I'm in the middle of doing complete frame off job on my 1979 and I'm getting new wheels and tires as well and I have few unanswered questions I hope you guys can help me with!

First the wheels are going to be, surprice, surprice, Torq-Thrust IIs with custom Offset 2-piece units. I'm going for the biggest wheel possible which is 20", right? I'm installing ZL-1 flares in front and rear to allow wider wheels to fit.

I heard lot of talk about the HD offset trailing arms that you can get from Vette Brakes & Products. What benefits will I gain using these trailing arms? Will it interfere with stock back spacing, if so, HOW? Will I be able to use 20" wheels with these trailing arms? How wide wheel/tire set up I can go in the back?

About the front, I've ordered those HD A-arms from VB&Ps and I'm going to install those ZL-1 flares there too, how big wheels can I can use here???

What about the Back Spacing, Offset and everything else I need to take under consideration before placing my order?

If it's possible I would like to go as big as 20"/12" wide for rear and 20"/9,5"(or maybe 10") for front is this possible?

One other thing, I just sent query to AR about my set up ' cause I couldn't find wheels in that size from their web site, so if they don't make wheels I'm after, what other makes are there in 20" category?

Cheers Jani

 

Humm...ya might want to go the other way around. Select the tires and then get the rims accordingly. Cause I've looked high and low and 345s are only available in 19" rim size. As for your questions, I can't help...I ain't there yet so I didn't look into it yet. You might want to direct the question to Merlin...he's been there.

 

I didn't go with 19 or 20 inch wheels because I didn't have an extra $8000. So made the mistake of buying 17x9.5&11 Because now I'm looking for 18's to get the correct tire diameter.

In my opinion - with stock front arms and HD rear trailing arms the max back spacing is 4.5 front and rear. I only have a fingers width between the rear sidewall and the frame with 315/35/17's

It is a fact that wheels get weaker and bearing loading goes way up when you have more width of the wheel outboard. So I used spacers, 1 inch in front and two inches rear. The front wheels were 5 inch BS and the rear are 6.5 I bent up my front rims and blew the front tires. So I now have 17X9 fronts with 4.5 bs without a spacer. 27 inch tall front tires touch the 1 1/8 sway bar at lock. Which is not a big deal. So the 9.5's and a 1 inch spacer never touched.

The added total wheel width makes a Vette really hold in the turns with wide Z-rated tires.

 

The optimal backspacing for our cars is between 3.5" & 4". 20" diameter rims will work great! Mine are tight on some components but 20" would clear everything. Now for the bad news. I wanted to use 20" as well, but nobody could make me a rim wider than 11". The 345's simply won't work. http://hrewheels.com/Pricing/ Check with Boyd, they have some really cool wheels in the large diameter size http://www.boydcoddington.com/main.html

 

Thanx for the links....I'll need them some day.

 

Take a look in the latest issue of Vette magazine. There's a 79 in there with 20" wheels. IMHO they actually look out of scale. :confused: What size are Merlin's? His look awesome and still look proportionately accurate.

 

IMO, unless you have something like Merlin's body, anything over 16" looks out of scale on a C3. Merlin's c3 has more body on it, which gives the appearance of more car. Stock C3's (and with flares) are very skinny which IMO makes anything over 16" too big.

But to each his own, have fun! :seeya

 

Jani,

Were you able to check out that 69 Coupe at http://www.protouring.com? He is only using 17" rims, but seems to have figured out all the width concerns as he is running the same flares front and rear that both of us are doing. I sent him an e-mail but never heard anything back.

So how is your project coming?

BTW, we switched home computers and I lost a whole lot of information. In fact, we went for a while where all incoming e-mails were lost. I appologize if I missed any messages. I hope I was able to help you on the fender flare question.

Chris

p.s., I am also still searching for the perfect rim and tire combo. It could be as much as a year before I am ready, and that will be the last major purchase I do. In that regard, I am hoping there will be more 20" rims available at that time. The car looks major STUPID right now with the 8" rims and the massive flares.

 

Lohkay: Thanks for that input really appriciate that. I'm just beginning to collect all the info I need to get right wheels and tires for my project. So far it seems imposible to find 20" that can hold tires in 335 or 345 size. Still looking..........

gkull: Thank you for that very usefull information. I knew that many people would say go for 16" or stick with 17" because by using bigger wheels I would ruin the handling and the looks of my car, but as the car is been build for serious out-off-my-head type of driving on that local track and still should be able to take the car to car shows, so I'm aiming for the biggest wheel possible... You know what I mean. What kinda 18" are you looking for?

