts. And it goes to show; make your measurements at ride height!!! The geometry changed significantly once I went down another 1.5". Ill have to snap a better pic tomorrow but the rear has very noticeable negative camber. Probably -2*. This pulled the whole wheel inward a hair giving me even more fender clearance. Going to have to get it aligned to correct this now but damn this car looks bad ***

bluegtp

Dang.....you're really making me want to switch over to those wheels! Amazing how the stance of a vehicle can make or break a car.

V8 BUG

The spacers that I used are 2.75" up front and 3.10" out back. I have about 1/4 clearance on the trailing arm to the tire on both sides. Tires are 285-35r19 rear and 245-45-r18 on the front. These tires are temporary as I just needed to roll the car around while the build is on. I plan to keep the rear size but lower the front to a stock C6 size of 245-40-r18. I'm really happy with the way they fit and may pull the springs and make some bars on the shock mount to get a feel for the correct ride height. I'm pretty much going for the look of Vette427's customers car. I think that's perfect.

Kevin

vette427-sbc

And one more pic just because I love how this car looks now...

76CSRvette

Thanks for the post got mine on two weeks ago look and feel great now just got to lower suspension. I used the 2.75 front 3.25 rear. Hub and wheel centric. No ebrake bracket.