Below are some pics of how the car is now, although it is very dirty since I'm just now getting it out of hibernation. Still gotta finish painting those darn rocker panels! The drivers side is finished, never made it to get the passenger done

 

and now for the install pics. I decided to pull the spindles and brakes and pretty them up a bit. I had a leaking brake hose, which trashed the paint all of that stuff. With larger wheels, it'd look like crap if I didn't give them a facelift. Still has rust on the rotors, but that'll disappear soon. I used POR15 high temp paint on the calipers and portions of the rotor and wheel spacer. The color is similar to the anthracite, so I won't have a bright polished wheel spacer sticking out like a sore thumb (if I hadn't painted it). I didn't go too crazy because I have plans to upgrade to the front and rear Cobra brakes, so this will do for now!



and a few pics of the front wheels installed. Probably could have gotten away with 3/4" spacers instead of 1".

 

Enough with the boring fronts, everybody knows 8" wide wheels fit there. Lets squeeze 10lbs of crap into a 5lb bag I started out putting some washers on the wheel studs (thanks for the tip Grabber!) and then installed the wheels. BTW, that is the same POR15 high temp paint on those rear drums and they have probably 30,000 miles on them. Totally impressed with that stuff!



And here is a pic of the quarter lip clearance. The second I put a string clamped to the lip and a nut on the other end. You can tell the wheels would just barely rub the lip once lowered, so I'll plan on rolling the lips. It'll tuck in nicely after a good rolling. The quarter lip is kind of jacked up thanks to a poor PO repair, hopefully I can roll it without screwing it up more





With 3/8" worth of washers, this is my clearance between the rear of the leaf spring and the tire. Pretty tight! What does everyone think, should I space it out a bit more? I don't have the tall sidewalls like those 14" ones I had, so I'm not sure what kind of sidewall deflection I'd see.



a little more clearance at the front of the leaf



no problem with the inner wheelwell clearance at the rear....



but the typical clearance issue in the front lower part of the inner wheelwell



nothing a BFH couldn't cure!!!

 

Here is a pic of the remaining wheel stud after the 3/8" of washers



Crap, gonna need new studs! Couldn't even get a single thread to catch on the nuts to hold the rim in place while I checked clearances.

So I have two dilemmas. Does everyone think the wheel is spaced out far enough from the leaf springs? I don't want to keep pushing it further out and have quarter lip issues. The other issue is the wheel stud length. I measured the exposed thread length from the face of the axle and got 1". I looked into the NPD catalog and it mentions 1 9/16" wheel studs for rear drums on my car. Looking into the Summit catalog, it seems all of the wheel studs they sell are 3" long. I have acorn type lug nuts that are not open ended, so what does everyone typically do? Do you cut the studs down to length, or do you think it won't be an issue? I'll have more pics of the installed wheels once I figure out what wheel studs and spacers to order for the rear.

 

I would roll the fender lips and see if you can get a little more clearance on the inside. I think that will rub with any aggressive driving.

Dorman 610-149 - Dorman Wheel Studs - Overview - SummitRacing.com

 

Your gonna like those HTRs

I put them on my daily driver and man they are quiet! They handle well in the rain. 50k miles at that price really can't beat them if you are looking for long distance tires that handle reasonably well.

Good luck,

M

 

Do you intend to replace the washers with a real spacer once you figure out a size? Great way to figure out what size to go with....

 

Yeah, the washers was a way to determine what wheel spacer thickness I'll need.

 

Clearance to springs

B, my guess is that you'll be okay. Keep us posted to how it goes, and what the backspace turns out to be....others who have tyhe same body, AND need new tires, will want to know. If the springs turn out to be close enough to rub, you can take a page from the TransAm racers in the late 60s and run narrower springs, at the inside of the mounts. gains you 3/4 of an inch of room. I think Evergreen is repopping the skinny racer springs. LSG

 

Do you have a watts or panhard?

Without one I would bet on scrubbing on turns.

 

Thanks LSG. The front wheels have +30mm offset/5.72" backspace and the back wheels have +28mm offset/6.8" backspacing. Here is a link to the front and rear wheels:

Anthracite Bullitt Wheel 05-11 (17x8) at AmericanMuscle.com - Free Shipping

Anthracite Deep Dish Bullitt Wheel 94-04 (17x10.5) at AmericanMuscle - Free Shipping!

