Project Frog Princess
I've been working toward getting wheels ordered. This has been a rather frustrating thing for me to say the least. I want the car as low as practical with the stock suspension. There's a narrow window with wheel backspacing to achieve this. I'm planning custom wheels so its got to be right. Even with non custom wheels, once tires are mounted, they likely cannot be returned.
So I installed the front suspension without torsion bars for testing purposes. I've got a frame dolly on the front raised and lowered by an engine hoist.
The best info I had was from autoxcuda in this thread starting at post #83.
Show That Lowered A-body!
I did not find that any fender mod would be required on a Dart however.
I happened to have a 245/45/18 wheel and tire for test purposes. It is about 26.5" tall. The wheel has 6" backspace. I reduced this to about 5.7" with spacers. This turns out to be ideal I think as it allowed me to find the outer limits of space :)
It is 8.5 or 9" (edit: 8") wide and a narrower one would have been better. The section width of the tire is 9.5".
I may seem to be pic crazy here but I believe others can benefit from documenting this process so here goes.
1) The look - love it or hate it.
2) A huge jump from stock.
3) Surprise - that's as low as we go and as far as we turn when on the factory bump stops.
4) Lots of room with an 18 for the ball joint at max droop. Word is that 17 is touch and go.
5) Good tie rod end clearance (about 1/2").
6) Clears the frame up front by about 1/4" at max droop and turn. Its the same at the rear frame. No room for a bigger tire or more backspace.
7) Clears the LCA strut by about 1/8" at max droop and turn. No higher backspace possible. Sway bar is further away.
8 ) Inside view on bump stop. There's about 1 5/8" to the inner fender up top. Note the ball joint angle. Not sure how long it would live like that.
9) Front of fender clears.
I plan to order an 18 x 7 wheel with about 5.5" backspace. Maybe a 225/45 tire. Smaller bumpstops can be used to go lower but with the effect on ball joint angle, my thought is drop spindles might be in order if a ride below what bumpstops allow is desired.
I've been working toward getting wheels ordered. This has been a rather frustrating thing for me to say the least. I want the car as low as practical with the stock suspension. There's a narrow window with wheel backspacing to achieve this. I'm planning custom wheels so its got to be right. Even with non custom wheels, once tires are mounted, they likely cannot be returned.
So I installed the front suspension without torsion bars for testing purposes. I've got a frame dolly on the front raised and lowered by an engine hoist.
The best info I had was from autoxcuda in this thread starting at post #83.
Show That Lowered A-body!
I did not find that any fender mod would be required on a Dart however.
I happened to have a 245/45/18 wheel and tire for test purposes. It is about 26.5" tall. The wheel has 6" backspace. I reduced this to about 5.7" with spacers. This turns out to be ideal I think as it allowed me to find the outer limits of space :)
It is 8.5 or 9" (edit: 8") wide and a narrower one would have been better. The section width of the tire is 9.5".
I may seem to be pic crazy here but I believe others can benefit from documenting this process so here goes.
1) The look - love it or hate it.
2) A huge jump from stock.
3) Surprise - that's as low as we go and as far as we turn when on the factory bump stops.
4) Lots of room with an 18 for the ball joint at max droop. Word is that 17 is touch and go.
5) Good tie rod end clearance (about 1/2").
6) Clears the frame up front by about 1/4" at max droop and turn. Its the same at the rear frame. No room for a bigger tire or more backspace.
7) Clears the LCA strut by about 1/8" at max droop and turn. No higher backspace possible. Sway bar is further away.
8 ) Inside view on bump stop. There's about 1 5/8" to the inner fender up top. Note the ball joint angle. Not sure how long it would live like that.
9) Front of fender clears.
I plan to order an 18 x 7 wheel with about 5.5" backspace. Maybe a 225/45 tire. Smaller bumpstops can be used to go lower but with the effect on ball joint angle, my thought is drop spindles might be in order if a ride below what bumpstops allow is desired.
