F: 17x10 - R: 17x12 advice from the pros

[BOHO]

Waiting

[attack vector]

LOL! easy, easy guys :-P

 

They SHIPPED yesterday. So no not here yet, hahah.

 

I don't have my tires ordered yet, but I think I can get them pretty quick from a Discount Tire up the street from me. (I already checked their stock) I would really like a set of ADVAN's but looks like NITTO will end up being a better fit with regards to size, tread configuration, etc...

 

Trust me. I want this all put together like... yesterday, I'm crazy impatient! LOL. It will probably take a little while for it to all come together just because I have such little time to dedicate to working on my car these days. Literally just a small handfull of hours on sporadic weekends.

 

My big goal is to have everything together for a huge meet out here on June 9th called the "Old School Reunion". I've gone to it every year for the past 3 years and it's amazing. All 25 years or older, Vintage Japanese -vs- Vintage European. Most epic meet ever. So I'm pushing hard to have the car properly set up by the end of this month.

 

Here are some photos I took last year from the event. Sadly my Starquest was in the shop getting its engine rebuilt. So I had to drive the MR2 and park back in the nosebleeds (new-school whips not allowed! lol)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79154882@N04/sets/72157630114320766/

[ZacMan]

AV - Have followed your car on a couple of different forums, can't wait to see some pics of your new wheels!

 

For reference, the 5-stud narrowbody vehicles also have the circlip to hold in the stud in, and the the wheels have the recess to allow the wheel to fit flush with the hub surface.

 

Very very important that your wheels are correctly hub-centric, either by having the correct 67.1mm centerbore, or using a locating ring. Most mag wheels have a 73.1mm centerbore, and you buy an adaptor to fit, but as you've gone steelies, not sure there. Once they're torqued, the friction of the mounting face to the wheel takes over as the primary load path. That's why it's super important to make sure wheels are torqued up correctly.

 

Some wheel-inspiration that I reckon will add to this thread:

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Racing%20Starion/DSC00001.jpg

 

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx141/ProZac83/Starion%20Project/P3290022_1024x768_zps646c2c77.jpg

Edited May 11, 2013 by ZacMan

[Crazy Quest]

MORE SPECS ON RED FLATTY!!

[Convette]

Yep. The only red quest I like more than mine... Fuuuuu k.

[patra_is_here]

love seeing good lookin flatties.

[creakyjoints]

So pics early AM monday?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Convette]

UPDATES!

[attack vector]

Hey guys!

I hate to dissapoint, but I have no updates. I wasn't able to touch my car at all over the weekend. Real-life squashed my garage-fun plans. It was a combination of having an 8 month old kid and my wifes first mothers-day holiday, so as you can imagine the weekend quickly filled up with flowers and BBQing, LOL. But I did relay to the missus that I was frustrated that I couldn't get at the car and have brokered to free up next weekend :-) I might also try to find some creative ways to work on it at night during the week if I can keep it quiet.

 

Good news though is that my wheels are in-route. I checked the tracking number this morning that UPS says they might be delivered to the house as early as tomorrow! Woot! :-)

 

Also as soon as I collect another paycheck this week, I'm going to buy my tires. So one way or another... it's going to come together!

 

ZacMan: Thanks for those pictures! Those are the burliest looking flatties I've ever seen! I love 'em! Keep the inspiration coming. Also I agree that going from hub-centric to lug-centric is the biggest concern I have. It is an experimental setup and I hope I can make it work. If I can mount a hub-ring I will... but I doubt the steel wheels will allow for that. I'll be shocked if they have the captive recess on the back-face required to retain a hub-ring. I think this is going to come down to a proper balance, hardened wheel lugs and proper conical lug-centric nuts. I also acknowledge that after all is said and done... this setup may in fact be horrible, and that It will all end up being very short-lived. LOL. But I'm willing to be the lab rat and experiement on myself :-)

 

Otherwise the only picture I have to post is this one. Here are my new brakes that I was hoping to swap out before my wheels arrived:

 

[attack vector]

YO DAWG CHECK MAH REEEEEAAAMMMZZZZ!

 

So the wheels showed up! and they look great. I haven't weighed them... but they didn't feel as heavy as I expected. I'll try to put them on a scale so we can get a real weight from them. But they are heavy, LOL.

 

I only had an hour last night right after I came home so all that I could manage was to get them unpacked, jack the car up and test fit the rears. So far good news. They clear the caliper and the coilover tube, both by approx a half-inch. I can squeeze my finger through the gap between the wheel and the coilover. So all good. The poke is approx 3/4 inch outside of the well. I suppose I might actually need a set of (Mookeh101 or whatever his name is) rear-camber plates, but I'm not sure the mounting is compatible with my D2 coilovers? I guess we'll see when I get it all mounted up.

