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Your lug nuts look like they engage fully on the studs so longer studs won't give you anything, because adding more threads won't hold the lug nut any tighter.
As for the spacer, it's hard to tell the need with the wheels off the ground, because they drop so much. A pic of the spring end at the wheel on the ground with all the weight on the tire will tell us more.
Can you take a spacer off, drop the car and move it. If the tire doesn't rub anywhere then the wider tire isn't a problem.
Also, how wide is each spacer?
EDIT: I'll add, the new components look great, calipers and bushings. It's possible that the prior owner's bushings were decayed so badly that this allowed the spring to push into the wheel. Your new bushings have resolved that issue.
Another thing to keep in mind is that early C3 wheels were only 7” wide with different back spacing 3.75” (?) and were not 8” wide with 4” back spacing.
Putting a 245 series tire on a 7” wheel will make the sidewalls bulge more.
It wouldn’t be the first time someone found earlier year model wheels on their later model year C3.
**UPDATE** put in new studs (just OEM, no extra-long ones). Measured the wheels. They're stock. The clearance without the spacer is fine, so far. I also am replacing a lot of the bushings, they're all pretty bad. I found a small hack for getting the studs out of the back. They wouldn't fit out anywhere. But I punched them out bottom center, put a small dent in the shield and they came out and went back in like butter. lol (Thanks to all who have helped me out with this!)
My next issue is the heat comin off the engine. It's not running hot, but on a longer trip the heat that comes into the car from near the transmission is a lot!! I almost think there's a heat shield missing somewhere. Haven't looked into it too hard yet, but I do know it's a replacement transmission.,
I would say cabin heat is more of a feature of a C3 rather than an issue LOL. Adding additional insulation can help quite a bit, and it’s very important to have the foam seal in the front of the transmission tunnel.
Another thing you can do is add a shutoff valve in your heater hose. This keeps a lot of heat out of the cabin in general.
NEW ISSUE**** I have all the components ALMOST ready to go.... The rear strut rod. I can't seem to get the inside bolts (centric bolt) to come out. I don't want to remove the leaf spring. I got the nut off, but the bushings are TOAST and the bolts seem to all but seized in. Any good tips other than just removing the leaf spring?
If pics are needed, I'll post, but I'm hoping you guys just have some wisdom for me.
