How far we talkin? Like Savannah or lower down?

 

The wife and I are expecting our new little one in August, but if he happens to arrive early and I can make it down, I'd love to hang out with you all!

 

I am about 73 miles South of Savannah! Here is my address: 11121 Hwy 110 West, Hortense, GA

 

Congratulations!

 

Hortense, GA?

That's down there in the Okefenokee Swamp isn't it?

Congrats on the kid Brett!

If it's born on August 16th let's name it after me.

PS, I sent my drone to check out Carlos' place:

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2770.../data=!3m1!1e3

 

Wow! 5+ hour trip. I'll think about it but thats a ways.

 

Hey Paul and James, it looks like you guys were right.

You probably did have the Trumpvid-19 virus back in January!

Antibody data shows that the virus was already roaming the US last fall.

Thousands were already infected before we even knew it was here!

But the good news is thanks to Modern Science, we now have a cure.

Just drink lots of Lysol and saturate all your orifices with ultraviolet light.

Things are looking better for a virus free August Carlos!

 

Hey guys. Sorry to interrupt the meet-up posts, but I have a few questions about wheels for the first gen. I have read a lot of the forum threads, and have not found anything definitive enough to keep me from posting. So, here it goes.
Firstly, I am looking into getting some gold OS Mesh Rota Wheels for my red SA. If you aren't familiar, they look like this: https://www.18racing.com/collections...ith-polish-lip
I already talked to someone from this "18racing" distributor that sells them with the 4x110, and they are out of the gold ones currently but I might be able to order them in May and they will arrive some time later TBD thanks to COVID-19. Now, for the questions part:

What size wheels are the best choice?
I am thinking 15x7 for all four wheels with 205/50-15 tires. I know some people run staggered sets with 15x7 up front and 15x8 in the rear (225/45-15 for those I would guess), but I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the ability to rotate tires, etc. Thoughts on this?

What offset works best for first gens?
It's a wheel-dependent question, and this is mentioned in multiple threads. The stock wheels have a positive offset of about 25mm. An offset of 20mm seems to be the standard for 15x7 wheels with a 4x110 bolt pattern ("standard" for the few options that are left). After attempting some measurements on my car (stock wheels and suspension setup), 20mm seems like too much. Somewhere between 10 and 17 seems like the sweet spot for a 15x7, but I have no experience to validate that.

If I want to use lowering springs, what wheel size/parameters will cause rubbing issues?
Like I said, the car has the sock suspension setup; I probably should have considered this point a year and a half ago when I did the full polyurethane bushing install, struts, and shocks, but alas here we are. Fender gap is noticeable; I measured about 2" in the rear and closer to 2.75" in the front. An inch lower would probably be great, and the Racing Beat set seems like a good choice, though there is debate on that too across the forum. Will the RB springs likely lead to rubbing/interference? I would like to avoid rolling fenders if possible. Do I need to compensate with offset via a different spacer? Also, is there any issue using these on an SA strut with the slightly longer length?

I think that covers most of my questions. Should have titled this post "The Book of 'Help me Obi-wan Kenobi' " ... Next time.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts. Thanks guys! Stay well, and don't get bleach shots and tans; it won't help.

P.S.: Picture of the car-in-question for reference:

 

Pretty car

 

carlos!!! Que pasa!? Wow if I still have an Rx7 and still live in N Carolina... ya never know.. I just might surprise you and show up.. I haven’t been keeping up with OGTA ers lately. I’m a little concerned about Mike GSLSEFORME. I’ve texted him couple times but no reply. Anybody see him hanging around on any threads? I’d like to know if he’s ok.

 

Yeah, my wife got it real light... and probably gave it to me. Three other guys from work fell pretty bad ill for a while; all that was back in January.


I do think its a bad bug, and its VERY virulent. Just not worth destroying the world. BUT I just live here man, and 1984 was a good book... didn't want to experience 1984, but whatever out of my hands.

 

15x7 or 15x6.5 with some 205/50s... Just keep it square after all the vehicle is mostly if not actually 50/50 so why load up the rear with extra meat? With good branded tires and stock power you won't need more traction its just wasted.

Keep the center line of the wheels whichever wheels you go with. Just do the maths to get the new wheels (regardless of width) to match up with the oem centerline. That will save your wheel bearings, and give you correct geometry without having to make adjustments away from stock (changing other major components)

RB springs will work without rubbing, but they may raise your car up a bit as old OEM springs have sagged with age. I used some ebaic or some off brand spring... a little lower than RB. On HEAVY cornering (VERY HEAVY) I get a slight rub.

 

Hi everyone. I picked up an 85 GS and was looking at putting these wheels on it.

 

it'll be great to see you! I sure hope you can make it!

 

Paul Mike is ok, he's been offering his sage advice for the last few weeks, with a post about an oil cooler hose yesterday. I'm always relieved to see another one of his posts, especially with the covid-19 pandemic.

Max I inherited a set of 15" panasports on an 85 GSL I picked up, 7" on the front and 8" on the rear.

