Good morning, afternoon, evening and night,
(whenever you read this post)

I am giving up on finding wheels for this car that fit without adapters and don't look like the traditional 5 spoke everyone and their grandma torq thrust IIs.

I found a decent wheel adapter company that mills the size and bolt pattern you need specific to wheel and car, and isn't going to gorge on the price.

I'm not sure exactly how they are figuring out the measurements... maybe some one can help with that.

I found these:



KMC DIME 127
18" x 8.5"
I was gonna use a 255/35/18 in the front and a 275/35/18" in the rear Falken FK452

In that size they only come in a 5 on 115 or 4.5 pattern in a +38 offset.

I know our cars use a 5 on 4.75 or 120.7 pattern with a -11 to 0 offset
(CORRECT ME PLEASE IF I AM WRONG ON THE OFFSET RANGE)

I WAS TOLD if I have a wheel with a +38 offset and a billet adapter that is a 5-4.75 to 5-4.5 with a thickness of 1 and 1/4 inch that is would make the wheel a 0 offset but the backspace would become 6 and 1/4 (OUR CARS AGAIN CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG THE ONLY BACKSPACE AVAILABLE IS 4.01 or 4 and 1/100th)

I was told that if I needed the backspace to be the closest to 4.01 or
 4 and 1/100th I would need a 2 and 1/8 inch adapter but that would make the offset -16

I was also told that to get a -11 offset I would need a 1 and 15/16th inch adapter. but still have a backspace higher than the 4.01

The torq thrust IIs fit with no adapters 4.01 backspace with a -11 offset with 5 on 4.75, no adapter.

All of these measurements were based on a wheel having an offset of +38 to begin with.  I would appreciate any input from you guys and possibly any other wheel options regardless of offset or backspace.

Thanks again guys,
Ever lasting friend...
-Louis

Dude, I am sooo confused. No one seems to help. The people that make the wheel adapters can;t answer specific questions... I am tremendously pissed off...
Either I put factory wheels on  the car, or go with some crappy torq thrust II wheels and look the same as everyone else. No other wheel companies make off the shelf products for our cars, some 3-piece custom wheel companies won;t do it even if I supply the measurements. There has to be some company out there that makes an attractive looking wheel that fits today's modern looks, and not a crager ss knock off, or some modern twist upon  that traditional 5 spoke design.
THe new corvettes on the same 5 on 4.75 bolt pattern even the 2010 model does, however the backspacing of 6" and offset of +58 doesn't help either.. Are we forgotten in the dark? Shunned to one type of wheel? WTF?

If you drive a vintage car, you should talk to suppliers in the vintage car terminology.  Wheels are measured in inches wide, with inches of backspacing.  You might get better results.  But in any case please clean up your language.  I think many members who might have been tempted to help just ignored you because of your apparent attitude.

Larry

I don;t think my language was brash, I don;t really have a foul attitude. In today's world of wheels, no one uses Imperial Standards, its all metric for the fact that they  are usually all made in China or Korea. But even USWHEEL (all made in USA) use metric standards for measurement. You have to just remember the convert is 1" = 25.4MM

I'm just trying to find out if my measurements are FULLY correct in terms of finding out backspace conversion and such, are these adapters safe, and what will they look like if there has to be a
 2" to 4 " adapter?  will it stick out too far? With a rim size of 8.5" 8.5" + 2" is 10.5" and
8.5" + 4" = 12.5" Thats kinda high, especially if you have stock trailing arms, or am I just over thinking this?

Jim and Larry are correct!!!  I live in Wisconsin, have lived in Texas.  I enjoy football but I do not think that you mean that "WTF" stands for "Where's the Football".

I'd suggest doing a Search in this forum with the keywords wheel, offset.  There should be several threads that discuss wheel measurements and fitment.

That being said the wheels I put on "The Toy" required a 4 inch custom spacer.  The wheels and spacers were found on eBay.  If you look closely in this shot you can see the spacer between the spokes.

Norsky2010-02-11 21:10:17

[QUOTE=VetteSpecialties] If you drive a vintage car, you should talk to suppliers in the vintage car terminology.  Wheels are measured in inches wide, with inches of backspacing.  You might get better results.  But in any case please clean up your language.  I think many members who might have been tempted to help just ignored you because of your apparent attitude.Larry
[/QUOTE]

Well said Larry. Louis, abbreviatin cusswords has the same effect on folks as writin em out. Not much of anyone takes to that stuff here.

I have a great wheel guy out of NC that I got my wheels from. I try to find his # tonight and I'll PM it to you. He knows C3s very well. BTW, all you measurements might be spot on and everything height and width wise may check out, but check you caliper clearance. Aftermarket wheels are notorious for caliper clipping on C3s...

Paul

Even my  TT II's that were made with the proper offset clipped my calipers. It looks like your are trying to push the envelope with the tire size. Our fiberglass bodies vary a fair bit so when you are trying to push the envelope on size, you may find rubbing going on. These wheel manufacturer know that and don't want to end up with a set of wheels they can't use. When using wheel spacers you have to be real careful. Moving the wheel out will increase the bending load through the spindle and axle. This can cause your bearing to fail prematurely and or snap the spindle/axle. So if you are going to go this route, do periodic inspections for cracks. How do I know that? Well I am an Engineering Manager and run new product development teams for a mobile equipment manufacturer. We pay very close attention to wheel offsets and loads. When there is too much things break. suncountry2010-02-12 13:28:34