What do you think

[fastivaca]

Got the car home but having starting issues. Posted in the repair forum for that one.

Charlie, the car isn't in good enough shape to make any further mods worthwhile.

I'm a little disappointed tonight. I installed the new wheels and tires and boy do they look great . However, the offset is quite a bit different from the wheels I had on before. The net result is that I have rubbing issues front and back.:angry3:

I'm going to try and massage the front fenders to add a bit of clearance. I can raise the back end a bit with the coil-overs and see if that helps. I may end up trying to find some narrower tires.

Cheers

[Prafeston]

Wait, weren't you saying you were tight on money...not sure if you should buy the wheels, then you got the whole car? haha. Hope it was a good deal!

[fastivaca]

Wait, weren't you saying you were tight on money...not sure if you should buy the wheels, then you got the whole car? haha. Hope it was a good deal!

It was a very good deal

Sent from somewhere west of here!

[Advancedynamix]

Probably nothing a little fender roll can't fix. The festiva fenders are very soft and stretch easily, just take your time. Different sizes of wooden dowels (25mm-50mm), sand a 50mm one to a sort of cone shape as well and just patiently work the bead in in stages. Use a heat gun to avoid cracking the paint, but it's really hard not to crack 20 year old paint so be prepared to touch it up after.

[fastivaca]

With a little gentle... OK maybe not so gentle... persuasion the tires are no longer rubbing. Massaged the fender lips front and rear and then cranked the rear coil-overs up a turn or two. Haven't been for a drive with rear passengers yet but have done some "spirited" cornering with great success!

Pics to follow soon.

[Advancedynamix]

In your case, they need to be tested with rear passengers, and a months worth of clothes for each of them (3 people do fit, I've seen it!). Lol!

[Safety Guy]

Ian, if you got either a roof rack or a little trailer, you could live in luxury on the road! Everyone would have more than two changes of clothes and you could take more DVDs to watch!

Karl

[fastivaca]

Thanks for the tips Karl I've got some longer term plans to build a trailer.

I've still got a bit of work ti do on the drivers side rear.

Sent from somewhere west of here!

[fastivaca]

an update

Well, after fooling around with rear coilover settings and massaging fenders I still have rubbing issues on the back even with only one person in the back.

As much as I like the appearance of the new wheels I've already put the old 13" wheels back on the car. There's not much difference in the width (both the 13" and 14" are 185's) and only about 1/4" in overall height. The big difference is in the offset... the 13" wheels have a 45mm offset whereas the 14's have only a 35mm. This pushes the tire 10mm, or almost 1/2", to the outside.

My main reason for looking at the 14's in the first place was for more clearance around the front brakes and strut mounts. If I use rim weights to balance the front wheels the weights will hit the strut where it meets the knuckle... and that's with the KYB struts. I'm unable to install the Teins on the front because there's a lot more "meat" in those struts where it mounts to the steering knuckle.

What I'm considering now is adding a 1/4" spacer on the front. I would have to replace the current studs with correspondingly longer ones. This should give me the room I need to clear the beefier Teins. I already have the spacers and I'm going to try and find the studs tomorrow.

Your thoughts would be appreciated on this.

Thanks

[Advancedynamix]

most wheel and tire places have the studs you need. do you have aspire brakes ?

[fastivaca]

most wheel and tire places have the studs you need. do you have aspire brakes ?

Yes, the fronts are off a '94 auto.

Sent from somewhere west of here!

[fastivaca]

Had another look at things today and have decided to keep the 13's and add the spacer and longer studs. Not going to worry about it too much right now as I just put the winter tires/wheels on.

The set of 14's will go up for sale in the new year to fund the purchase of new 13" tires in the spring.

I was concerned about premature wear in my current set if Federals so stopped by the tire shop to see if there was any kind of mileage warranty on them. I knew we'd done a lot more driving than usual i.e. Madness last fall and the west coast etc. this summer, but was still surprised at how much we'd put on. The tires were installed Aug 25 last year and odometer was at 305 thousand km. It now sits at just under 365 thousand! That's 60 thousand km (42k miles) in 14 months :O... no wonder the tires are showing some wear.

Sent from somewhere west of here!