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Wheels often make the car. The problem with a restomod is that the old rolled 15s and the new frames are all about 20s. I like the look of the classic wheels, and I’ve seen them stretched to larger sizes. However, they just never seem to look right. My favorites:
Probably my favorite of all
The fall back to the old knockoff days
The original
The rally (sp) wheels just look awful stretched to 18s. I can’t imagine how bad a 20 would look. I’ve never found any of these that really met my needs, so custom wheels it had to be.
The builder and I were pretty much on the same page in terms of wanting custom wheels and generally that resized Kelsey Hayes wheels were what we wanted. He wanted true knockoffs, I was leery due to safety. Research showed the Forgeline had reworked the idea and were safely running them. I wanted to go with them, but he had other plans.
We started with a certain big name wheel builder (who shall remain nameless) that assured us that custom wheels were something they did frequently and were no problem for them. After repeated phone calls, we finally got a sketch that looked about as professional as a hand drawing on a cocktail napkin and NOTHING like what we were after. After we pointed that out, we never got another call. So Forgeline got the business.
After a deposit and a few weeks of engineering time we got these:
Obviously, that’s more impressive than hand drawings. The planning was underway.
For an unusual but tasteful color consider a color similar to Pontiac "Iris Mist" or Chevrolet "Evening Orchid". This has a bit of gray and purple. Might also consider teal blues or greens. Paint is about light and shadow. I think the body lines of the C2 and C3 favor the lighter colors as darker colors mute the shadow effects.
For an unusual but tasteful color consider a color similar to Pontiac "Iris Mist" or Chevrolet "Evening Orchid". This has a bit of gray and purple. Might also consider teal blues or greens. Paint is about light and shadow. I think the body lines of the C2 and C3 favor the lighter colors as darker colors mute the shadow effects.
That reminds me of the Ford “Orchid Gray” from the early 60s. I’ve often though black cars lose all of their lines. They just look like a big blob of black.
Wheels often make the car. The problem with a restomod is that the old rolled 15s and the new frames are all about 20s. I like the look of the classic wheels, and I’ve seen them stretched to larger sizes. However, they just never seem to look right. My favorites:
Probably my favorite of all
The fall back to the old knockoff days
The original
The rally (sp) wheels just look awful stretched to 18s. I can’t imagine how bad a 20 would look. I’ve never found any of these that really met my needs, so custom wheels it had to be.
Always save the best till last, when car has been finished with all the trim in place. That's when the wheels will have their max effect, on if they make or break car...
Also, an I'm sure you've been advised, because C2 wheelwell's were designed for 27 3/4" tall tires, too stay away from late model 26.X" tall tires that come on them that do not fill a C2's wheelwell's opening properly.
You may lose 1.10 in tread width with taller 28.3" tires on car, but they give you 4.0" of sidewall Vs 3.0" of sidewall on 26.X" late model vettes rear tires. That extra inch of sidewall height fill the wheelwell opening, an also allow 3/4" - 1.00" of sidewall to be tucked up inside the wheelwell to give car slammed look without giving up ground clearance.
Same on front, use tallest tires on them, if you are using 19" or 20" wheels on them, minimum of 26." for 3.5' of sidewall on 19's or 3.0" on 20's.
19.0" Fronts, 20" rear will also create show car stance without having to slam body on front.
Now if you should decide to use a white, blue or red sidewall treatment, use of tallest wide tires becomes even more critical. They tend to make even the tall 28.0", 4.0" sidewalls look narrower, than a 26.0" dia rear tire's narrow sidewall, due to their centering.
You will most likely take a beating on narrow sidewall on 19"-20" wheels on a C2 regardless of above advice to make 19"-20" wheel more acceptable.
Just remember most of these critics, are not in the 35 an under age group that have grown up with them, an because of that they are acceptable on Older Cars.
That's the primary age group you want, the rest are Dead Men Walking, more so C2 owners like me. I myself love talking to the younger generations, so I want them to come over an check my cars out, screw the old an decrepit critics....LOL
19' fronts, 20" corvette rear wheels with 26.0" tall tires.
Screw that extra 1.10 inch of tire footprint, you have to get down on your knees to see, or be behind your car 20 Ft or more in a car! Go for the taller/tallest sidewall tires on 18" an above wheels you can fit inside wheel well on any older car...
Door facings seem to be a major portion of this project. Obviously, as you go wider, the door jambs have to go with it. The cost of the molds and the parts far exceeded anything else on the car. The hours of labor have mounted up as well.
You’d assume, looking at these pictures, that they’re pretty well finished. You’d be wrong, as they’re working on them this week. Hopefully, this will wrap them up. Paint is not far off.
We talked about color a few days ago. That had been the easiest part of the whole build. In fact, color was “set” before we even found a car, and we’ve never wavered from our choice. Of course, that was just way too easy.
We planned for a dark gray and a black stinger, but with a twist:
The added red stripe was all my idea (for good or bad) and I thought it would tie the red calipers and red stitching on the seats, all together. Unfortunately, the spray outs were just boring. Everybody turned on the long standing color plan and then we were nowhere. The backup plan became Mercedes silver with a red stinger and interior.
I stewed on that plan a few days but in the end, the fact that that color combo has been done on a thousand restomods and was never done by GM sent me over the edge. We have a whole new plan now, but we’re waiting until next week on the spray outs. Hopefully, thus one won’t be as boring.
I can see the 'steroids' without the 'heavy lines'; "I" wouldn't do it; but it's not my car...
Bill
we’ve had some setbacks and the timetable on the car has completely changed, hence my not posting for a while. A major issue that came up is that the fenders were just not wide enough to allow for steering. Since curves occasionally occur, we’ve had to make some new, wider fenders. The plan going forward is to reduce the prominence of the “steroid line” to look more like a stock fender. I think that will have “broader appeal” and thus be less risky. I’ll update with a picture when I get one.
05-19-2018, 07:49 PM
