I have chrome ZR-1's on my '94 Z, 17x9.5 all the way around, they came off my buddy's '98 SS. I really like the way they look on my car, but the more I've been thinking about it, the more I'd really like to have 17x11's on the rear. I just love the look of the deep dish ZR-1's, trouble is I don't feel like paying $360+shipping just for a set of rear 11's, which is the cheapest price I've been able to find thus far for the rears only. Furthermore, I have authentic ZR-1's, I don't want to mix them with replicas because from what I've been told, the spokes on the replica ZR-1's are more sqaured whereas the authentics are more rounded so I don't want my wheels to look uneven as far as that goes. I was messing around online earlier tonight and I found a place up in Livonia, MI about 3 hrs from where I live that widens rims. They're called Weldcraft Wheels. From what I've seen of then so far, they seem to do quality work. Camaro, Mustang, and GTO owners have gone to Weldcraft to get their wheels widened and have given this place rave reviews. This would make more sense because I wouldn't have to worry about trying to sell two of my rims to buy 11's for the rear that wouldn't match up quite right with the front, and I'd most likely end up spending less money just getting my rims widened. However, I'm planning on going for that deep dish look which would require the rim to obviously be widened in the front. This procedure would seemingly be more risky because Weldcraft requires email confirmation before widening a rim from the front. Has anyone on here used these Weldcraft guys and if so how are they with this sort of thing? If anyone has used someone else that is good at this kind of work that is in or close to northern Indiana, who are they and how much do they charge? Also, I'd like to know if there are any major risks involved with having this done that I should be concerned about. Any information on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

 

Are you starting with real Corvette ZR1 wheels (17x9.5" 37.5mm offset) or real Camaro 98 SS wheels (17x9.0" 50mm offset)? The ZR1's will stick out a bit, compared to the SS wheels, on a stock setup. Or possibly real Corvette ZR1/GS wheels (17x9.5" 56mm offset).

If you add 1.5" to the "front" of the ZR1 wheels, the "frontspace" will be about 5.25".... nice and deep dish, but the wheels will stick out about 1.25" past the outside edge of the rear fender. On a stock SS wheel, adding 2", the frontspace would be 5.00".... about 1" outside the fender.

You would need to add width at both the front and back of the wheel. The cost will easily exceed the cost of new wheels.

 

Honestly if you are concerned with "authentic wheels" as soon as you have work done to them any value they had will probably be ruined.

If you want the dish-look with the ZR-1 style there are companies that make similar wheels for probably less that what you will spend getting yours widened.

And any difference in styling will probably not be noticed by the general public- and anyone who would know what a stock set of wheels should look like will obviously know that they aren't stock with the dish on there. Unless they are going to do all that work for under $200 a wheel you are better off getting a new set.

 

Injuneer, my mistake. The wheels I have are the SLP SS ZR1's, 17x9 with the 50 mm offset, they were the stock wheels on my buddy's '98 SS.

Procharged, you bring up a great point about losing the value of the SLP's by widening them. I wouldn't want them to damage the face of the wheels in the process of widening them either, which would end up costing me more money to have that repaired and would decrease the value of the wheels even more, talk about a double whammy.

I emailed OE wheels LLC last night/early this morning about the 11's for the rear, for $450 shipped and insured I could get a set through them. I also emailed weldcraft to try and feel them out for pricing and their ability to widen my wheels, haven't heard back from them yet but thinking about it now I definitely don't want to go through with trying to get my wheels widened, spending a ton of money doing that and losing the value of the SLP's. I suppose I could deal with the spokes on the 11's being a bit more squared, it doesn't seem to me that the difference between the spokes is even that obvious, especially on the deep dish wheels which have that wider lip and hide it better anyway.

Thanks for all your help guys! If anyone else has any info/suggestions regarding this, let me know.

