Swapped some wheels...again...

Hmmm...
















I thought it was going to look stupid, but I love it! They sort of make the car appear smaller I think. The car reminds me of a '70 Chevelle on steroids now. Except for the drivetrain.
I wish the rear tires weren't so close to the quarter panel wheelwell lips, but it still looks okay. There's room, I drove all over the place tonight and nothing happened...I think there's like 1/2" of space, maybe a little more. Haha.

For comparison, this was when I first got it...




Here's where the other wheels went:



And for the hell of it...

I absolutely love those on your car. Looks like a damn Chevy Brochure LOL

If I was going to change anything, I would just lower the nose a hint.

bfurches wrote:

I absolutely love those on your car. Looks like a damn Chevy Brochure LOL

If I was going to change anything, I would just lower the nose a hint.

I used to think that with his old set up! it looks a little more even now and much better. Maybe the derbys just play tricks on the eyes or something!

If you look at his before picture with a profile of the car it just looks like he's got a trunk full of bodies or something! Now it looks like he's dumped them off

bfurches wrote:

......If I was going to change anything, I would just lower the nose a hint.

You know Matt.....If you did that, you'd be SOooo happy with the look!!!

That looks awesome, Matt. Love the chrome rallies on there.

Looks good on that car Matt.

Those look GREAT on there! Now LOWER IT!!!!

Swap worked well both ways, I think...

Haha, thanks guys. If it didn't rain today I'd still be driving it around, it's already gotten a lot more looks than before, kinda unexpected.

I'm going to have to memorize where all the cruise nights are so I can drive it every day.

The car used to "sag" in the back because it either had sagged springs, or the originals just looked that way. The stance of these cars leaves much to be desired, I've seen old photos from 40 years ago where you see brand new ones and the ass end looks low, I don't really like that. Even the lines of the body confuse you depending on which way you look at the car, right now from the back it looks jacked up, but from the front, the crease along the quarter makes you think it's lower. These things were basically designed for fender skirts, too.
I put Hef-T-Coils in the back to help level it out, which it did before these tires and wheels, but now that the rear wheels are spaced outward a little, I think it makes the car almost appear to have a rake. I still don't like how it rides in the back, which I don't understand because I had the same springs in my other Impala before and it rode smoother with the KYB shocks. I had the same ones in this car and it seemed really bouncy. It also felt like the Bils were too short for the springs...that whole situation is driving me insane. I'm thinking of just getting some new police/taxi grade springs and putting 0929s back in with the Panther bar.

As far as lowering it helllllllllz no! I would never do that to this car! No one should! Evarrr! S'too original!
I'm pretty adamant about preserving this thing and doing only minor appearance altering things that some broke high school kid would have done in 1978 or whatever. If I did lower it, it would need whitewalls and Astro Supremes or bigger wheels with blackwalls, and the car would scrape everything in sight because of the approach and departure angles... It's a rare car and a lot of nuts are still demo derbying cruise-night worthy 4 doors in exchange for plastic trophies, or wretchedly disfiguring them down south so this one needs to be left alone!
If I still have it way later on I may try the resto-mod thing, but that's a big maybe...it's kinda not worth it to me to rip the front end apart over springs that I wouldn't be happy with lol.

I think after this, I'm just gonna figure out the radio situation, take apart the doors/back seat side upholstery and tighten all the rattling window tracks (I think some clown at GM left lockwashers off the bolts or god knows what, the green one didn't do this...) try the Panther bar (still need to check and see if it would work), and then have fun with it while preserving it the best I can, gotta put away some money for fixing the few issues it's got...I will say for a while I was kind of bored with this car and thought about selling it/trading it for something fresh, but the wheels make me want to do more with it now. I've been messing with the Caprice too because of this, win win situation!

If I get a next set of wheels for this, I'd prob. go with the truck rally wheels/rings and center caps...8", but with a little more backspacing if possible to tuck them in under the wheelwells more.

I knew you wouldn't lower it, and I'm happy about it lol.

Glad you aren't getting rid of it. But....dibs?

I like seeing the caprice in your driveway too, it looks good hidden in there. Kind of like an old cop car, because if it wasn't an impala it was an old cop car right?

But really, I'm glad to see you putting time into cars that aren't the tahoe! Can't wait to see what's next

Haha. Are you spying on my cah? It's almost non-viewable now with the jungle of weeds along that "driveway" now. Still have to do a couple things to the Tahoe, I need to get them done so I don't have to think about it's soccer-mom self anymore for the time being...

OH. The Firehawks? WAY smoother and controlled than the BFGs were, fo sho! Major difference. The wheels being out a little further than before helped the handling too.

Matt Trakker wrote:

Haha. Are you spying on my cah? It's almost non-viewable now with the jungle of weeds along that "driveway" now. Still have to do a couple things to the Tahoe, I need to get them done so I don't have to think about it's soccer-mom self anymore for the time being...

OH. The Firehawks? WAY smoother and controlled than the BFGs were, fo sho! Major difference. The wheels being out a little further than before helped the handling too.

I love the firehawks!

Honestly, if I can find another matched set of 4 sitting around in a few stores, I will probably try to buy them and put them away even though it's not the most budget-minded idea for me right now....lol

Didnt Tim have them?...or that was the end of them?

Matt Trakker wrote:

Honestly, if I can find another matched set of 4 sitting around in a few stores, I will probably try to buy them and put them away even though it's not the most budget-minded idea for me right now....lol

I can't say I haven't done that before...

sdstick wrote:

Didnt Tim have them?...or that was the end of them?

I believe that was the last of them, but I'm not the tire guy. I'm sure that Coker Tire will pick them up and you'll pay double the price you would have paid just to get a set. Once mine are gone it may be time to step up the wheel size.

Close enough?

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/pts/3164320881.html

Matt Trakker wrote:

It's a rare car and a lot of nuts are still demo derbying cruise-night worthy 4 doors in exchange for plastic trophies, or wretchedly disfiguring them down south so this one needs to be left alone! Laughing

If it makes you feel any better, mine is still hiding in a garage going on 12 years now