Silvia Club of NSW

As some may have noted in the For Sale section, I recently purchased some 'new' wheels for the S14a. That's great I hear you say, however I am running into some clearance issues.

The wheels are silver faced Racing Harts, type CR's, the spec's are as follows;

18 x 8.5", +21 offset

18 x 9.5", +21 offset

As can be seen from the pictures, they sit quite flush on the rear, the rear currently wears a 275/35/18 sized tyre, this will be changed to a 245/40 series. I should be able to get away with a roll I would suspect, very minor flare?

The fronts are the wheels giving issues, at the width and offsets of the front wheels there shouldn't be an issue, plus the front guards are already rolled. Stupid me forgot to check the spoke clearance....

So I have a clearance issue of about 6-8mm between the front calipers (stock) and the inside of the wheels. The simple answer, 15mm bolt-ons, however this would give the front wheels of 8.5" width an offset of +6. Which at a guess would be far to low for stock S14a guards?

I have an idea however I don't want to miss any possible options.

Possible solutions -

1) Has anyone ever machined stock twin spot calipers? If so, how much meat could be taken from them?
2) Fibre glass 15 or 20mm aftermarket front fenders? (Not an option I would like as requires painting = $$$). Does any one have
experience with these? Which aftermarket guards are the closest fitting in peoples experience?
3) Source a wheel trade to something that bolts straight on?

Any other options??? Cheers in advance.

BTW - The car rides on King Springs S/L front & rear.

Grant.

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UPDATE -
I thought I would give an update, as all has now been resolved.

The RacingHart's have been fitted along with some Toyo Proxy 4's up front (225/40/R18) and the Bridgestone Potenza's moved to the rear (245/40/R18). I had a pair of 10mm hubcentric wheel spacers machined up to move the front wheels away from the calipers. I fitted some extended wheel studs, removed the inner splash guards and relocated the wiring loom whilst the car was jacked up.

To be sure I wasn't going to have to be reparing the wiring loom due to scrubbing, I made up a 'bash plate' out of 3mm gal steel sheet I had lying around and fixed this to the drivers side inner wheel arch. So far so good.... No scrubing either.

Fronts - 18 x 8.5, +11 offset (with 10mm spacer); 225/40/R18
Rears - 18 x 9.5, +21 offset; 245/40/R18

http://upload.silviansw.com/CR1.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR2.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR3.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR4.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR5.JPG

Cheers to those that helped,
Grant

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The Car Looks good Grant I would try a 10mm spacer and see if that helps your clearance as then it will only be an offset of +11 which should sit flush in S14 front guards.

Definitely stretch some smaller rubber on those rims though, I'd go 225 at the front and 235 at the rear

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Luxury Sports Tuning
www.phillbenterprises.com
Previous rides:
S12, N14 SSS, A31 Cefiro, B2 180sx, JZZ30, R33, S14A, A31, R34

Like phill said, something like a 10mm spacer combined with longer studs would be the best idea. Looking at the current offset though i reckon you could get away with 20-25mm boltons

The rear sits perfect. Just pop some 235's on there though and lip the guards. They probably wouldn't even need flaring

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Cheers for the quick replies Phil & Anthony. I thought rather than stuff around with spacers on the 17's (current wheels), just upgrade & fill the wheel arches!

I'll try a 10mm spacer up front and try my luck. In saying that I think I've decide to make the car suit the wheels, so no matter which way the test fit goes, I ought to have them on soon enough.

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Thats what I like to hear, no more sunken like a WWII battleship stuff!

For a laugh on the weekend I am gonna try my +12's on my S14

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Luxury Sports Tuning
www.phillbenterprises.com
Previous rides:
S12, N14 SSS, A31 Cefiro, B2 180sx, JZZ30, R33, S14A, A31, R34

That's right, if I'm having to touch guards (possibly), might as well make it look low & fat! Fill out the guards!

Yes, decisions decisions, the meisters in big widths or your play rims in low offsets! Your second set of rims (mesh), what widths are they Phill?

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Racing Harts are hot.

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http://fotos.subefotos.com/a984babe3db3 ... 197cfo.gif

To make it easy I dont have a set of rims that are over +30 except the Meisters but thats because there 9/10's!

Thats fine if you have to touch the guards as it gives the car more character

The meshies are +12 and the sterns are about +20

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Luxury Sports Tuning
www.phillbenterprises.com
Previous rides:
S12, N14 SSS, A31 Cefiro, B2 180sx, JZZ30, R33, S14A, A31, R34

davids old rims?

is the rear already slightly flared or do s14's have that little bump above the wheel arch?

I'd go with 25-30mm spacers up front and add camber

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meh

Yes, these are David's old rims, big thanks to David again. The offer was too good to turn down!!!

No the rear guards are standard S14 at this stage. The rears haven't even been rolled as yet, all very soon to change.

As for the running 25-30mm spacers, perhaps if I was to continue using the wheels that are currently on the car. But not with the new 8.5 +21 rim. In saying that, a spacer will need to be run to clear the caliper.

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So 25-30 mm spacer, if you going to run spacers, use big ones

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Disclaimer: If you have'nt worked it out by now I CANT SPELL FOR SHIT.

david had 15 or 20mm wide front fenders and i think a spacer to clear the brakes as well..

i had the same dilemma with my front wheels so i whacked on a 20mm spacer & it cleared perfectly fine.. however the front offset is now -2 so i will either have to go a) wide front fenders or b) bolt on arch flares

you can prob get away with a smaller tyre & quite a bit of camber up front but that will just kill your tyres quickly.

ive got a 15mm spacer that u can borrow to test if u want.
pm if you're interested.

i had the same problem with the same wheels on my S15. i also forgot about the spoke clearence and i hit the front brakes. i ended up getting 15mm bolt ons and they are only a little out of the front guards. not to noticible.

go 25 bolt-ons and flare the front and rear... also get abit more stretch on the tyres. and drop it another inch....

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formerly 3AM

I thought I would give an update, as all has now been resolved.

The RacingHart's have been fitted along with some Toyo Proxy 4's up front (225/40/R18) and the Bridgestone Potenza's moved to the rear (245/40/R18). I had a pair of 10mm hubcentric wheel spacers machined up to move the front wheels away from the calipers. I fitted some extended wheel studs, removed the inner splash guards and relocated the wiring loom whilst the car was jacked up.

To be sure I wasn't going to have to be reparing the wiring loom due to scrubbing, I made up a 'bash plate' out of 3mm gal steel sheet I had lying around and fixed this to the drivers side inner wheel arch. So far so good.... No scrubing either.

Fronts - 18 x 8.5, +11 offset (with 10mm spacer); 225/40/R18
Rears - 18 x 9.5, +21 offset; 245/40/R18

http://upload.silviansw.com/CR1.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR2.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR3.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR4.JPG
http://upload.silviansw.com/CR5.JPG

Cheers to those that helped,
Grant

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