 

I notice the difference between the newer ZR1 replicas and the original wheels and the replicas. But I've got a set of ZR1/GS replicas from about 10 years ago that have the stock appearing rounded edges on the spokes. If you don't happen to own a set, I doubt anyone would notice the difference.

http://www.injuneer.com/images/photo.../IMG_0061a.jpg

A friend of mine had a 97 30th Anniversary SS M6 convertible (talk about a "collector" car). It eventually became the quickest known LT1 at the time (1999) running 9.0-seconds with a 1,125HP Vortech S/C'd 383 LT1. In his fervor to keep the car looking "original", he got a pair of the original GM Grand Sport 17x11 wheels for the back, painted white, and in the front had a pair of factory 17x9.0 white wheels narrowed to 6.0" wide, so he could run skinnies in the front. Not sure where he got the factory 17" SS wheels, because the convertibles only had 16x8" SS wheels. It cost about $200 per wheel, and they took the 3" cut out of the back of the wheel, so the front was not affected. The machine work and welding was meticulous. Same outfit in Monrovia, CA that WS6.com mentions with regard to widening his 17x9.0" WS6 wheels.

The 30th SS was pulling huge wheelstands, and got dropped hard several times on the narrowed SS wheels . No damage to the wheels, but the last time he dropped it hard with those wheels, it hit the track so hard that the edge of the rim cut right through the sidewall of the Pirelli radial he had on the wheel, the tire blew and his car went into the wall, for some minor damage. The narrowed wheel suffered no damage.

Personally, I'd avoid even trying to cut the front of the wheel for widening. It would take a massive amount of work, compared to the back of the wheel.

 

That sounds like one bad SS, I would kill for a car like that. I appreciate all your info, guys. You've been very helpful. I plan on just keeping the current setup I have for now. If I do anything else, I'll just get a whole new set of replica wheels from OE wheels. I'm currently narrowed down to two choices:

1: http://www.oewheelsllc.com/Wheels-fo...97574-3-1.html

2: http://www.oewheelsllc.com/Wheels-fo...01706-3-1.html

 

Typical wheelstand, but at this point it was running a full set of AutoDrags.

http://www.injuneer.com/images/photo.../fGeorgeWS.jpg

With another 225HP (now at 1,350HP) he was afraid of a hard launch. After Steve Spohn got done with it, it launched like a ***** cat - barely pulling the wheels, running low 8's in the mid 160's.... By then he had a set of extremely light weight Bogart SS's.

http://www.injuneer.com/images/photo...B/IMG_0710.jpg

 

Man that 30th anny SS is SICK! very first time of ever seen one in a vert. Mostly with t-tops, couple of hardtops here and there, but never seen one in a vert before. Sweet car, I hope my next f-body is a '96-'97 SS or a '98+ SS or TA. What ever possessed him to get rid of it? lol

 

He called me up one day, told me he needed cash for a business he was starting, and asked me to sell it for him. I found a guy who flew into NJ from CA with a certified check to cover the cost of the 30th SS, the enclosed trailer, and the Tahoe tow vehicle. Guy got in the Tahoe and drove it back to CA. Last I heard, the engine was in something else. Not sure what happened to the chassis.

http://www.injuneer.com/images/photo.../DCP03860a.jpg

http://www.injuneer.com/images/photo.../DCP03825a.jpg

This was the first warmup pass after a complete new engine build. Its not that great a video, because I was focusing on the rear suspension. The rear bumper still needed to be painted. It had to be cut back to clear the 30.5" slicks.

http://www.injuneer.com/images/Videos/GeorgeBax 876.WMV

 

Some replicas look pretty much the same as OEM, some look very boxy. I've got OE concepts and they look gorgeous. I've got OEM gray wheels with street tires, and I'm going back to drag radials on my chrome wheels next season if I keep the wheels.

 

Sweet pics and vid, injuneer. I bet there was some serious BFH modding going on too before the new bumper lol! I can't wait to run mine at the track.

6spd lt1z, thanks for the info. I kind of felt the same way after I saw the OE wheels 11's.