275/35/18 mock up complete

[eville]

My Wheel Mount Mate finally arrived this week. That gave me the opportunity to test fit my 275/35/18s on all four corners. The Nitto NT01s look crazy! Good news, it will work. I'll be calling Frank (GPSuperstore) on Monday to order my Forgelines 18x9.5 ZX3Ps in gunmetal.
Once they arrive I'll be ready to rock and roll on the installation of the Speedtech UCA and LCAs, ATS tall spindles, Hotchkis front springs and bar and C5 brakes.

I forgot pictures of the front mockup, but that's a lot of rubber up there. Quite a bit more than the 225/50/16s up front now...





Rear shots... compare a 255/50/17 on the right...

[Project69]

Looks nice, Yea i could have told you that 275/35/18 would work out back haha im running a 275/40/18 in the back of mine. But i love the NT tires but there a bit pricey for what i have planned.

[Flash68]

That looks sweet. That NT01 tread pattern is wicked - love it! I was considering those but went with the 555 instead.

The Forgelines and those tires will be sick!

[chicane67]

What back spacing did you come up for the front ?? And rear ??

[eville]

6.25" front (with the help of Frank at GP), rear is a little odd because I have a slightly narrowed 12bolt rear out of an earlier nova... i won't post the rear bs out of risk of confusing others. If anyone is still curious I'll reconsider.

[chicane67]

... Understandable.

Thanks for sharing !!

[DeepBlue68]

\rear is a little odd because I have a slightly narrowed 12bolt rear out of an earlier nova... i won't post the rear bs out of risk of confusing others

eville, do you know how much your 12-bolt is narrowed? I'd like to know the backspace you used because I'm gonna be putting 18's with 275's on my '68 as well, and yours looks like they fit pretty well. If you know how much it's narrowed, the math would be pretty simple to find out how much BS you'd have if you had a standard length rear end. From what I've read, you need 5.5" of BS on an 18x9.5 wheel in the rear for 275s to fit.

[eville]

Stock 1st Gen Rear End Width should be: 60.25".
I have a rear out of an earlier Nova which is: 57.75"
So 2.5" narrower or 1.25" per side narrower.
The picture taken is with a 4.25" bs on a 18x9.5" mock up.
Frank (gpsuperstore) talked me into an extra 0.25" bs so I ordered 4.5" BS. His logic was, we can always run a hubcentric spacer, but it's a pain to re-backspace the wheel. I think there'll be plenty of room with 4.5" BS and won't need a spacer. I should know in less than two weeks.

[Patrick]

6.25" front (with the help of Frank at GP), rear is a little odd because I have a slightly narrowed 12bolt rear out of an earlier nova... i won't post the rear bs out of risk of confusing others. If anyone is still curious I'll reconsider.

Do you really have 6.25" bs up front or did you mean 5.25bs?

[eville]

Do you really have 6.25" bs up front or did you mean 5.25bs?

No, we went with 6.25 bs. Frank's philosophy on this is that there was about 3.25" of front space on a first gen in stock configuration. If you want to increase the width of the wheel, you can't push any of it out w/o killing the fender. So, it all has to go in. Again if we need to, a small thickness hubcentric adapter can always be used to fine tune outwards.

[Patrick]

Ahh! I now understand and agree.

[ItsA68]

You MUST post pictures when you are done installing those wheels on your 68. I've been thinking 'bout the ZX3R's for my 68, with the gunmetal centers. I have a buddernut '68, and I think that color would work well with the yellow car...and good with black too. Frank is a good guy to deal with...really looking forward to seeing how they look.

~~fred

[eville]

I heard rumor of a June 26 ship date.

[ertoys]

That will look great, I am running 275/45/17s and they only BARELY rub when I go up an incline sideways.

[eville]

Well, good news and not so good news.
Good news is my Forgelines showed up yesterday and they look AWESOME!
The bad news is a 275/35/18 with the AFX tall spindle and a 6.2" BS won't work. I've got interference between the wheel and UCA when I turn the wheel the slightest bit. (Thinking taller spindle is the cause) Also, the outer tie rod and wheel interference is fairly significant even with the BAER Tracker Tie Rods, enough that I had to shim them with 11/16" of spacer to get minimum clearance. (Thinking drop type spindle for C5 hub)
As I see it, my options are:
1) rebackspace the wheels to make the 275 on a 9.5" wheel work, or
2) have the rim narrowed to 8 or 8.5 and run a 245.

I've decided to do option 2. Thanks goodness for 3 piece Forgelines.
I'm disappointed I'm giving up, but knowing what I know now, a 275 is a major undertaking and there are problems here I didn't expect.
So which would you run, an 8 or 8.5" for a 245/40/18 tire?

Here's some pics... I think the BS on the fronts is perfect and would hate to move them out 3/4" or more to clear everything.

[olds87]

Nice wheels you got there, it look sick on that car. If you don't mind asking you, how much did the wheels cost you?

[eville]

Ask Frank GPSuperstore. 3600+ shipping. Frank and Forgeline are both Great!

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

that would suck to move them out..

nice wheels man..

[aonghus]

If I remember correctly, Stielow's Camaro X ran an 18x9.5" Fikse Profil wheel with 6.25" backspacing on a 'stock' sub-frame, with baer tracker tie-rods and tall AFX spindles. The posts I read said they had to modify the fender mounting hardware, but didn't face any UCA or LCA interference... when I get home from work I'll see if I can find the thread.

C

[ProdigyCustoms]

Car looks sick! BTW, when your done, I need pictures for Forgelines site. Forgeline is doing a Prodigy Customs / Forgerline section. What ever you decide as far as changes, you know we got your back. I wondered about 9.5s up front, thought that was optimistic. 8.5 is what we would normally run with 245 up to a 255. Looks like we nailed it though as far as outer placement, they look perfect. So we need to just change a inner shell.