I promised y'all an update with pics of the wheels and tires completed and on the car this weekend.
Since it's a long weekend for us up here north of the 49th, it's still technically the weekend. So here we go!
This weekend was filled with highs and lows in respect to the wheels. I was up bright and early Saturday morning, and had the rims and tires dropped off at the tire shop shortly after 10am.
After a little blunder on the tire shops' behalf where they mounted the tires blackwall out (low point), they corrected their mistake, flipped them around, and remounted them RWL out like I had originally requested.
Bit of a low point there. Little did I know it was a sign of things to come...
Fortunately, they were able to adequately balance each wheel using stick on weights on the insides of the rims, rather than the clamp-on lead ones that had caused all the pitting in the aluminum underneath previously.
Bonus, high point there!
Upon going to pay, I was told to have a nice day, they were done all for the low low price of $Free.99!
DEFINITE high point there!
(Guess it pays to take good care of your compressor customers!)
😉
Once back home, I began the process of swapping out the old rims for the new. With the back of the car jacked up and the rear wheels removed, I test fit the new wheel and tire combination with the existing 2" wheel adapters (I had previously installed to help out the look).
This was a no-go.
After confirming with a tape measure what my eyes were telling me, I found that the new combo overlapped the wheel well flange by a solid inch. On a lowered vehicle like Olds Cool, this is just asking for trouble, usually in the form of cut sidewalls.
Low point...
Removing the adapter and bolting up the wheel against the brake drum wasn't the right answer either. Even with the wider tires, the whole thing still sat too far inboard for my liking. Yet another low point.
Time to jump in the truck, and head for the speed shop.
A high speed run there and back, and about an hour later, I had a set of 1" adapters to replace the 2" ones. Placing the 1" adapters over the wheel studs was rewarded with a disheartening reality:
The axel flange studs were 1/8-3/16" too long, protruding past the adapter. DEFINITE low point there.
Out came the cutoff wheel on the die grinder, and all 10 studs were carefully shortened. Finally, everything fit as desired.
All this nonsense finally behind me, I could finally move on with getting the damn wheels on. All the proper lug nuts I had sourced out fit and functioned as intended, with the exception of one. Something in the threads was screwed up or damaged, and it would not for the life of me go on. A look through my tap and die set was unsuccessful as well, I did not have the proper pitch and diameter tap to repair the nut.
Low point yet again!
Instead, I improvised and used one of the straight shank lug nuts and double washer deals I had used previously. Good enough until I can repair or replace the bad nut.
Front wheels went on without a hitch, and I was finally able to get the car down on all fours again. Made a quick trip to the car wash to get everything cleaned up and looking good, and finally got my first good look at the end result.
Although they look really good (and a substantial improvement over the old rally's), I was a bit upset to find that the clearcoat I had applied had dulled down the bright silver finish of the raw aluminum areas.
Another disheartening low.
They still look good, they're just quite dark now is all.
Not sure if I'm going to redo the silver areas just yet or not, I might give it a bit and see if it grows on me. Thoughts from the members on this?
Probably most importantly of all tho, the car now finally rides, tracks, and handles much better than before. It's firm, stable, and doesn't require as much corrective input nearly as much as before. That right there was reward enough for going through all the work.
High point finally!
Anyways, enough with the commentary.
Today I made a trip out of town, and stopped for a photo op. My apologies, they're not the greatest. The sun was so bright I couldn't see the screen on my phone to tell if it was gonna be a decent picture or not. The car looked a lot better in person to be honest.
So that's it. There they are, done and on the car.
Thanks for checking back everyone, and please, feel free to share your thoughts and opinions!
D.
