blackout

my car is lowered to an extent to where there is very little wheelgap, like i have seen on a hundred other 240s. they're zeal b6 coilovers. on hard corners i hear the tires rubbing- at first i didn't think it was that big a deal, but upon further inspection i find that there is a sharp ass piece of sheet metal in the top of the fenderwell running down the center of the tire when it's pointed straight, it's now sharpened to a near razor edge and the tread on my tire has been cut pretty much around the circumference. has anyone else run into this, and is there an easy fix? i know i could just raise it up a little in the front but like i said i've seen a lot of other 240s that are as low or lower than mine and was wondering if they did anything special (like cut out the sheetmetal a little perhaps?). they're silvia fenders if that makes any difference.. thanks.

soulDistortion

If it's that seam I think you're talking about, you need two things:

Vice grips. A hammer.

Use vice grips to start bending back, and then hammer the bitch flat. That way if your tire bottoms out again, it will be rubbing on a flat surface. This is a problem that 240 owners run into when lowering their car.

Also while you're at it, reposition the wiring harness up higher. Your tire will eventually rub through it and cause it to break.

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...cc_projsilvia/

I'll try to take pictures of my old 240 to show you what I mean for both if you'd like.

gpeele

souldistortion have you had any rust problems with banging that lip flat? did you use the same method for rolling the fenders? im about to switch over to the same front wheel/tire size so this info couldnt come at a better time. i may just raise the ride hight for now until i can afford some fender braces, so ill only have to deal with taking the fenders off once.

blackout how is your rear clearance? i ordered the same size wheel except with a +35 offset but im a little worried that they may stick out a bit too far, i want to run a 245/45 tire and clear the stock fenders after ive rolled them.

soulDistortion

If you're worried about rust, just hit it with some coats of paint or something to cover anywhere the paint may have come off. As for rolling the fenders, I did mine with a bat. If you go slow and use a heat gun to heat up your paint, you might be able to avoid any paint chipping and the like. You can do the flattening of the seam without removing the fender, just take off your wheel and it's easily accessible.

Also, my fenders and front bumper were held on by a total of like.. 4 bolts. I used two for the bumper where it attached to the brackets on the radiator support (just so it wouldn't sag), and one on each fender. I used zipties on everything else. I removed my bumper and fenders all the time, and that made it easy to do so (if you've ever removed your fenders before, you know that some of the bolts are a complete pain in the ass to get to.

blackout

awesome info, thanks alot. i knew there was something you guys did to eliminate this problem, i'm just kind of surprised it wasn't done already. i was starting to notice the harness being exposed, i'll take care of that too.

gpeele i haven't had any problems with my rear clearance. in my opinion the tires stick out a little too far though, and i would like to go a little lower in the rear but i think i WOULD run into clearance problems if i did. i THINK they are +25 offset in the rear (i still need to do research on wheel offsets- i'm still trying to understand why positive offset is a good thing on a rwd car ).

here's a pic, what i hope is a good depiction of wheel fitment on my car-



and the best pic i can manage of how far the wheels stick out in the rear-

gpeele

thanks, im definately going to use your method when putting the fenders back. i was more worried about paint wrinkling under the fold when you hammer it. ill just leave a small gap and spray some paint in it, i would have never thought of using a bat for the fenders, again thanks for the tip.

blackout, i remember from the post from a while back that your rears are +15, the other two sizes the 17x9's come in are +35 and 43. just about all the wheels ive seen for cars with stock fenders are positive offset, could it be possible that you are thinking of negative camber?

Carter

if you lower your 240 with more than just springs and you have wheels that fit right, you need either
a) enough negative camber to clear your fenders
b) roll the fenders so they don't touch the tire when your suspension travels.
and the lower the offset, the further the wheels will stick out. it depends on how wide your wheels is as well. say a 17x9 wheel with a +35 offset might sit flush, but a 17x6 wheel with a +35 offset will be more sunken in.

blackout

you're exactly right, they are +15. i am WAY behind when it comes to suspension. i confused the shit out of myself with my offsets because i haven't found a reliable source of information to research. this is what google gave me-

http://www.rsracing.com/tech-wheel.html

didn't help much at all. another link was where i got the 'negative offsets are typically found on rear wheel drive cars". can someone provide a link or some other such form of research so i can read up on some suspension basics? i've spent the past several years worrying about making power, i never took the time to learn this shit and it's pretty frustrating.

blackout

ok... did a little more research (not enough to my taste though), and i think i understand enough to at least answer your question- i'm not having any problems with rear clearance and my wheels are +15, tires are 235/45, i'm not seeing you having any difficulty with a +35 and 245s. but i would definitely NOT rely on my 'professional' advice by any means . besides, i still feel like the rears stick out a little too far for my taste.

cole

andy...just do what the honda guys do. set the camber to an outragous negative degree. sure its hell on tires but it just looks so damn cool.