Merlin522: Yes, I knew would understand me, we seem to share the same intrest, bigger is better. If I just had the money I would give HRE a call and order that same set up you're using, maybe in the future... Thabks for that boyd link, I haven't been looking their site for awhile and they do have many nice models, that smoothie and fury just to mention two. BUT I looked at their price list and couldn't find wheels bigger than 20/10 which I think is too small for my project. But the search goes on, hopefully I'm able to run with 20" wheels next summer.

FroDaddy: Thank you for that input. I know that many might think that using 20" wheels in car that was made just after stone age can't look good or it handles bad, but I have had ride in C3 with 17" C4 wheels and that experience convinced me to go for the biggest wheels possible, we'll how the rest will work out when I find the right wheels.

74-Roadster: I'm in that unfortunate position that I haven't subscripted VETTE mag yet, so I would be more than happy if one of you guys could scan that article and send it to me by email. Thank you! I think Merlin is using 19" wheels...

69MyWay: Good to hear from you Chris, How is your project? I don't know, if you saw my other topic, I HAVE MOVED TO LONDON,UK!!! My project is now in my dads hands( in my parents carage) and his is doing the bet he can to keep the project going. The frame was sandblasted, now it's been welded and after that painted, I got some nice trick about the painting stuff, I'll tell you more later. Yes I know about that 1969 Vette on Pro tourings site. It was build by a friend of mine who is with us in the forum and goes by the name of BOWTIE RACING aka Joni. I was actually the middle man when Joni decided to sell that beauty. He had those wheels custom made in the US they are not AR made, but some rather small company that makes wheels for cars racing in NASCAR and TransAm series. Nice touch! Any ways Keep in Touch soon!!!


[Modified by groovyjay, 10:04 AM 10/10/2001]

 

I've done some research couple of days now and come up with everybody telling me that they don't make wheels in 20/12 size, so now I have to start looking for best alternative. I saw that 1979 with 20" TTIIs and it looked just awesome, these were fitted with out using flares, so maybe I should just leave the flares off and go for the biggest wheels I can fit under stock body. Can someone tell me how big I can go using 20" wheels and stock body??????

 

Well I dunno about the 20"..I've been told the largest you can fit under stock is 305s...I personnaly run 275s and after removing the body I could see how much more backspacing I could've used...seems like .5-1 more inch there if you relocate the parking brake bracket. So that would put me at 285-295. I wouldn't go larger than that as the tire would protrude (sp?) from the wheel well.

 

groovyjay - Whoever told you that adding 20" rims will ruin your handling needs to have their head examined. With that large diameter rim & 25 or 30 series profiles you will have ZERO tire deflection. It will handle like Tron. What you will lose is your comfy ride. I've never been in ANY vette that had a comfortable ride, so why not go crazy? With a stock body & offset arms you can go 14" in the back & 10" in the front - basically exactly what I have. Without wide flares in the back, though it will look silly. With no flairs I wouldn't go bigger than 11" in the back.

Chris - just wanted to clarify that you actually have 15" rims it looks like. You mentioned 8" & 20" in the same sentence. 20" is referring to the diameter & 8" would be referring to the width. OK, I'm being picky, aren't I?? ;)

 

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I just now got it. You are right, there is a big difference between the width the the diameter. Sounds like I am planning on mounting a jet engine with the "20" wide rims :lol: :lol: :lol: .

Is is amazing though to see how the fender flares suck up the 8" WIDE rims on the car right now. Some day I would like to have 20" tall :cool:

 

I know what you mean. There's a few shots on my site of the car with shop tires on it. Too funny...

 

Here's the pic of the 79 with 20" wheels:

 

Here's the pic of the 79 with 20" wheels:





[Modified by 74-Roadster, 11:13 AM 10/13/2001]

 

:U
to big...over done..two thumbs down. :lol:

It doesn't look that bad, but it doesn't look that good either(in my opinion)

daniel

 

I second Daniel. Don't like it.

 

something looks a little odd about that...might just be the rims, but I don't care for that look...

 

the sideways look about half an inch tall..

Daniel