Big Wheel/Tire without Tubs?

[Knoxferatu]

I want to see 275/40/18's on 18x9's at all four corners. Has anyone done this? Was it possible without tubbing? What is necessary to make this work?

 

[machman_73]

Here's some threads about tire sizes.

http://www.7173mustangs.com/search.php?action=results&sid=30116ae7bce8e3ab8fa77b4db9ffa556&sortby=lastpost&order=desc

 

[Knoxferatu]

Here's some threads about tire sizes.

http://www.7173mustangs.com/search.php?action=results&sid=30116ae7bce8e3ab8fa77b4db9ffa556&sortby=lastpost&order=desc

Thanks! I did use the search utility, but I guess I just didn't use the right key words.

 

[droptop73]

Look at these threads: http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-my-experiences-with-bigger-wheels

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-1972-mustang-convertible-new-pics

Mike is running 285/40/18 on the rear. I'm planning on going with 295/45/18 on the rear of mine.

275/40/18 is probably too big for the front and not rub.

 

[Knoxferatu]

Thanks, everyone, for the links.

 

[Tnfastbk]

Here is one to mine

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-wheels--2023

 

[Knoxferatu]

Here is one to mine

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-wheels--2023

Thanks, for posting that. It's very helpful. I can see that it's tight up front, due to the upper control arm. Tubular control arms might not help that. If I can't get 275's at all four corners, I'll probably have to console myself by putting 245's up front, and 295's out back.

 

[BigPinoyHunk]

i run 17x11 7BS 315/35/17's in the rear. i could run them without a spacer but i'd prefer to stick the wheels out as far as i can for the looks part.

i usually run a 1/2 spacer which if you had the oem rear swaybar, it'll barely give you any clearance (6.5 bs), i can run my 1 inch spacer will clear a oem sway bar (now a 6bs, 6.25 is the most bs you want with swaybar).

if you run stiffer rear springs, might not really need a sway bar unless you plan on some fast cornerning.

oh yeah, even with a 1 inch spacer, it won't rub the fender wells cuz i got my lips rolled.

 

[Knoxferatu]

i run 17x11 7BS 315/35/17's in the rear. i could run them without a spacer but i'd prefer to stick the wheels out as far as i can for the looks part.

i usually run a 1/2 spacer which if you had the oem rear swaybar, it'll barely give you any clearance (6.5 bs), i can run my 1 inch spacer will clear a oem sway bar (now a 6bs, 6.25 is the most bs you want with swaybar).

if you run stiffer rear springs, might not really need a sway bar unless you plan on some fast cornerning.

oh yeah, even with a 1 inch spacer, it won't rub the fender wells cuz i got my lips rolled.

I would prefer not to roll the lips, but I'm confident, from what I've gathered here, and elsewhere, that I'll be able to get as much tire as I want in the rear wells, with or without a sway bar (might not be necessary, even with fast cornering in the plan). What I'm after is figuring out how to get as much tire in the front as is possible, without rubbing on anything.

Again, what I really want is same size 275/40/18's, on 18x9's, with the same offset/backspace, all around, if I can figure out how to fit them up front. Since the wheel well seems to be big enough, I was hoping someone might have figured out how to do this, with some combination of tubular upper control arms and maybe spindles, short of re-engineering the front of the car into something else. It may just be that it's totally impossible. If so, I'll live with it, but I want to turn every possible stone before giving up on the idea.

 

[Tnfastbk]

Here is a shot under/behind of the 9.5

 

[Knoxferatu]

Here is a shot under/behind of the 9.5

Plenty of room for comfort, there. I'd love to see it in person.

I found this thread, on protouring.com, that encourages me to think I can get the 275/40/18's in the front - http://www.pro-touring.com/showthread.php?83173-69-mustang-with-18x9-wheels-up-front&highlight=fr500+cougar. Scroll down to the red Cougar XR7. The guy is using a 7/16" spacer, but he has an 18x9 wheel in there, with a 275/40 tire.

 

[luxstang]

Is you car lowered?

If not you m i g h t pull it off. (But then it would not look good, due to sidewall height)

But, my guess would be:"No!"

But they would rub on the left lower frame rail when turning the wheel all to the left.

