1800: 8" wide wheels on 1800?

[Stockholm]

Hello everyone-

New guy here. I know this topic has been visited a few times. I tried to PM a few of the folks who were involved but as a newbie I'm am not authorized for that sort of power.

I have a 1965 1800S that I bought as an unfinished and somewhat botched restoration project. Its too good to scrap but not good enough to restore so, I'm going to turn it into a gentleman's racer. The whole front end suspension and steering gear is off of it right now. Someone welded a new frame rail on the starboard side but the port side is still off.

I'd like to order the wheels and tires for it but have no way of measuring the front fitment. I'm leaning towards American Racing zero offset 18x8 rims. I can always modify the fender flares, I'm more concerned with interior clearance. Any advice appreciated. I'm sure I'll have a 100 more questions as I get into re-assembling this kit o' parts.

Thanks and regards, Tobias in Annapolis Maryland USA

[Rustinmotion]

Use an offsett calculator https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/
Ideally you want the kingpin angle to hit the floor in the centre of the tire contact patch, if not the steering will be heavy

[Bracpan]

Originally Posted by Rustinmotion

Use an offsett calculator https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/
Ideally you want the kingpin angle to hit the floor in the centre of the tire contact patch, if not the steering will be heavy

What your talking about is scrub radius, i little bit of it is fine as it gives you more feel if its dead centre you will have very little feel on the steering, for example one of the cars with the best steering feel writing about by many journalists is the Ferrari F40, I managed to get hold of the drawing of its front suspension and it has nearly 50mm of scrub radius. If i remember certain VWs and some Audi's have very dead steering because the scrub radius is dead centre. So if it has a bit of Scrub radius I would not worry about it, as its going to be heavy anyway with 8" wide wheels so doubt of you could get it centred due to the width. . Just eat more spinach lol.
If you read books by Staniforth on car handling its hardly mentioned, so I have made sure i a have some in the race car im building atm.

[Rustinmotion]

Yes I had an Alfa Gullia for a hire car last year and that felt weird at parking speed but handled beautiful on the move
I went from 4.5 to 6 inch on the wagon and made sure I was as close to standard set up ( not just same offsett) and I’m very happy with how it steers even at low speed

[Derek UK]

Although some Amazon owners have fitted AR 17 x 7 wheels with low profile tyres I think that the 1800 probably has less room under the wheel arches to accommodate 18 x 8. At the front they would very likely rub un the inner wing at the back even with the lock stops removed. I'd say don't invest any money until you are sure of a good fit. See if you can try some early Mustang wheels but I would start with the 17 x 7 first.

[Stockholm]

Thanks all, appreciate the comments and advice. I was hoping all of the specs for wheel clearance were in some secret archive somewhere but I will wait until the front end is reassembled.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Stockholm

Hello everyone-

New guy here. I know this topic has been visited a few times. I tried to PM a few of the folks who were involved but as a newbie I'm am not authorized for that sort of power.

I have a 1965 1800S that I bought as an unfinished and somewhat botched restoration project. Its too good to scrap but not good enough to restore so, I'm going to turn it into a gentleman's racer. The whole front end suspension and steering gear is off of it right now. Someone welded a new frame rail on the starboard side but the port side is still off.

I'd like to order the wheels and tires for it but have no way of measuring the front fitment. I'm leaning towards American Racing zero offset 18x8 rims. I can always modify the fender flares, I'm more concerned with interior clearance. Any advice appreciated. I'm sure I'll have a 100 more questions as I get into re-assembling this kit o' parts.

Thanks and regards, Tobias in Annapolis Maryland USA

Hi Tobias, and welcome to the forum.

I don't know whether this post from a thread of mine might be slightly useful in helping you decide what to do:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showp...&postcount=532

... so its not about a P1800, but an Amazon. This was a little experiment with some wheels I picked up cheaply; I decided not to fit them in the end, but the important thing is that the 17"x7JJ rims (from a MR2) would have fitted my 122S with no clearance issues, back and front.

I'd suggest looking round for a cheap set of either 17x7 or 18x8 wheels with a 5x4.5" PCD to try - or even just one wheel that you could mock up back and front as I did. If the used wheels you find aren't to your liking once the clearance issues are answered you can always sell them on - or even better borrow a wheel to test fit.

With 7" or 8" wide wheels you will probably have to use some spacers to bring the wheel out far enough (unless you can find some with negative offset). I used some off the shelf 35mm track extenders for a Ford Galaxie/Edge that cost about £50 and fitted perfectly:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showp...&postcount=476

As someone said above, make sure the clearance issues are resolved before you lay out good money on the final solution.

Good gortune,

Alan

[Burdekin]

They are big wheels and you've not said what size tyres or if the car is lowered etc. When you have the car setup how you like it then see what you can fit if big wheels are what you are after. Don't buy anything until then unless they are a bargain.

[142 Guy]

You can purchase things like this that allow you to test fit the tire you want to use.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Wheel...up,485869.html

With a little creativity you could probably fabricate your own test jig. Clearly, the jig does not address issues associated with wheel clearance relative to the brakes calipers. However, if you are going wide I expect you are also going big so that may be a non issue.

I assume you must be planning on an engine transplant because any good ultimate performance or track tire that will fit on an 8 " rim mixed with any naturally aspirated version of a B18 engine is going to result in a tire >>>> engine combination.

[Stockholm]

Here are some pictures of my rig as I pulled it out of backyard in Pennsylvania and as she sits in the garage of an over-trusting client of mine. Also some pictures of the first sort of spare and taken-off parts. For some reason, there are 4 doors but only 1 original rim. The previous owner sourced a lot of replacement parts but I noticed there were also a few things (like pedals) that are missing.