Gotcha

I finally got my wheel project done. I bought an extra set of 08 split spoke wheels a couple months ago and sent the rears to Weldcraft wheels to be widened to 11"

Here's a pic of one of the wheels. Ready to get powdercoated (comp grey). I had all four wheels powdercoated



I had discount tire mount and balance all four wheels ($59), they did a great job. Here's the rears with the Z06 tires



I was worried the factory comp grey center caps would'nt match the powdercoat so I made a set of centers out of aluminum, I CNC'd a pocket for the emblems just like factory and transfered the emblems over.



All the extra width of the wheel/tire is on the inside, making the wheel a +92mm offset. I didn't want to use any spacers and thought I might be able to fit everything but It was going to be tight. The highest positive offset I could find, being used on an 11" rim, was +82 so I knew I needed a little more room.

I had to pull the rear inner fenders out and trim them a little Here I have the passenger side.



This is the cutout piece



Inner fender reinstalled



At this point I mounted a wheel and realized the back edge of the wheel was rubbing the upper control arm with the suspension hanging down. It wasn't bad as the wheel would still turn, it was just scraping the powder coat. This would only be an issue with the suspension hanging all the way down but I've been known to get the car airborn so went ahead and made a little clearance . I took a file and just radiused the control arm a little. I don't have a good pic but you can see in this picture the shiny part of the control arm.



Here's some pics with the wheels on







I'll try to get some better pics of the car. I finished this last night and it's raining pretty good now. Hopefully the weather will clear up soon. The car looks awesome from the back.

I still need to get some Z06 brake ducts. The wheels were hitting my stock ducts at the very back where the duct turns in behind the wheel. I shortened mine for now, and I hear the Z06 ducts have more room. I'll update when I get that resolved. Any input on this would be appreciated.

slomarsh

You did a fantastic ad hoc engineering job.
But.....Just wondering why you went to all the trouble for a nominal increase in width?

Reminds me of some projects I had undertaken in the past......

Gotcha

Nice Post.

So I guess going from a 285 tire to a 325 is nominal? Or maybe I shouldn't have gone to all that trouble and did a widebody instead?

cerino2000

Any worries about the integrity of the widening under abuse?

susko

m48xhp

yes. that PLUS powdercoating should weaken the wheels a lot! otherwise they look good. but i think i woulda just bought some aftermarket 11 wide wheels.

Gotcha

No worries here, this has been done for many years. I've never seen or heard of any failures.

Spinmonster summed it up pretty good in a thread a couple weeks back

Sammgb

Why do I suspect that this is just the start of a "sleeper" C6?

Gotcha

There are no aftermarket 11" wheels with this much offset and I didn't want the wheels to stick out ANY more than stock.

Mardis Gras

Nice Job and write up. Thanks.

Bushong572

Nice write up............I've thought about doing the same thing. I would like to get more rubber on the back and really don't like the widebody rear. Thanks......

LouieM

NIce .... and nice looking .... work. The word "sleeper" somehow occurs to me too! Do you track your Vette?

Z51JEFF

Excellent job.On an aftermaket wheel,how much would the wheel have to be moved out to avoid the A-arm,1/4 inch or less?

Gotcha

I think a great setup, especially for a strong car like yours, would be an 18" front wheel widened to 10.5" with a Mickey Thompson ET street 305/35/18

The wheel would stick out 4mm (.157") more than stock and would only be about 3/8" wider to the inside (than the stock rear wheel). Theres plenty of room for that without modifying anything.

I'm looking for some front wheels to build this setup for the dragstrip.

Gotcha

I'm at a +92 offset with my setup. I only took about .5mm (.020") off the corner of the A-arm to clear my wheels. So decreasing the offset to +91 should get it clear of the A-arm.

This depends on the actual backspace of the wheel though. You could have 2 rims that were 11" wide with a +91 offset and have different backspacing. The difference would be the thickness and shape of the back side of the rim (opposite side of the tire seat).

So a +90 might be a safer bet if you wanted to stay away from the a-arm. You would still have to cut the inner fender liner though. You would need to go +82 or so to clear the liner which would stick the rim out 10mm (.394") more than stock

Gotcha

I got one decent rear shot today

timd38

Nice!

KWIKSS

Can you post up who did the rim widing and how much it was and how long it took. Looking to do this to my camaro

Gotcha

The wheels were widened at Weldcraft Wheels in Michigan, they have a website. Their turnaround time was right at 2 weeks.

They charged $225 per wheel, so my total with return shipping was right at $500.

I would highly recommend these guys. After the wheel is welded they remachine the tire bead seat to be concentric and square to the hub. The guys at Discount Tire couldn't believe how well the rears balanced out. They have less weights than my stock wheels.

VET4LES

Wow, you did a great job and they look assume.