I'm not sure of the offset but they seem to be a good fit.

Here's a picture of them when I got the car, which didn't have an engine so it's riding a little light:



I'm going to put new tread on the pana's pretty soon, probably 205 on the 7" front rims 215 on the 8" rear rims

Nice looking FB corolla13B!

 

I run Konig Rewinds 15x7 20mm offset with RB springs with one coil cut. Experienced some rubbing up front on the fenders at DGRR one some hard driving in the mtns. Rolled the fenders on the spot with my BFH handle, fixed. 15x8 up front won't work, the 7 inchers have like a 1.4 inch pay from the springs as it is. If the RB a springs were uncut I doubt I would have had the rubbing.

 

carlos!!! Que pasa!? Wow if I still have an Rx7 and still live in N Carolina... ya never know.. I just might surprise you and show up.. I haven’t been keeping up with OGTA ers lately. I’m a little concerned about Mike GSLSEFORME. I’ve texted him couple times but no reply. Anybody see him hanging around on any threads? I’d like to know if he’s ok.
tool and die guy is offline Report Post
I too have been concerned and have been watching for activity so I was glad to see that Mike has been posting his valuable advice on several topics in the last couple of days.

 

Mike lives!:

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...s-gsl-1143866/

 

hey @ray green quick question - a NA 20B 3rd gen is equivalent to how many 12As??

 

Thanks guys for your feedback on my wheel questions! This has definitely helped me in my decision-making process. My plan right now is to use the aforementioned rota wheels, 15x7 with 205/50-15 all around, retaining stock springs. I don't plan to use lowering springs for a few reasons:

• Increased potential for rubbing/interference, though this is likely low risk with as-purchased/unmodified RB springs
• Other options besides RB are few and far between, and the RB springs are occasionally known to not impact ride height or raise it in some cases.
  • Seems that Eibach and Suspension Techniques options are NLA
• I have also read that the KYB struts (which I used to replace the factory ones, price from RockAuto was great) don't work well with lowering springs; even the RB ones. Alternatives for these also seem to be mostly NLA. No new Konis or Tokico as far as I can tell.

I know there is the coil-over route (for the front; rear coil-overs doesn't seem like a the best option in these vehicles), but I am not really interested in sending off the factory strut hardware to get welded on (read: "I'm not ready to make a non-reversible modification"). Also $2000.00+?! That is steep for that amount of hardware. Also, some of those setups like to use heim joints, etc. and they seem too harsh for the street.

With that, I think I only have one more question on this topic, and that's about the need for a spacer. The 15x7 wheel with a +20 offset wearing 205/50-15 tires appears to be a relatively common choice for first gen owners that can find a wheel in that size with the 4x110 bolt pattern. Do people generally run this setup without wheel spacers? I saw the note regarding wheel center line, but I'm pretty sure that would mean having the same offset as factory (+25), which puts the wheel further inboard, and that is the direction I am concerned about. I tried to take some more measurements the other night, and it seems like the stock setup only leaves about 8mm of clearance between the inner sidewall and the stock spring (just the horizontal dimension). The new wheel tire arrangement with no spacer would decrease that by another 5mm, leaving a 3mm or approx. 1/8th in clearance between the tire and the spring. If it clears, it clears I guess; just seems very close to me. Any thoughts on this? Does the SA front suspension geometry change anything from what an FB can run in terms of wheel/tire/offset combination?

Let me know. Thanks again everyone!


--Max

 

No spacers on mine.

 

No problems with my KYB strut inserts and rear shocks... 30k miles and counting.

Yes, the lowering springs will not make your car lower, but they have a stiffer rate than the sagging OEM springs. So if all you care about is looks then use the stockers, if you want more performance then get a set of RB springs.

 

Picked up a street port 12 from Martin on a Saturday and had it in a REPU by Weds night.

Engine and carb sounds great.

Went back the following week and picked up two cars and an engine.

Thanks for the smooth transaction Martin!

 

That looks like Martin's stuff. I guess his wife lost the argument.

Martin you need to listen to the wife more carefully.

But it also looks like Johnny got the Deal of the Decade, nice work Johnny!

What are you going to do with all that FB stuff? I have a buyer (me).

Max, James makes a good point about new springs. It's not just about lowering.

What's really important is the original springs loose their springiness.

I learned this when I replaced the original springs in my LE with a set of Eibach springs.

Eibach's are no longer available but they're the rough equivalent of Racing Beat springs.

Eibach's are lowering springs, however when out of the car they're actually the same length as the original springs, probably because over the years the original springs have lost an inch of lift.

But what was really impressive was how much they improved the suspension and handling.

With the old springs I had to nurse the LE over speed bumps in order to keep it from bottoming out.

And going around curves at speed was kind of like a carnival ride.

Not a problem with the Eibach's, they just bounce the car right over those bumps.

And the best thing is they make the LE handle like a race car, flat as an LP on the curves.

 

Is that one of those big CDs?