Help Me Find Inexpensive 17" or 18" Wheels 69 Camaro

[OBeer-WAN-Kenobi]

Well,

275/40R19's don't really fit which is why it took me so long to make an update to this thread.

I knew I'd have to trim the outer fender lip a little in the rear and that went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, I found that my choice of a 245/40R19 for the front was a bit agressive. It was the diameter that was the problem and it would rub on the back of the outer wheel well opening. Instead of messing with that, I just ordered 245/35R19's which fixed the problem.

Well, I thought I was home free but I then noticed some squeaking during fairly mild cornering and there was a definite rubbing going into driveways and such. It turns out that the rear tires were rubbing on the inner fender when the car was off square. So, if one wheel traveled downwards and the other traveled upwards, the higher tire would rub on the inner fender.

I thought maybe it wasn't too bad and I could do a little "massaging" but I found it was pretty bad actually, bad enough that I had to "micro tub" it, (at least that's what I'm calling it). Basically we cut out a portion of the inner fender and then I tested it by putting a 4" thick block of wood under a front tire and then jacking up the rear axle on the spring perch diagonally from the front tire with the block of wood. This showed how bad it really was. I didn't want to mess with a mini tub just yet as there are other panels I'd like to replace when I do that so we did the best we could.

Long story short, we were able to move the shock inwards by about 3/4" on each side and this allowed us to cut out enough metal to get around 1" more out of the inner fender. It's enough, but it's barely enough.

For those wanting to stay stock I can not recommend this tire size. As a matter of fact, I can't believe that you wouldn't have trouble with a 275/40R18 as well. Maybe if you had a lot stiffer suspension and a sway bar? I'm not sure. If you didn't run the chrome/stainless moldings on the outer fender well lip and trimmed it futher and rolled it, you may get the 18" tires to work with a backspacing that moves them out another 5/8" or so....but the 19's? I don't think so.

Anyway, the finished product looks really good:



It does need to go lower though. However; I might have to minitub at that point....so I might as well wait until I have more money for suspension and brakes.