The upper control arm should be clear with an 18 inch rim.

On the rear axle things look way better!

 

[Knoxferatu]

Is you car lowered?

If not you m i g h t pull it off. (But then it would not look good, due to sidewall height)

But, my guess would be:"No!"

But they would rub on the left lower frame rail when turning the wheel all to the left.

The upper control arm should be clear with an 18 inch rim.

On the rear axle things look way better!

We haven't even located the car yet, Mike. I'm just planning ahead, because, once we have the car in hand, we'll want to move on with the project immediately. As for lowering the car, I'd say that we'll likely lower the car, moderately. We want improved handling, but we don't want to scrape the headers all the time.

 

[luxstang]

...but we don't want to scrape the headers all the time.

That's why I need to get rid of my long tube headers in favor of shorties. The car's too low. But I love the look of it, so the headers need to go.

 

[Tnfastbk]

Here is a shot under/behind of the 9.5

Plenty of room for comfort, there. I'd love to see it in person.

I found this thread, on protouring.com, that encourages me to think I can get the 275/40/18's in the front - http://www.pro-touring.com/showthread.php?83173-69-mustang-with-18x9-wheels-up-front&highlight=fr500+cougar. Scroll down to the red Cougar XR7. The guy is using a 7/16" spacer, but he has an 18x9 wheel in there, with a 275/40 tire.

here is his write up. He had to modify the aftermarket parts to make them work.

"I'm running the same wheels on my car. The front won't work without a spacer. I made a couple of 7/16" spacers for the front. I also bought some longer ARP wheel studs and modified them to work in the stock rotors.I did the Shelby/Arning drop on the control arms, cut the bump off of the tops and reangled the balljoints by cutting 10 deg. pie sections out of the upper control arm to angle them down to keep them from binding. I also cut close to 3/4 of a coil off of the stock springs. I'm running 295/35s on the rear with a 1 inch bolt on spacer. The rear is lowered from forty years of use. "

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

I had 285's on the back of my car with 4.75 backspacing and there was no interference. While the tires at the time were 15's they had an overall height of 28 inches so it is a fair comparison. there was a little bit of room on the inside without trimming metal or relocating anything so I think 295's are doable out back, but I've limited my front tire size to a maximum of 235's as I don't have power steering and prefer not to fight extra tire.

 

[Knoxferatu]

Here is a shot under/behind of the 9.5

Plenty of room for comfort, there. I'd love to see it in person.

I found this thread, on protouring.com, that encourages me to think I can get the 275/40/18's in the front - http://www.pro-touring.com/showthread.php?83173-69-mustang-with-18x9-wheels-up-front&highlight=fr500+cougar. Scroll down to the red Cougar XR7. The guy is using a 7/16" spacer, but he has an 18x9 wheel in there, with a 275/40 tire.

here is his write up. He had to modify the aftermarket parts to make them work.

"I'm running the same wheels on my car. The front won't work without a spacer. I made a couple of 7/16" spacers for the front. I also bought some longer ARP wheel studs and modified them to work in the stock rotors.I did the Shelby/Arning drop on the control arms, cut the bump off of the tops and reangled the balljoints by cutting 10 deg. pie sections out of the upper control arm to angle them down to keep them from binding. I also cut close to 3/4 of a coil off of the stock springs. I'm running 295/35s on the rear with a 1 inch bolt on spacer. The rear is lowered from forty years of use. "

I could have read it wrong, but my interpretation, from his comments about doing the Shelby mod, and pie cutting and re-welding the control arms, plus removing the hump that covers the top of the ball joint, was that he was modifying the OEM control arms, not modifying aftermarket tubular arms. My take is that he did most of that for the sake of correcting front suspension geometry (neg camber gain, caster, etc.), as you might get with aftermarket tubular control arms, from Global West, for instance. The grinding down of the ball joint humps, and the use of his 7/16" spacers certainly were done to get the rim clear of his UCA. The spacers he used to effectively reduce backspacing on those late model Mustang wheels, might not be needed with other wheels that have less backspacing. I've messaged him, to try and get more information about everything he did, and whether he gets the tires rubbing on the subframe at full turn, etc. I suspect he would have posted about such a problem, but I'll see what he says if/when he replies back to me.