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Hello, I.m new to the forum. I'm from Minnesota and doing a body off restoration of my 66 coupe and have run into some trouble. I hope someone has had this problem and has a solution! I put a composite rear spring in the car and 2" offset trailing arms, hoping to put bigger tires and wheels on the car. I purchased 18x9.5 inch wheels with a zero offset for the rear and went to fit them today only to find that they hit the end of the spring. We tried a 20" wheel and that seemed to be better but not perfect in my mind. Don't know what the weight of the car will do when the body goes back on and if this will make matters worse. Anybody have any ideas? Does anyone know if I went back to a stock metal rear spring if it is shorter than the composite and that would take care of the problem? Please help. I need info!!
I don't have first-hand experience on this but plenty of guys here do and will chime in. While you're waiting, here's a few threads to check out on the subject.
Is the body on now or still off? I know that doesn’t help with the spring question but wondering if you had an issue with body. I have offset arms and widened my rear quarter panels 1-1/2” and was told by the quarter panel vendor that a 9” rim will work for sure and probably a 9.5 with the correct back space. Was hoping for a 10”. I’m not at the point of getting wheels yet so I haven’t measured.
Forgot to add. I thought they made a narrower spring for the offset arms. Is that what you got? Guess I should say shorter. Van Steel has the recommendations on their shorter springs when you look up their offset arms.
The body is still off, have not tried lowering onto frame yet. The 18x9.5 wheels I tried with 0 offset had a 5 1/4" backspace, the spring is from Muskegon spring 315#, van steel 2" offset trailing arms, no alterations to fenders. The trailing arms and spring was around $900 and it only gets me 1" wider wheels than I had with stock trailing arms and spring. The math doesn't seem to add up, 2" offset trailing arms get you an INCH. I actually think 9" wheels would fit with the stock trailing arms.
Last edited by faste66; Apr 1, 2021 at 08:53 PM.
Reason: have 8" wide wheels now
The extended shock length limits the rebound travel, and the lower height limited by the shocks may tuck the spring end inside the rim and prevent contact. You want to check for any clearance issues with the shocks installed (to prevent a bad surprise when you launch over a bump).
Metal springs can be cut and ground to match the bushing washer diameter, but I am not sure if the composite springs can be trimmed.
I have a 67 BB and I am running van steel 2 inch offset trailing arms along with a composite spring (bought from Year One I believe). My rear wheels are 7 inch corvette rally wheels which are one year only - standard on a 1968 corvette. There is about a half to three quarters of an inch clearance between the bottom edge of the rims and the semi pointed end of the composite leaf spring. I am running 245/60R/15's tires in the rear with no fitment issues. Fitting larger tires on the rear of a C2 is a delicate dance of inches with one change affecting all the other parameters and distances. Personally, I would wait until you have the body on the frame and it is almost complete before I would worry too much about tire fitment. If you wanted to you could always buy one of those special tools which you attach onto your wheel hub and it will tell you exactly what size wheel, what size tire and what backspacing you need to fit everything perfectly. Of course the tool is about $250 or $300 and likely a one-time use kind of thing. Here is a picture of what my set up looks like from the rear. Let us know how it goes. C.J.
Your car looks great, but I want a different look. I purchased 18x9.5 wheels and want to put 255/35/18 on the rear. I think they will fit the wheel well but not with that composite spring. No one has the shorter composite spring that elwood13 talked about earlier, so I'm thinking I have to go back to the original spring and hope I can get the clearance between the wheel and the spring. Thanks for your help!
In order to put that size wheels and tires on your car you may have to completely change the rear end suspension from anything that remotely looks like a stock C2 to a completely different geometry. Good Luck with it and post some pictures when you are done. Cheers. C.J.
Your car looks great, but I want a different look. I purchased 18x9.5 wheels and want to put 255/35/18 on the rear. I think they will fit the wheel well but not with that composite spring. No one has the shorter composite spring that elwood13 talked about earlier, so I'm thinking I have to go back to the original spring and hope I can get the clearance between the wheel and the spring. Thanks for your help!
Originally Posted by faste66
I had 15x8 inch wheels in the rear before and had no clearance issues with 9" wide tires, everything else was stock.
Where are you measuring rim width?
9.5" zero offset rims are 9.5" wide at the inner bead seats, and usually about 10.5" wide at the outer edge of the rim flanges for a back space of 5.25" (and 5.25" front space, i.e. zero offset).
Every stock trailing arm C2 I have encountered with 15x8 inch wheels (9" outside flange to outside flange, like a 69' and later C3 rim) did not fit without flairs, or fender flange cutting and relocated e-brake cable tabs to the top of the trailing arms (with 4.5" backspace and 4.5" front space, zero offset 8" rim).
Need some help!
