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C3 Lug Nuts

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Old May 3, 2009 | 10:36 AM
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Default C3 Lug Nuts

Hi Guys.

I posted the following question to the "Intros" section. Wonder if anyone can help me out with some info?

Thanks

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/intr...post1569942537
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Old May 3, 2009 | 11:25 AM
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do they look like this?

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Old May 3, 2009 | 11:37 AM
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Originally Posted by Paranoid
do they look like this?

Yes, just like that. I have the Mag style lug nuts with the shoulder that extends into the hole in the rim, but they are smaller than the hole in the rim.

Last edited by Blondylab; May 3, 2009 at 11:40 AM.
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Old May 3, 2009 | 03:35 PM
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You can get them from all the Vette parts guys. Here is Wilcox.
http://willcoxcorvette.com/advanced_...eywords=lugnut

ZIP site has a picture of the nut. Does yours look like it?

http://www.zip-corvette.com/Zip/prod...68D23641BD52AC

Last edited by Duke94; May 3, 2009 at 03:40 PM.
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Old May 3, 2009 | 08:19 PM
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Blondylab:

The holes are larger than the nuts. The nuts have a lip that fits inside the rim.

The link Duke provided you above will show you the set, but there is not a profile picture of this item on the web site. As long as your wheel set looks like the wheel above you'll be fine.

Willcox Inc.
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Old May 3, 2009 | 08:44 PM
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i got some replacement lug nuts from wilcox, they are . everything i have gotten from wilcox has been
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Old May 3, 2009 | 09:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Willcox Corvette
Blondylab:

The holes are larger than the nuts. The nuts have a lip that fits inside the rim.

The link Duke provided you above will show you the set, but there is not a profile picture of this item on the web site. As long as your wheel set looks like the wheel above you'll be fine.

Willcox Inc.
Thanks for the info. But, I guess the question I'm really asking is, are the holes in these rims larger then other common aluminum rims?
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Old May 3, 2009 | 10:00 PM
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Yes! They are larger to allow the nut lip to line up the wheel. Some aluminum wheels have smaller holes (aftermarket) with tappers for the tapered nuts.

Again, if the wheels look like the picture above you will be fine as long as you have the correct nuts. Most of the 70's and 80's aluminum wheels from GM used on Firebird, Camaro and so on are like this.

Willcox Inc.
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Old May 4, 2009 | 09:49 AM
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Originally Posted by Willcox Corvette
Yes! They are larger to allow the nut lip to line up the wheel. Some aluminum wheels have smaller holes (aftermarket) with tappers for the tapered nuts.

Again, if the wheels look like the picture above you will be fine as long as you have the correct nuts. Most of the 70's and 80's aluminum wheels from GM used on Firebird, Camaro and so on are like this.

Willcox Inc.
Thanks for the info, a great help. I will be getting a new set of these lug nuts. The only concern I have now is, because I drove this car from New Hampshire to Newfoundland, Canada, with these smaller lug nuts, have the holes in the rims become larger due to the possibility that they could move around with the smaller lug nuts. Dose anyone have the correct measurement for the holes in these rims, or could measure one for me. Also, if the holes have worn larger, is there a fix for this?

Again, thanks for all your help.
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Old May 4, 2009 | 10:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Blondylab
Thanks for the info, a great help. I will be getting a new set of these lug nuts. The only concern I have now is, because I drove this car from New Hampshire to Newfoundland, Canada, with these smaller lug nuts, have the holes in the rims become larger due to the possibility that they could move around with the smaller lug nuts. Dose anyone have the correct measurement for the holes in these rims, or could measure one for me. Also, if the holes have worn larger, is there a fix for this?

Again, thanks for all your help.
Nah, your fine, I ran into this problem myself some 20 years ago, getting a set of '78-9 Firebird rims for a '70 Lemans/GTO convertible I had...problem was I didn't know about the custom trick lug nutz stupidity....another genius designer trick....

what I should have done was just ream/taper the wheels and had over with it, finally located a stockish set at Carlisle car show....I fought that same thing with wheel being off center at that time, them nutz were tough.....to find that is....

