LBP upgrade for 18" wheel conversion

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71duster06

71duster06

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With longterm plans of installing 18" wheels I have to finally upgrade the brakes to the large bolt pattern. Once complete I'll pick up the wheels and upload some pictures.

In the meantime along with the front brakes I reinforced the lower control arms, upgraded to the PST torsion bars, Hellwig swaybar, QA1 strut rods. Next is purchasing the rear axles and brakes so I can finally get to the point of wheels. Overall this should handle a bit better than before... Stay tuned as I'll update along the way.

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Looking good! :thumbsup:

Well, except for those KYB's. Your dentist might like them, but when you upgrade to the PST torsion bars you'll want to lose the KYB's so you don't lose your fillings. It's not mandatory of course, but a set of Bilsteins will ride so much better than those KYB's it's not even funny.
 
72bluNblu said:
Looking good! :thumbsup:

Well, except for those KYB's. Your dentist might like them, but when you upgrade to the PST torsion bars you'll want to lose the KYB's so you don't lose your fillings. It's not mandatory of course, but a set of Bilsteins will ride so much better than those KYB's it's not even funny.
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Ha! I hear ya They were a big improvement a few years back over my old shocks but with the new setup I was expecting that.
 
I dry fit the new axle and brake kit and it looks like I picked up some spacing as expected. From the disc mounting surface to the springs is 6-1/2" to 6-5/8" of spacing. Also 5" from the quarter panel inside lip. Getting close to confirming wheel size and getting them ordered.

On a side note finally installed the Air Gap that has been sitting on my shelf for 3 years

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New wheels arrived. Everything looks really nice on the car.

As expected I need to bore out the front wheels for the hubs. On the back it looks like it will work with a small spacer otherwise I will get the spring offset kit.

One question I had for the front wheel is if i have any options for a center cap. I see a lot of guys with 18s on an a body only have the dust cap.... it would be nice to truly finish it off with some type of wheel center cap though.

Tires will be ordered soon as well.
245/40/18 front
275/40/18 rear

Let me know what you think!

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Are those American Muscle AMR wheels? If so I am running 18x9 front rear on my 72 dart. On the front I bored out the wheel with a hole saw and then a round flapper wheel on a drill. for the center cap I painted my dust cap as close of a.color as I could find. My wheels are charcoal and you can't tell it till you get up close. What rear disc brake set up are you running?
 
lee g said:
Are those American Muscle AMR wheels? If so I am running 18x9 front rear on my 72 dart. On the front I bored out the wheel with a hole saw and then a round flapper wheel on a drill. for the center cap I painted my dust cap as close of a.color as I could find. My wheels are charcoal and you can't tell it till you get up close. What rear disc brake set up are you running?
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That's correct. AMR wheels 18x8 front and 18x9 rear. The rear brakes are the MBM kit from online.

Do you have any pictures of your end result?
 
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I had my wheels machined out to clear my hubs. Since they started at 73.1mm and then necked down to 2.5", I just had them machined straight through at 73mm.

I found I could run this cap on my rims. It sticks out a little bit, but it covers everything.

Ultra Wheel Center Caps 89-8059S

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Initially I just painted them silver to match the rims. Then I managed to find a generic wheel cap that fit my RPF1's, so I used it in the rear and then cut the front cap down and JB welded the wheel cap onto the cover...

Rears with generic cap

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Fronts with cut down metal cap painted to match the rim,and the generic cap JB welded to it

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You could also just use the push through wheel caps by themselves and paint them to match your wheels. I'm sure you could find a smaller diameter cap for the rears to look similar.
 
72bluNblu said:
I had my wheels machined out to clear my hubs. Since they started at 73.1mm and then necked down to 2.5", I just had them machined straight through at 73mm.

I found I could run this cap on my rims. It sticks out a little bit, but it covers everything.

Ultra Wheel Center Caps 89-8059S

View attachment 1715334957

Initially I just painted them silver to match the rims. Then I managed to find a generic wheel cap that fit my RPF1's, so I used it in the rear and then cut the front cap down and JB welded the wheel cap onto the cover...

Rears with generic cap

View attachment 1715334958

Fronts with cut down metal cap painted to match the rim,and the generic cap JB welded to it

View attachment 1715334959

You could also just use the push through wheel caps by themselves and paint them to match your wheels. I'm sure you could find a smaller diameter cap for the rears to look similar.
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Excellant! Thank you again for the example.

Dr. Diff should have the offset shackles soon. I'll get those ordered soon after.
 
I hated the thought of messing with new wheels so I took the front rotors to the machinist and had them lathe the hub down to correct size.
..Just an alternative
 
pauly v.100 said:
I hated the thought of messing with new wheels so I took the front rotors to the machinist and had them lathe the hub down to correct size.
..Just an alternative
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I'm right there with ya. I took some time and it turned out nice overal . The center cap lip remained untouched so it still looks like it did out of the box. I'll post some pics soon
 
Successful weekend! Dry fit the wheels and really like how it turned out. Still need to wrap up the rear brakes and align the front but it's getting close.

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Wow... cant believe I never closed the loop on this one. Couple pics with the axle back in, 4 wheel disc, and new wheels. Took the car over to Detroit for the Roadkill Nights event and got a lot of compliments. Overall very happy with out it turned out.

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