Help! Fitting 08 Z06 wheels to a 68 Firebird

[HKfanatic]

Hey guys I was hoping to get a little guidance for my project.

Its a 1968 Firebird that I'm slowly improving, a friend of mine bought a 08 Z06 and wanted to put ZR1 wheels and tires on it. I work at a GM dealership so I used my corporate voodoo to get him the rims and rubber at cost. so as a thank you my friend gave me his Z06 wheels and tires for my car.

Yes they were free, and the rubber is new. :-)

So that being said I am very inclined to use them on my car especially after seeing how it'll look on it, and saving the price that I would have paid on purchasing them is a really good motivator to spend a little cash to get them on and working.

As it sits the car is stock suspension front and rear, front disk rear drum. I am saving to put a Art Morrison complete chassis set up under it but that wont be for a few years and I would like to run the wheel combo now. I will also be running Corvette Z06 brakes front and rear, so I may buy the AFX spindles and then sell em later when the Art Morrison gets glued in. I've tried searching several forums but other then ProBell's Camaro I cant find anyone with even a picture of these wheels installed on a first gen.

I am opening to running adapters and Mini tubbing (gotta do it anyways at some point for the Art Morrison) the 325/30's stick out just a little in the unmodified wheel wells (that's without touching at the back , but just barely) but I don't really want to do any Major surgery until I get ready to do the Morrison,

let me know what you guys think!

pics (front is on hub and bolted down , rears are just set on the tips of the studs.)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/07/firebird1_zps38cc1538-1.jpeg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/07/firebird2_zpsf769291a-1.jpeg

[MCMLXIX]

Love the look and wanted ZR1 wheels for my 69 Camaro. These are my second choice for stock wheel options...

So the front is bolted onto the stock disc brake hub with no spacer? Are there any clearance issues? How about when you turn the wheels lock to lock?
The front wheels look like the fit the car well..

And the back will not bolt to the brake drum because the wheel (tire) rubs the inner wheel well?
The mini tub will definitely help het the wheels inside the fender. You may still need an adapter to space the wheel just perfect in the wheel well. If you Mini Tub now prior to the chassis, it may need to be redone when you do finally install the chassis. While not ideal, bolt on hubs may be less work and less money, but you'll have to deal with the tires sticking outside the wheels well... or find another set of front rims /tires....

[HKfanatic]

as it sits at this moment the front will bolt up, It hits the steering linkage just a tiny bit while rotating. the tires hit the frame while turning. so they will need to be spaced out.

the rears hit the frame and shock before it'll go all the way down on the studs to the drum, so it will need to be spaced out as well.

when I get ready to install the new chassis I will have the rear end housing tubes and axles cut to the right length to not need any adapters as well as adding the mini tubs to get it to tuck under the quarter panel without having to add any fender flairs. I will figure out how to make the fronts work with the Morrison chassis when I get to that point.

right now I'd like to try to find some sort of bolt on adapters to use these, sticking out a little isint going to bother me all that much, the slicks I have on it now stick out a little in the rear and I don't have any rubbing issues. any recommendations for adapters would be cool as well as any first hand experience with this rim combo.

THANKS!

[MCMLXIX]

you dont say where you're from ... but these guys are in northern Nevada... adapters made in America... support small business if possible ....

http://www.motorsport-tech.com/contact.html

For the front you could use a 1/4 spacer if your wheel studs are long enough... or get longer wheels studs to run the spacer.

Do you have a picture of where the front wheel hits the front steering?

[HKfanatic]

im in southern California, I was looking into the adapters that motorsport tech makes and that's the company I will most likely use. right now the studs I have on the vehicle are REALLY long, about 2-3/4'' ill prob have to knock them out and install shorter ones to put the adapters on.

right now as it sits it looks like ill need a 1-3/4'' adapter in the front and about a 2-3/4'' to 3'' adapter in the rear. I appreciate ANY help or ideas I can get I cant be the first person with this idea as well as any tips for measuring correctly, i'd hate to spend 400$ on adapters and find out I screwed up.

