silica

hi, i just ordered some intro wheels in 12" x 18" rear and they ask what backspace i want... im nut sure if 4" is ok or should i have 5"? the car has wide fenders and now its got 15" with 285 tires and 1/2" spacer and the wheel looks really bad its like 2 - 3 inches inside from the fender lip... that why i want wider wheels... what would you recomend?

thanks and happy new year

Sidepiper

4 inch means no work for you!!

wabco40

What size rim and backspace you currently using?

gkull

6.5 and run 2 inch adapters. Both of my rear wheels 17 and 18 X12 are done this way. Wheel manufactures for strength want the mounting point near the center to the ouside

lvrpool32

The simpe answer is..you are going to have to measure something first!
There are too many variables for anyone to give you an accurate measurement here.
Simplest thing to do is take the rear wheel off of your car, put a jackstand under the trailing arm and lower the car down (thus putting the weight of the body on the suspension.
Take a piece of string with a small washer on the end from the top of the rear fender lip and let it drop down so its 3" from the floor. With a straight edge measure from the disc brake hat to the string. Take that measurement an deduct 1". That will give you the front setting of the wheel.
What you need to remember that the backspace and offset are different measurements, so when measuring an 18x12 wheel in backspace terms..its actually 13" wide.
Do that measurement and post/pm me and we can get you in the ball park.

silica

Thanks, with that backspace (which is the one INTRO recomends), would it not touch inside and move the wheel outwards to the fender lip no? or is it the other way around? the more backspave the more the wheels go close to the chassis? (im a bit confused)...

Thanks
Robert

silica

Not sure about the backspace, but the size of Rims is 15" with 285x65 tyres.. They are like a BBS lookalike made in holland.. will post pic if I get time later (they are ugly as hell)...

Thanks

silica

Will try if I get time later in the evening today, to remove the wheel and measure will come back to you. Thanks
Robert

silica

This is what I have measured...











I am correct or do I have to make the fenders wider??

Thanks
Robert

lvrpool32

OK, so you have 8" to the fender lip, and you ordered 4" backspace on a 12" wheel.
4" backspace means the wheel will have 9" forward space (a 12" wide wheel is actually 13" wide from outer lip to outer lip) which means the wheel will stick out 1" past the lip of the fenders you currently have.

But hold on...looking at your pictures, it looks like you have the car jacked up on the chassis rail, not the rear suspension, so you will find that if you jack up the rear suspension, the distance from the brake hat to the fender lip will increase (it will come up in an arc, towards the inside of the wheel arch and away from the fender lip) Its going to be very close, but with a little bit of grinding on the inside of the fender lip and not too tall of a tire, you may get away with it.

I know I am running 4-3/4 backspace on my 18x12's, but theres no knowing what flares you have.

Nick

silica

Thanks Nick, the wheels are on hold until I let them know the backspace (they recomend 4" backspace but It could be more or less)... The car is jacked up on the rear suspension exactly in the height it had with the wheel on.. thats the blue tape to guide me ;-)..
You think I should go with 12" or should I cancel and let them do 10" instead... I dont mind if I have to change the wide fenders I dont really like them anyway.. have seen much better wide fenders on this forum... and the front wide fender is even worse.. makes the car look tall in front...

Thanks
Robert

MotorHead

Got any pics of the car. I run 5 in. Bs on 18x10 and I have seen the same wheels on another Vette with 5.5iin BS. 5 inch to be on the safe side and you have ~7 inches of wheel sticking out from the hat of your rotor.

silica

Send more pics... so you can see how ugly they look, also send up the wheel design ;-) Thanks

silica

Sent up some pics so its easier to see what I mean with the fenders... Thats with 15" 285mm wide tyres.. Also send pic of the car and the wheel...

Thanks

MotorHead

To be honest if the Vette needs paint you might want to go a bit smaller with the flares. They look like the same ones on the front as on the back. Then you can go from there with the tire and wheel combo you want.

If you aren't going to paint it then it will look better with bigger wheels and tires for sure

silica

Yes Im going to paint the car, thats why I wanted the wheels before just in case I have to shave off or add ;-)... Removing them completely is not a thing I think is possible to do, shaving a bit should be easy and adding a little bit I suppose should be easy too... Personally I would love NOT to have those flares.. the car came with them bought it in 2008... And im in Spain, so not easy to have those big fenders shipped over... only the wheels are going to cost 800USD in shipping...

Thanks...
Robert

gkull

17 X 12 with 345/35/17

MotorHead

Car looks cool with those back flares, the tire is only 26.2" tall but still looks good. I had 345/50/15's on the back of my Cuda ( N50/15's ) in the late 70's

To the OP you say you are paying $800 just to ship the wheels ? I would seriously start looking around your area, there's lots of exotic wheels on that side of the pond

silica

Hehe.. those flares are really nice looking compared to the ones on my vette... What backspace do you have?...

There are no wheels for Corvette over here... For my Audi there are plenty of wheels in all kind of prices... I can get wheels for new corvettes to C5, C6 but C3.. its even difficult to find a garage where to fix the engine.... And we will see how the paint is coming out..

Thanks
Robert

gkull

I will post later