Spacers Or Grind The Calliper Back?

[Raven33]

Hi everyone

I managed to score some cheap 18'' mags for my skyline, got new tyres for em, then the trouble started....

The back wheels went on fine, perfect fit and look great - the front wheels however, scrub on the callipers - they actually put the mags on and tried to move the car before they realised the front wheels were locked in place.

They explained I'd either need 5mm spacers which would be illegal, or I might be able to get away with just grinding off the NISSAN from the callipers, but they weren't willing to do that either.

So I got some 5mm universal fit spacers, no lip or anything, while fitting them I couldn't help thinking "this can't be safe, and I bet they throw out the alignment or something to that effect" but continued fitting them (I wanted to see all 4 mags on the car damn it lol)

I can see with the 5mm spacers I have about 3mm clearance from the NISSAN on the callipers, maybe I can get away with just grinding that off and removing the spacers, can anyone see a problem with doing this? If I can do it, am I able to grind off any more beyond just the NISSAN if I need to?

I can get some pics up if anyone needs to see what I'm talking about.

recap: mags don't fit, scrub on calliper

5mm spacer with ~3mm clearance

or

Is it safer to grind NISSAN off the front callipers?(assuming that's enough)

Thanks for reading

-Raven

[GTSBoy]

If you run without the spacers and grind the Nissan tags off, you will have ~2mm clearance, which is not really enough. I don't like to see less than 5mm clearance between wheels and brakes. If you intend to keep the wheels, then legality aside, you would be best off to keep the spacers on AND file back the raised letters.

[Raven33]

Thanks for the advice GTSboy

I'll get the grinder out tomorrow and maybe use some loctite on the wheel nuts just to be safe.

Any tips for fitting the spacer? should I get longer wheel studs or anything like that?

[GTSBoy]

5mm spacers are only slip on, there's nothing else you can do with them. You'll still grab enough stud thread with little spacers like that, although you don't want to be too much thicker. Don't use loctite on wheel studs, not the way to go about it.

If your wheels can fit in the arches with even bigger spacers, then getting a set of bolt ons would be the better way to go. Whatever the smallest bolt ons are, provided the tyres are still inside the arches, would be a better option overall, and then you wouldn't need to machine the calipers either.

And seriously, use a file to remove the NISSAN off the calipers. A bastard (coarse) file to remove most of the bulk, then a finer finishing file to smooth it off. A grinder is a fairly aggressive and messy thing and you're too likely to have a slip and wreck something. A power file (Black and Decker narrow belt sander thingo) can be a useful too. Less destructive than a grinder but still pretty messy (ie lots of alloy swarf and dust everywhere). Even a conventional belt sander with a fairly coarse belt will work to move some metal off the calipers. But they are a little unwieldy and like to grab hold of edges and jump around. And still messy.

Edited October 8, 2011 by GTSBoy

[Raven33]

Yeh the front wheels are only just inside the guards as they are, anything more than 5mm would likely need me to have the guards flared or something >.<

When I got the grinder out today, as I was just looking to see how I would go about grinding off the raised lettering - I kinda came to that conclusion about getting some decent files and making a day of it.

Thanks for all your help man.

[Wagonz]

Just put some 5mm spacers on, wheels probably are not hub centric anyway.

[Raven33]

*sigh*

With spacers on I have the clearance from the brakes, the wheel free spins just fine.... but even after removing the plastics from inside the wheel arch it's still scrubbing on something when ever I go over a reasonable sized bump - or take a corner over a slight bump - as I can't see where it's scrubbing I think it might be best to just sell the mags and go back to the stock rims till I can get my hands on a set that are perfect for R33s.

So disappointing, these were the first set of mags I've ever bought for a car - after having to replace 2 wheel studs (nice one bob jane) and with some of the balancing weights already falling off, it makes it hard to want to get mags again.

I'll try to put the mags into the 'for sale' section tonight, $600 worth of tyres and $200 for the mags, keeping in mind - they'll need to be balanced again, what would be a good price?

I'm hoping $800 is fair, but knowing my luck that won't be the case

[Raven33]

Mags in the for sale section

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/380605-cheap-18-mags-fresh-tyres/