I have a set of four 17.9 ZR1 rims on the car with 275/40/17's all around. I've got Nitto dr's on the rear and I like the look of them but I would like something narrower up front. I have heard of people getting rims custom narrowed and I was considering getting that done for the front narrowing them down an inch or more so I could run like a 245/40/17 or something smaller up front. Has anyone ever had that done to their rims? If so were there any problems plus how expensive was it?

Thanks,
Gregg

 

if you do it why not just go all out?ZR1 skinnys would look bad ***.

 

I wanted to do it more for looks and less rolling resistance upfront than for weight. I love the looks of the wheels but I just don't like running a 275 tire up front. I might take more than an inch out if I did it not sure, just wanted to look into it.

 

A buddy of mine had GM SS 17x9's in the front, and GM Grand Sport 17x11's in the rear of his 97 SS Convert, all painted SS white. He had the front 17x9's narrowed by a guy in Monrovia, CA. This is the same guy that widened Keith/WS6's stock WS6 wheels. The workmanship was EXCELLENT! You can get the name of the shop by going to ws6.com, and looking up the how-to for widening the wheels.

I think they were able to get the GM SS wheels down to about 6" wide in the front. Looked VERY mean with 215 tires on the front, and the 17x11's/315-35's in the rear. You can see a picture of the car (9.04@155mph), with the narrowed wheels about 2-feet off the track in almost any Art Carr advertisement, or HERE.

I sold the complete set of wheels for him about 2 months ago....

 

Fred, thanks for for the info. I remembered seeing your for sale post for Georges wheels, that's what got me thinking of having it done to mine. I checked out that site and the guy says it cost $225/wheel to have them widened, but I would assume it would be a bit less than that to have them narrowed. I was looking for tires in 17" sizes available on tirerack and the smallest out there seems to be a 205/40/17 and there was a large selection of tires in that size. I think I would go with that size if I did it, I figured they would need to take 2" out for that to work considering a stock 16x8 rims uses a 235 or 245 tire and the 17x9 can use a 275/285, so a 17x7 could use a 205/215? If I get it done I would probably go to a 17x11 later for the back, I think that combo would look pretty sick!

 

A 205/40-17 would be way too small in diameter.... the outside diameter would be 2" less than stock (23.5 vs 25.6" stock). Not sure you want do drop the front end 1" closer to the ground and have that little tiny tire in the huge front wheel opening. My "real" skinnies are 26" diameter. I think that's what most people use.

Try a 215/50-17.... that would give you the stock tire diameter. And that tire, at least in the Pirelli PZero Asimmetrico is OK for rims 6.0 to 7.5" wide.

One problem that George ran into with those wheels and tires, when he started pulling huge wheelstands, he dropped it once, and the rim went right through the tire sidewall when it hit the track... something that doesn't happen with "real" skinnies. After he blew the tire and hit the sidewall, he decided to use "the real thing"

 

I didn't think about the change in outside diameter, I'd proably go with the 215/50 then. Do you know of any shops in the NE that would do this type of work? I don't know how specialized this work is, I was thinking of finding someplace out here to avoid shipping them back and forth. I don't think I would have to worry about the problem George had with his, not at this point at least!

 

There is an alloy wheel repair shop in Bath, PA that is supposed to be pretty good. Not sure if they would narrow a wheel. Check the little ad's in the back of Car & Driver of Road & Track. They advertise there all the time.

 

Great, I'm going to check them out, thanks again.

 

Fred, I called that place in Bath PA, they do wheel repairs but not narrowing. They did give me a number of a place they recommended that would though. Wheel Works in Burlington, NJ (609)499-2233 I talked to the guy there, he's been doing this type of work for over 20 years and was very familiar with it. It would be $150/wheel to have it narrowed. He said he would need the wheels for a week or so, I may get it done this summer or just wait until the winter while the cars sitting anyway.

 

Here's a couple pics of the welding on the narrowed SS wheels:

Pic #1

Pic #2

Pic #3

Comparison-narrowed front vs. 17x11 rear

Another comparison

 

Looks like they did a very nice job on his wheels, that looks really good. I'm going to get 3" taken out of mine too, down to 17x6 and go with the same tire size. Thanks for the pics