FLeXNuTZ

My friend's dad called me up and told me he'd sell the stock wheels off of his Vette to me for $300. I think that is a pretty good deal since they have close to new rubber on them. My car is stock so I'm wondering what it will take to make these wheels fit. I currently have the stock 16" salad shooters on it. Please let me know what is involved with this swap other than just switching them, if anything. Thanks,
FLeX

RedLT4Mike

get em now! You couldn't touch that rubber for that price alone!
They will look better tahn the shooters

96m6lt1

go for it,i have them on my 96 dont forget you need wheel studs for the rear from a vette(they are longer)you will need to beat the inner wheel well for the tire to clear or go out and get spacers from an 87-90 iroc they are only like an 1/8'' or not much more than that!

FLeXNuTZ

So Vette studs, beating the inner wheel well, and spacers from a 87-90 Iroc will be needed to get these things on? Any idea where I could get some studs and spacers? My local junk yards don't have many LS1 Vettes or even Irocs, for that matter.

OneSickSix

96m6lt1 -- I had to buy no spacers what so ever. I just hammered in 2 spots on my wheel well, I had to get 1mm bored out of the center hole for the hub (early 4th gens have an "exploding hub" as its called in the rear sometimes.. mine was 1mm too big for the C5 wheels, so 1mm was shaved out and whamo - perfect fit.

http://bellkevin.home.comcast.net/1.jpg

Antz97ZNJ

Yea there not the best lookin wheels on a fbod imo, but they will look better then the shooters

FLeXNuTZ

Your car looks good man. I do agree that they are common and not the best looking on f-bodies but I can't complain for $300.

Injuneer

According to the dimensions in VETTE magazine, the stock C5 97-99 rear wheels were 18x9.5" with a 61mm offset. The gives them a 7.6" backspace. Seems surprising that you would run into a problem with the tires rubbing on the inner fenders with that much backspace.

Also wonder why the C5 wheels need longer studs? Could you please clarify?

Be careful with the C5 tire sizes. They used a larger diameter tire in the rear (275/40-18 = 26.66" compared to stock F-Body 25.66"). That alters your speedo reading and will have the same affect as installing lower numerical rear gears.

FLeXNuTZ

I have a HPP3 so I hope that will help me out with speedo calibration. Hell, the $300 POS has to be good for something! LOL

OneSickSix

Dont worry about the speedo issue My speedo, when it reads 50mph (tested it one night with one of those police "You're going this fast" radars) they say I'm doing 51/52mph at most. So dont worry about your speedo being way off. Im running 275-40-18s in the rear and 245-40-17s up front. Why not 245-45s? Because I plan on having a nice aggressive stance and dont want to deal with ANY rub :P

Black_Z28

The 97-99 C5 wheels will fit just fine on your car. You may need to do some inner fender pounding, but that's it. You could do the inner fender pounding or get some 1/4" wheel spacers. The wheels on my car are a little too far in in the wheel well. So I'm getting some spacers for that reason.

Here's a link to some pictures of my car with 18x9.5 on all four coners.

FLeXNuTZ

Those look damn nice on your car, Black_Z28. Mine will look a whole lot like that when I'm through. For $300, I think I'm getting a hell of a deal. Plus, the guy that is selling his Vette wheels knows a guy that wants the 6 salad shooter wheels that I currently have. All 6 wheels have tires on them and the wheels are silver. The tires are in decent condition but should probably be replaced sometime in the near future. Any idea how much I should ask for them? I was thinking $300 would be a fair price and it would also mean that I paid $0 for the Vette wheels. Please let me know how much you would try to sell 6 silver salad shooters with decent tires on them for. Thanks,
FLeX

EDIT: I forgot to mention the condition of the 6 wheels. They are all in good condition and have never been curbed or anything like that. IOW, you won't find these wheels in any better condition than these after 10 years of use.

FLeXNuTZ

Well I tried to put the wheels on tonight and the front 17s went on just fine. On the rear 18s I'm going to have to pound the wheel well a little and shave the center hubs. I should probably do that on the front ones also. I noticed that I have pretty new Nitto tires on the back that say something like "TR555" on them. Are these drag radials?

FLeXNuTZ

When you guys say, "...bang the inner wheel well..." what do you mean by that? I have been pounding relentlessly on the rear inner well for the last hour and I am so tired that it is hard to type this. What did you use and how far did you have to pound it in? I tried using a sledge hammer but the inner wheel well is too far in for it to be effective. Please help me out here because I don't know if these things are going to fit or not.