BADMFR

Ok, so I went to the tire place and got my 335's put on my 18x12's and slapped them on the car...looks pretty sick. PROBLEM though, when I started to drive away I felt something rubbing. After looking, it's the forward edge of the leaf spring?? (<--pretty sure that what it is) rubbing on the inner edge of the wheel. Anyway, my question is has anyone else had this happen? I am assuming the best solution is to RAISE my car up 1/4" or so? Or will it hurt the spring much if I grind a corner off? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and for those wondering, no I didn't continue driving on them. I put my 10.5's back on with my BAAAAALD 305's


THANKS!

TM-Z06

What about using a 1/4" or 1/2" adapter?

BADMFR

the 12" wheels already stick out a little bit so I don't want to use any spacers

froggy47

You ARE kidding, right?

BADMFR

No, actually I'm not. Not talking about a lot of material, maybe 1/8" off the forward edge/corner.

zeevette

The grinding may be a temporary solution, but what happens when the suspension is compressed during hard cornering, or bumps? Sounds like you need to go downsize to about a 315, and/or change the wheel offset.

DERJ

With my 18x12s, I had to raise my car - the leaf spring was close, but I was rubbing the sidewall against the inner wheel well on corners and bumps...
But my car had been lower than stock.

It got a little better when I went to Hyperco springs, but it's still a little close for comfort.

BADMFR

good news! but your leafs were "inside" your barrels? and bumps and such didn't effect the suspension travel to the point where the leafs/wheels made any contact?

froggy47

I would not recommend modifying the rear spring. Go with a spacer to get the clearance you need 1/4 to 1/2 sounds like it would work & not stick out too much more.

My Grandpa used to say, "you can't put 10 pounds of S##T in a 5 pound bag".

I think the wheel/tire combo is too much for the stock body/suspension.

A mini tub is a modification that hot rodders do to stuff big wheels under a stock body. It's a serious modification involving shortened axles & relocated suspension.

Good luck!

striper

DO NOT try to modify the spring in any way. They are laminates and you do not want to cause the laminate to start coming apart, and it can. Either a spacer or another solution. I can't figure out how your wheels are hitting the spring anyway. Are you sure that due to the width you're not hitting the inner wheel well? I have 18" x 11" on mine in the rear and on occasion the tires will rub the inner wheel well.

SR-71

I've wondered about this problem myself. My stock wheels have very little clearance between the wheel and spring, 1/8 inch or so.

RC45

Factory Reproduction stock looking 18 x 12's right?

Your car is too low if the leaf is touching your wheel. Raise it up. You will need to remove the inner fender well to solve any rubbing issues.

I have tracked my car with the 18 x 12's. As long as youarenot "in the weeds' and you remove your inner fender you will be fine.

BADMFR

Thanks I figured if I raised it back up 1/2" or so it would clear the wheels. Didn't really want to hack off the corner! But, when I did have them on for the brief moment there was sufficient clearance in the wheel wells... and with it raised up I should have even more so maybe I got lucky there.

DERJ

Agreed - just raise it a little. The only time I've ever seen the spring touch has been when I had the back end of the car off the ground.

vms4evr

I agree I'm running 18x12 CCW Classic track version with 335/30-18 Hoosiers. They rub just a bit on the inner fender. Instead of removing the inner fender I pinned mine tighter with pop rivets in a couple of places. The inner fender fits sloppy. Just lift the car and remove the wheel. Push on the fender in random spots and watch how much it moves in and out. 4 holes with pop rivets and I now have almost no contact. Add 1/8" spacer and no contact.

My car is also lowered on the stock adjusters and I have max negative camber in the rear. That makes it clear the leaf spring and the mounting hardware better. Moves it closer to the fender on the top though.

I also have Factory Reproductions Black Motorsports for the street in stock sizes. They say the offset is identical to the factory rims. I don't think so. The rears sit different between the repros and factory.

Dr Chill

I had my rim separate at 100+ mph due to the lathe effect from contact with the corner of the spring and fortunately all that happened was a harsh vibration and a loud bang. I pulled into the pits and realized how lucky I was. Grinding off the corner metal tab on the spring fixed the problem and I have run many track days since without a problem. There is nothing wrong with doing so as the end piece is still intact. This will not adversely affect the spring.

But there's a better fix for the problem without cutting or grinding-COILOVERS!

BADMFR

I finally got them on today. Took a bit of grinding on the forward metal edge of the spring and raised the car up about an inch. Actually think it looks better raised up from where I had it. Was a PITA, but looks pretty with big meat out back! Thanks for everyone's input once again.

03aaron

i had the same problem...i just raised it a lil bit....in my opinion the stance is looking perfect...would still like to grind a lil off the edge of the spring though, as it already dug into the rim the inner part of the rim a little bit

bmg

Sounds like a great excuse to get some coilovers!

Hardcorvette

How about some pics!