With the front 1" wheel spacers, I have a net backspace of 4.72" and have good clearance to the ball joint. With 3/8" wheel spacers on the back, I have a net backspace of 6.43".


Nick, no Watts or panhard. If there is some rubbing on turns I'll look into getting one. The Maier panhard looks pretty nice but its 3 bills. Might be able to get a Watts for damn near that! I'm always looking for a new project, so I may do some research into making my own

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/BAE-2000009/

 

I finally found a set of wheel studs that are long enough, but not the 3" bastads. I have closed end wheel studs and don't really feel like cutting 10 wheel studs to fit. Moser sells a set that is 1/2" longer. Moser Engineering 8250 - Moser Engineering Wheel Studs - Overview - SummitRacing.com

Can't really find what I'd call a reasonable pair of 3/8" wheel spacers, so I'll probably go with the Baer billet ones @ $60. I'm leery of the cast aluminum ones from Mr. Gasket. Baer Disc Brake Systems 2000009 - Baer Brakes Billet Aluminum Wheel Spacers - Overview - SummitRacing.com

 

I've laid hands on some those Mr.Gasket spacers at a swap meet. Passing on them I believe to be best. I wouldn't put them on anybody's car. I swear I believe you could torque down your lugs enough to shatter them like glass. Pay the billet money.

 

Yeah they look like crap even in online pictures, so that means they are likely worse in person. My concern is all of the bolt holes and cracking, as I know how weak that cast aluminum is! I'll update this thread once my wheel studs and spacers come in

 

I am running the same tires on my Cuda. It's lowered and running 315's on the rear and 275's up front. I dont know if I will be able to pull off 315's on the rear of my Mach. Buenig - you are going to need rear discs now you know.

 

Yeah I know! I'm leaning towards the 05-12 Mustang GT rear discs. They are 11.75" diameter rotors and are a bit cheaper for parts compared to the rear Cobra discs. MustangSteve sells the brackets for these. Gotta wait a little bit, the financial demands of a 7mo old girl restricts the car improvements unfortunately.

Hopefully these pics help you out Mike with your tire/wheel decisions. You can now see just how tight of a fit these 315s are. I'll be easing into the exit ramps to see what it takes to get some rubbing.

Wheel studs and spacers are ordered from Summit. Getting closer

 

Hope you got a whole lot of rear roll stiffness 'cause that much stagger is understeer-city.

 

Yeah I figured there would be some understeer since the rear tires will provide more traction than the front. I have a rear sway bar that will be installed once I get the rear suspension figured out. I doubt a rear sway bar will fully cure the understeer, but again this is a weekend cruiser and not a corner carver

 

I see the back end shots of it stock but none of it with the big tire? :wave:

 

Waiting on the wheel studs and spacers for the rear wheels. Parts have shipped from Summit, just waiting on them to arrive Pics to come once its all installed

 

On the rear of my Cuda, although I needed no spacers, I had to run the long studs. Do most cut those off and use regular nuts or? You may not have that problem with the spacers, I thought they have long lug nuts for such applications?

 

Grabber70Mach and 70_Fastback, who both have bullitt rims, used the long 3" or 3.5" studs and just used open ended lug nuts. I however refuse to part with my closed end lug nuts! Package from Summit is due here tomorrow evening

 

Buening,
(I hope this isn't a majorly dumb question)
I'm curious...If your wheels had less backspacing; Would the spacers not be needed?

 

Not dumb at all! Yes if the wheel had a bit less backspacing I would not have needed the spacers. The problem is the Bullitt rims are made for late model cars and they aren't custom backspaced rims, so you get what you get. As far as I know all bullitt 17x8 and 17x10.5 (intended as late model mustang upgrade rims) have the same backspacing. There is a person on ebay selling bullitt rims that fit our car (Chillininh has them) but they didn't have any wide enough for me

 

I do think it's great though that you can put a 10+ inch rims in late model cars without mods.

 

Yeah the rear I'm happy with, as 3/8" really isn't much in terms of spacer. The fronts I wish they'd make them with more offset so that a 1" spacer isn't needed. The fronts do make the rear wheels lips appear larger though.

If you get by with small spacers you shouldn't have a problem behind that 440, assuming you are using quality wheel studs.

 

loved those rims on my 2000 Mustang but those Sumitomos are terrible for traction of course that was with 708 rear wheel horsepower. Actually they were terrible at stock power too.