 

As suspected, there is no way to capture or secure a hub-centric gap-ring. So these will be lug-mount all the way. when I get home from work today I'll test fit the fronts and if they clear everything then the good news is that I can keep the wheels and order some tires.

 

I haven't taken the brakes off yet or inspected my lugs, but I'm assuming I have the "D" shaped or "flat" lugs that Convette showed us earlier in the thread. If so, that creates some confusion regarding all of the info for ARP lugs that people have posted here as all of the images from every website you can order from shows a press-in, circular head lug bolt. So I'm curious as to how the whole process of finding hardened lugs in the correct configuration will pan out. But I feel it's an important saftey precation here so I'll post my findings when I get to that.

 

The only glitch so far is that Marsh Racing failed to send me my lug nuts With my order. but I called them this morning and they apologized and are sending them along. Not sure if these lugs are really any different from the ones I have currently but I beleive they are open-head style to account for long studs and they feature a 60 degree taper which may be more aggressive then a conventional lug nut? I'll take pics of them when they arrive.

 

Speaking of pics... ON TO THE PICS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Convette]

Perfect. I doubt you'll need camber plates when the suspension is compressed and if you stretch the tire, but they might help push them out more for extra poke. Cant wait to see it on the ground! Edited May 15, 2013 by Convette

[creakyjoints]

Finally. Geez. Doesnt look to bad. Will you be able to get hub rings or wont work? Edited May 15, 2013 by creakyjoints

[attack vector]

Creaky, Sadly can't do hub-rings with these wheels. I'll try to take a more detailed photo of the hub bore so you can see what I'm talking about. A mounting ring would simply fall out because there's no captive bezel in the backface of the wheel to hold it in place. It's just a punched steel face.

[polarisman14]

You can get hubcentric rings that are integrated into spacers, that would certainly work. Enjoy!

[Convette]

Still, no need for any of that, your wheels arent going fall off. Believe me.

[attack vector]

You can get hubcentric rings that are integrated into spacers, that would certainly work. Enjoy!

 

LOL. Wish I would've known about those sooner. My wheels specs are MAXED out and set up for no spacers. However while googling around looking at the spacers you describe I seem to have found a few places that make hub-rings with a small lip on them so they can be captured beneath the center bore of the wheel. I'm going to look in to these and see what I turn up. I'll let you guys know.

[attack vector]

Still, no need for any of that, your wheels arent going fall off. Believe me.

 

With the rather pedestrian driving that I do with the car. I'm sure you're right :-)

 

I still think this is good discussion and can help other people though who are engaged in motorsports and want to run a lug-centric wheel. I'll continue to check in to ARP studs and hub-rings and see if I can get a setup that works.

 

Otherwise I didn't make any new progress on the car last night but the weekend is coming!

[Convette]

lets get going on this, you better have tires mounted and on the ground by sat in the am. We are waiting.

[attack vector]

lets get going on this, you better have tires mounted and on the ground by sat in the am. We are waiting.

 

Hahaha! I told you guys this would come along at a crawl :-)

 

So the gameplan for the weekend is:

 

-test fit fronts (I know I suck I haven't done it yet)

-do brake job (inspect & measure wheel studs in the process)

-measure hub-ring gap / find and order currect HUB rings (If possible?)

-order tires from Discount Tire.

-clean and paint my rusty gnarled hubs, heheh.

-roll rear fenders

 

If I managed to get through that entire list it will be miraculous. Hub painting and fender rolling may get pushed off for a bit.

[ZacMan]

Thats going to look hard as nails man, I like! You're bang on target for the 180sx inspiration pic you posted earlier in the thread. What size tyre are you thinking?

 

Hubcentric rings for mags usually have a chamfer that fits into the hub-face of the wheel, which stops them being able to fall out. They're only made of plastic, and just for making sure the wheel is centered before it is torqued up. If you can make sure things are nice and centered, and you will be able to with 5 conical seat nuts, you will be able to get away without them.