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Old May 5, 2009 | 09:34 PM
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[QUOTE=mrvette;1569954098]Nah, your fine, I ran into this problem myself some 20 years ago, getting a set of '78-9 Firebird rims for a '70 Lemans/GTO convertible I had...problem was I didn't know about the custom trick lug nutz stupidity....another genius designer trick....

what I should have done was just ream/taper the wheels and had over with it, finally located a stockish set at Carlisle car show....I fought that same thing with wheel being off center at that time, them nutz were tough.....to find that is....

[/QUOTE

Thanks for the info, but I'm confused! I'm talking about the holes in the rims being larger than the lug nuts. Ream/taper the wheels would only make it worse, or am I missing something here ?
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Old May 5, 2009 | 10:03 PM
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One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that these wheels are hub-centric. They center themselves on the hub, not on the lug nut. Obviously you don't want a hole that is significantly larger than the shaft of the correct lug nuts, but they also don't need to be too tight either. Get (or borrow) a couple of the correct lug nuts and check the fit.

One problem that does occur when you use a normal tapered lug nut with these wheels is it will work the aluminum and close the hole where the taper rides on the edge of the hole. This can cause the correct lug nuts to appear too large/tight for the hole. The aluminum will only be worked near the surface leaving the remainder of the hole with the correct original diameter. You may need to remove the excess aluminum that has worked into the lug nut hole if that is the case.

This is what the correct lug nuts look like...


Again, you really won't know what you have until you try a correct lug nut for the wheel. By the way, you'll notice that the correct lug nuts actually come with a taper on the end of the shank... this is so that they can also be used to mount the rally wheel that comes on the spare tire and needs the taper to tighten against.

Good luck... GUSTO
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Old May 6, 2009 | 06:16 PM
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Originally Posted by GUSTO14
One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that these wheels are hub-centric. They center themselves on the hub, not on the lug nut. Obviously you don't want a hole that is significantly larger than the shaft of the correct lug nuts, but they also don't need to be too tight either. Get (or borrow) a couple of the correct lug nuts and check the fit.

One problem that does occur when you use a normal tapered lug nut with these wheels is it will work the aluminum and close the hole where the taper rides on the edge of the hole. This can cause the correct lug nuts to appear too large/tight for the hole. The aluminum will only be worked near the surface leaving the remainder of the hole with the correct original diameter. You may need to remove the excess aluminum that has worked into the lug nut hole if that is the case.

This is what the correct lug nuts look like...


Again, you really won't know what you have until you try a correct lug nut for the wheel. By the way, you'll notice that the correct lug nuts actually come with a taper on the end of the shank... this is so that they can also be used to mount the rally wheel that comes on the spare tire and needs the taper to tighten against.

Good luck... GUSTO
Thanks GUSTO, I really appreciate the info. I'll let you know how I make out!
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Old May 7, 2009 | 12:07 AM
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Originally Posted by GUSTO14
One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that these wheels are hub-centric. They center themselves on the hub, not on the lug nut. Obviously you don't want a hole that is significantly larger than the shaft of the correct lug nuts, but they also don't need to be too tight either. Get (or borrow) a couple of the correct lug nuts and check the fit.

One problem that does occur when you use a normal tapered lug nut with these wheels is it will work the aluminum and close the hole where the taper rides on the edge of the hole. This can cause the correct lug nuts to appear too large/tight for the hole. The aluminum will only be worked near the surface leaving the remainder of the hole with the correct original diameter. You may need to remove the excess aluminum that has worked into the lug nut hole if that is the case.

This is what the correct lug nuts look like...


Again, you really won't know what you have until you try a correct lug nut for the wheel. By the way, you'll notice that the correct lug nuts actually come with a taper on the end of the shank... this is so that they can also be used to mount the rally wheel that comes on the spare tire and needs the taper to tighten against.

Good luck... GUSTO
As long as the hole has not pinched smaller you will be fine. Personally I don't think you did any damage but there is always a chance.

Willcox.
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Old May 7, 2009 | 02:27 PM
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I realized somoene installed the wrong type of lug nuts on my wheels shortly after buying the car. They squished the aluminum and created a ridge around the hole that stuck out about 1/32nd. this would have not worked well once the new correct lug nuts were installed and likely created a false or temporary torque reading when tightening. The guy at the tire shop told me my wheel were now junk but I carefully ground down the ridges with a round die grinder bit and all worked out fine.
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