I will get a picture of the interference this weekend, it hits the outer tie rod end just I tiny bit, the rear side where it connects to the spindle. its just scraping a tiny bit, a 1/4'' adapter would eliminate that but I will still need more room for steering clearance. I would like to keep the wheel from hitting the frame and liner. if I space it out I don't think it'll hit the fender, but it might so im going to try to keep it behind the lip.


here is the spindles and adapters that are used on the probell Camaro but I cant find any info on them. I was going to try to PM the owner if I couldn't figure it out. they look pretty cool and there are also custom caliper mounts for the
Z06 brakes. if I can set my car up with the same deal it'll save me having to but the AFX spindles. when I switch to the Art Morrison it uses C6 Vette control arms and spindles / sealed hubs. so if I can make the brakes and wheels work without buying the AFX spindles at this point I would really like to. once the Morrison go's in they're gonna be taken out. I wish I had the 10k for the frame now :-)


https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/07/25653834019_original-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/07/25653834008_original-1.jpg

[Decline]

Modern corvettes have super high offsets.. Muscle cars have low offsets
C6 zo6 fronts are 18x9.5+40 or 6.82 backspace. First gen Camaros can typically only run 18x8 with around 5.25+/- backspace(et20ish) on the front
I have a AME frame that's going on my 1969 Camaro in the next couple weeks. Stock C6 Z06 wheels will bolt up perfectly without spacers because of the use of the corvette components. This was what I was going to run before I figured out there's no good solution for the back
The rears (19x12s et59 8.8 backspace!) won't fit without extensive modification. It's prbly not even worth it or safe to try. Even with mini tubs you'll need like 3" spacers.
I was considering getting another pair of Z06 fronts to put on the back of my car with 1" spacers. It was a theory based on a lot of guys running 18x9.5s with a 5.5-5.75 backspace on first gens (6.82 with a 1" spacer becomes 5.82backspace)
In the end I bought a set of 3piece wheels that have the correct backspace but I will re-lip that rears to fit inside the fenders.
My car is being built at starlite customs in Torrance if you want to see this stuff in person. I am going AME front with TCI torque arm, TCI subframe connectors(bolt in)
They are an art Morrison dealer and the shop car they're building for the owners cousin is full AME front/rear 4link subframe connector chassis.

[MCMLXIX]

Tobin at Kore3 can you set up with ZO6 brakes on your stock spindles.... http://www.kore3.com/proddetail.php?prod=10103-03
You will still need a spacer to get the wheels to fit and the best thing you can do is to install everything related to new brakes and take some accurate measurements.

You can do some math based on the wheel specs for the Corvette wheels you have and some info on what others are running on their cars.
** Remember, this is info from the internet and we all know everything on the internet is 100% TRUE **

C6 non Z06

Front 18 x 8.5, +56 mm offset
Rear 19 x 10, +79 mm offset

C6 Z06

Front: 18 inch x 9.5 inch, +40 offset
Rear: 19 inch x 12 inch, +59 offset


The data below is what I've collected. Most didnt say what suspension or brake mods were done to make everything fit.

Front Rim on 1st Gen
17x8 Back Spacing 4.5 Offset 0 245/45/17
17x8 Back Spacing 4.75 Offset +6 235/45/17
17x8 Back Spacing 4.75 Offset +6 235/45/17
18x8 Back Spacing 4.875 245/40/18
17x7 Back Spacing 4.25 Offset +6 235/47/17
18x8 Back Spacing 5 Offset +13 245/40/18
18x9 Back Spacing 5.5 Offset +13 265/35/18
18x8 Back Spacing 4.5 Offset 0 255/45/18

Rear Rim on 1st Gen
17x9.5 Back Spacing 5.5 Offset +6 275/40/17
17x9.5 Back Spacing 5.5 Offset +6 274/40/17
17x9.5 Back Spacing 5.5 Offset +6 255/45/17
18x10 Back Spacing 5.625 275/40/18
17x8 Back Spacing 4.5 Offset 0 255/45/17
18x10 Back Spacing 5.75 Offset +6 275/40/18
18x10 Back Spacing 5.5 Offset 0 285/35/18
18x9 Back Spacing 5.5 Offset +13 275/40/18

[HKfanatic]

Thanks for all of the help and advice guys,

I think for now ill run the adapters and have the rears stick out a bit, as well as run the Kore3 adapters for the brakes that I have had sitting in a box for the last year. I can always sell the stuff later and recoup some of the money when I put the AME frame in. besides ill be selling a built up posi 10 bolt and a complete F body front subframe that's nice and straight since ill have no use for it any longer.

when I install the AME frame I will mini tub the car and if I have to narrow the frame rails a bit at the rear wheel area, I lieu of running adapters at that point I will have the rear end housing cut to the correct length and set all the clearances to tuck the wheels without having to flair the wheel well lips. just knowing the fronts will fit on the AME with out a issue is good news.

I know it seems like a hell of a lot for a set of wheels but these are what ive invisioned on the car since day 1. plus I was lucky enough to snag a brand new set for free :-)

if anyone has anything else to add please i'd love to hear any advice!!