 

I'd be very surprised if you really needed to go to ARP wheel studs? Still peace of mind is priceless... Because starions are a bit weird in how the wheel studs work on the front, you will probably have to do some modifying to make something work. Typical wheels studs rely on an interference fit (the knurl on the stud) to keep them in place and stop them spinning when you're doing up the wheelnut. Starions rely on the circlip to keep the studs in place, and the flat side of the head sitting against a protrusion on the hub itself to stop them spinning. I reckon you'll have to drill out your stud holes in the hub slightly to give the right diameter for the new stud knurl to be an interference fit, and grind a flat on one side of the stud head so they can seat all the way. You won't have to worry about any circlips that way either :-). I removed the circlips on mine to make the wheels fit properly, and haven't had any issues, just have to be careful to not push the studs out when fitting the brake discs and wheels, heh.

 

The red car I posted is my new purchase, its an 86 New Zealand new model (Export spec), Wheels are Rota Torques, in 17x9 for the front, and 17x9.5 for the rear both with a 12p offset. I've got 25mm spacers front and rear however, making it an effective -13 offset at both ends. Tyres are 215/45-17 on the front, and 235/40/17 on the rear. I've got a thread going in the restoration center for more details .

[yzrider]

A set of them just for the rear in a 15x12 wide would be pretty sick for the strip and going straight. Can't wait to see them on the ground with tires.

[attack vector]

PROGRESS!

 

Managed to make good headway on things today. First up I ordered my tires.

Tire specs are: Yokohama S.Drives

Front: 245/40/17

Rear 275/40/17

 

They should arrive sometime during the week so I'm going to see if I can get them mounted and balanced by next weekend

 

So a few notes and discoveries from today.

The front studs are as described by others like Convette and ZacMan. Shaved head with a smooth knurl. The rear studs however, to my surprise were knurled, press-in style with a round head. Overall the integrity of the metal and the condition of the studs look great. I'll probably run them for a while until I can get a set of ARP replacements. I'm anticipating that I might have to modify the front studs (shave the heads down?) Though Dmyers151 did post ARP part numbers up earlier in the thread So I'll probably give those a shot and see what those turn up.

 

Some other weird stuff I noticed that you will see in the pics below. It looked like 2 of the bore holes in one of my rotors were sleeved?! Super strange. Not sure what to make of it. Oh well... Theyre outta here anyway so...

 

Also found 2 strange retaining clips that were jammed in to the venting of my rear rotor. I can't for the life of me figure out what they would be used for. They didn't seem to be doing anything. Check the pics below to see what I mean.

 

Otherwise, thanks for all the comments guys! On to the pics:

 

 

Finally test fit the fronts.

 

These are the two bore holes on my front drivers-side rotor that appear to be sleeved. WTFBBQ??

 

Because I'm a total OCD lunatic I took measurements of every aspect of my front and rear studs :-)

 

These are the 2 weird clips that I dug out of the venting in my rear brake rotor. What on earth are these?

 

This is more or less the way I found them... but they were jammed all they way in. deep enough where you might almost miss them if you weren't paying attention.

 

So is this a factory rear wheels stud? I was surprised to see them knurled and press-in -vs- the smooth bore / shaved head style of the front.

 

My fronts for reference:

 

The stud hole from the rear hub showing the knurl artifact. Is this factory? Or was this forced in?

 

Kind of a funny pic. Because my garage is a bit tight I'll have to do the drivers side, and then move the car over and do the passenger side from the other bay :-P

 

Painting my exposed hubs because 'rust' doesn't look too sexy against the high-gloss black of the new wheels :-)

 

Probably overkill... but hey. LOL.

 

 

That's all I got from today. I'll see how far I can get tomorrow, but things are moving along.

[ZacMan]

Yeah, those rear studs look factory.

 

Those clips are weird, but look really familiar for some reason, can't quite put my finger on it...

 

They don't hold centercaps on or something? Maybe someone pushed them onto the rear rotor at some stage when they had it apart for safe keeping, and then forgot about them? Funny find

[Crazy Quest]

Making good headway! Glad to see your gonna run crazy fitment.

 

I think you shoulda went with atleast 35 profile tire not 40 just because of how low you probably want to go and how crazy the fitment is. I think you'll have a hard time with rubbing on bumps and steering with a 40 profile tire. Just from my experience that's what I've found. I also run stock fender liners so that could effect me.

 

Can't wait to see the end results.

Edited May 19, 2013 by Crazy Quest

[attack vector]

So I'm sure this will be a noob question...

 

For the life of me I can't get my rear caliper back on with the fresh pads. I'm close real close but just coming up a few mils short of being able to clear the rotor. Is there a veteran trick to being able to do this without having to vent the hydraulic system?

 

I've never done the discs on a starquest. On other cars I could always use a pry-bar to push the caliper open enough to buy me the clearance that I needed. I suspect the parking piston may be interfering.