Going to make a few changes... Maybe.

[Gambit]

Well I've not made a new thread in ages, or post for that matter.

Down to it...

I'm thinking of changing the look of my car.

Trial rear.
New front bumper...? tbd
New paint job. I'm looking at a deep super glossy red. Like this.



Now, onto the front bumper. Obviously I'm not doing the one in the picture because it's a wide body TRD and my car is not wide. I like the stock bumper to be honest I think a lip would do just fine.

Martin, What is your front lip, where do you live and when are you likely to be out...? :-P

New wheels are also on the cards.

I like the look of this with the over fenders, how would I go about getting wheels to fill the arches?

[Martin F]

Candy apple red is a nice colour particularly in the sunlight !

My front lip is a Wings West one which I think MVP can supply nowadays, or a copy of it. It's a bit more practical than some front lips as it's made from a PU material so is flexible, unlike fibreglass ones. The car's not at my home at the mo. so i'm safe

If you fit the overfenders then the proper way to fill them is to go for wider wheels, which are obviously not cheap.

[Gambit]

What about just reducing the offset?
Stock offset is 50 right? So reducing that to say 9.5j 265/35/18 with an offset of ??? 35??? Not quite sure how to work it out...


Checked MVP.

[Martin F]

Yep, you can change the offset, but as you will be ordering new wheels to do that best to go a bit wider at the same time. If you know how much those arch extensions add to the width then you can work it all out so that you purchase the right width and offset to fill the arch.


That's the lip, not a bad price considering the exchange rate but shipping will cost a little.

[Gambit]

I believe the fenders add an extra 2.5cm per side. I currently have 265/35/18 on what I think is a 9 or 9.5 no idea of the offset really, this gives a straight edge tyre look, no stretching.

I don't really want to up the tyre size much, that would probably reduce my stock performance and my pocket. At the same time I don't want it to look odd, but we're talking about 5cm in total I wouldn't think you'd even see it from the rear....

I don't really want to go past a 9 front and a 10 rear, this would be upping my sizes by 1.

[Gambit]

I keep reading about rolling the arches to fit the tyres.... I can't see this being required on the front, the back is lower looking at it, but I'd rather raise the back a cm or 2?

[Martin F]

If you fit these arches and wider\different offset wheels then you will need to do something with the existing arches as your wheels will hit them as they will have moved out past the existing arch lip.

2.5cm each side is obviously an inch which I reckon you'd notice IMO.

Found these sites which help if you plug in all the measurements.

http://www.1010tires.com/Tools/Wheel-Offset-Calculator
http://www.willtheyfit.com/

[Gambit]

So you reckon if you stand, lets say 5m behind the car, you reckon an extra 5cm (2inch) gap between the wheels woulds be... noticeable?

Ok, yeah I suppose it would be; but only if you looked for it, I wouldn't think it would be that obvious? IMO... Or am I wrong?

The links are only useful if you know your current offset. ;-)
I'll have to pop a front and a rear off at some point.

As for doing something with the arched, would jacking up the suspension 2cm be acceptable?

[Martin F]

Well you can always try fitting the arches first and see what it looks like. May save some additional expense if you're lucky.

Jacking the suspension up won't work(unless you do it a lot), because when you go over lumps and bumps in the road you'll find the wheels travel a fair way. Also if the wheel does keep hitting the original arch it will start to crack the filler around the extension arches due to the vibrations.

[Gambit]

Update.

I jacked the car up today and got under to have a look...

Rear 18/9J/35
front 18/8J/35

So this is what I'm thinking.



Lowering the offset to 25 would extend the wheel out 23mm (the arches are 25mm). Offset of 23 would make the full 25mm.

I think this would look cool, but the tyres are £60 more each.