Initial crappy pics of new wheel on my baby

Tru-Blu

Tru-Blu

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As mentioned in a previous thread, I said that I would try to put one of my new wheels on the LS to check the hub fit and see how it looked on the car. I should have grabbed one of our better cameras, but I didn't have much time and was scrambling to get it done and put the factory wheel back on. My Blackberry takes pretty crappy pics, so please excuse the lack of quality.

Here's the initial pic:
IMG00095-20110307-1822.gif


Overall, I'm happy with how it looks. Unfortunately, the factory lugs won't work with the wheels so I definitely have to do something different (I'm leaning towards the Gorillaz based on how tight the holes are). Fortunately, I did have a set of wheel locks I bought off of LloydRage handy to at least try mounting the wheel. The bad news was that the new wheel is recessed more for the lug holes, which means they have to be threaded deeper. I started running the locks down, and ended up getting quite a bit of resistance - which I'm attributing to dirt and/or corrosion. I didn't have time to be able to clean the studs, so I put the 4 locks on as best I could. The wheel still a little bit of a wobble to it as a result. When I carefully lowered the car back to the ground, I'm thinking that the wheel got some positive camber due to the locks not being able to run all the way down. After looking at the where the wheel was sitting, I was worried that it was sticking out too far. It wasn't flush, but it looked like it was slightly past the inside edge of the fender lip. I tried to take a couple pics that would show where the wheel was sitting in regard to the fender's lip or edge but again, the camera in my phone really sucks:

IMG00102-20110307-1829.gif


IMG00097-20110307-1824.gif


I'd feel better if I could have gotten the wheel completely snug. The hub opening on the new wheel is about 1/8" larger in diameter than the factory wheel. Is there anything I can do about that? I don't think I'd be able to find a hub-centric ring that thin.

Here's a shot of the factory wheel and new wheel side-by-side. You can see the Hankook is slightly shorter than the factory tire. Makes me wonder if I could have gotten away with a 255/40/19 (haven't checked rimsntires sizer yet). In terms of width, the 255 is 20mm wider than the factory 235, which equates to a little more than half an inch. I'm hoping that will be ok for the fronts, and I think the rears will be fine with that.

IMG00103-20110307-1854.jpg


All in all, I think I'll be ok but will feel better once I get the wheel all the way on with some lugs on clean studs. I'm hoping the wheel will still be a little more recessed. Can anyone chime in on whether or not the lip is going to be an issue? I've got Eibachs, but don't know how far the wheel travels when getting compressed as well as whether or not it goes straight up or curves in a little towards the car.
 
Rims look really good! I especially like the Lincoln emblem! The side by side pick shows how much better a 19" looks too. Congrats brother-

Also are you happy with your Rotor Pros rotors?
 
Digging these.....is the suspension sitting fully compressed and down all the way in the first picture? It looks a little high for being a lowered LS with 19's
 
My favorite rims are 5 spokes, then these type, dont know the name, but I'm loving the look!

You can get hub centric rings pretty thin. The only thing is that once you go to a certain size, the rings can't be aluminum because it will be too thin, they'll be like a soda can, so you'll need to get them in poly carbonate.

When I bought 63.4 to 65.1 rings, they needed to be poly carbonate, aluminum would be too thin. The 63.4 to 67.1 rings though, the right rings for my wheels, were big enough to be aluminum.

I say you'll be good to go with aluminum ones though. If you do in fact need a 1/8'' rings, that's +3mm, you should be good for aluminum.
 
Bull, the suspension should have been normal. I left the jack under the car, but it was all the way down. The Hankook's are a little bit shorter than the stockers, which may be what you're seeing (although it's pretty hard with the crappy pics).

Anyone have any thoughts/insight on the where the wheel appears to sit in regard to the fender lip? I'm really hoping it's gonna be ok.

I know most folks here think the Cobrastars look ridiculous on the LS, but I really like 'em. My goal was to try and make it look like it was a special edition of the LS. It's never gonna have the engine to back it up, but the appearance has gotten some compliments/comments. I've got other stuff in the car to go with the emblems.
 
Nice looking rim :)
Why's the new tires look so much smaller in diameter than the stockers though? What size did you go from/to?
Love the rim style, put a bigger tire on it (unless it's some illusion with the pics?) ;)
 
Tru-Blu said:
I know most folks here think the Cobrastars look ridiculous on the LS, but I really like 'em. My goal was to try and make it look like it was a special edition of the LS. It's never gonna have the engine to back it up, but the appearance has gotten some compliments/comments. I've got other stuff in the car to go with the emblems.
Click to expand...

sure it can..all you need is some forced induction.

Theres a local shop here that may be able to do something with mine i need to speak with them but i agreed the cstars need some muscle to back them up so for now i will just be sportin some generic V8 badges.
 
Alax, looks like I'm gonna have to get ahold of a micrometer to get as exact as I can. Were you the one that posted a link on where to order the rings?

Luebbe, I haven't installed the rotors yet. They're going on when I do the calipers - a bigger job since I'm removing them to clean/paint and obviously bleeding the whole system.
 
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Icarus, I used a website (rimsntires.com) to get as close to the stock size AND no speedo discrepancy. Most tire shops will recommend 245/35/19 for 19's. I might have been ok with 255/40/19's but the speedo would definitely be off. At 60 mph, the 255/35/19's will be less than 1 mph off.
 
No, I didn't post a site. None had the exact size I needed so I emailed a few to see which would do custom sized rings for me. Some of them said they didn't do custom sizes, I dont know why. I have seen some aluminum rings for 45-50, the place I bought them at were at 100 though. I dont know if the other places did custom sizes or not, but there was a reason I went with the place I did, I just forgot why. The guy emailed me back quick and they did custom sizes, so I pulled the trigger.



this is where I got them from
http://www.motorsport-tech.com/hub_rings.html
 
oh and as far as rubbing, it looks like you'll be ok. It looks like you're tire is more in wards than bullschmitd's gen1 wheels with 25mm spacers and I dont think he rubbed.
 
Looks great! But your speedo will be way off if they're that much shorter.
 
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