baby got new shoes
 

Sorry to Pggto for stealing his title from many years ago. The 72 needed new tires after I looked at the dates and noticed they were 18 years old !!!!! Too bad as there was a ton of tread left, there couldn't have been 4000 miles on them. I bought this car 2 years ago and drove it home from New York with those on there. Lucky I made it home I guess.

After seeing a few threads about going to 18's on their cars, I started researching doing that. I got good money by selling my 16" TorqThrust II's that were on it, so that helped justify the upgrade. What made up my mind was seeing a thread by Vertigto showing the Ridler 650's he was looking at for his. I thought those would look great with the silver that's on the car now and the future Revere Silver that it came with when I eventually re-paint it.

I was going back and forth on what size wheels and tires to run. Pggto told me he had no issues running 245/45/18's on 18x8's in front and 275/40/18's on 18x9.5 in the back on his 70 Gto vert. So I ended up going with those. Backspacing of 4.5" on the fronts and 5.25" on the rears. Got them on yesterday and everything fits fine! I was worried about rubbing on the tail pipes as they come around the frame in the back (someone did a crappy job of bending these). I got them moved on the hangers as far in as I could and it ended up being enough.

I also replaced the 2" dropped front coils that the PO had put on it with new springs from Coil Spring Specialties that are made for 72 w/AC and they made them 1" lower. I think the stance is just right. New rear sway bar in back helped the handling too.

Yeah, the body and top is pretty crappy on the car, the splitters were put on wrong before, but while I enjoy driving the car until it's time for restoration, it might as well look good, right?

Anyway, thanks to Vertigto for the inspiration and Pggto for pushing me to do the larger rear wheels.

Jeff

Looks good!

Agree looks good!!

Looks awesome...nice choice. The Ridlers look great. My Ramblers and Nitto 555s are on backorder (same specs), so glad to hear they fit with no rubbing.

What are the details on your suspension? Love the stance.

Thanks all

Thanks, I owe it to you for showing those wheels to begin with.

My rear wheels were supposed to be on back order according to Jegs until June 15th. Got tracking email that the fronts would be here on Thursday, which they did arrive. Another tracking email says the lugnuts would be the next day. Much to my surprise, when the Fedex guy came the next day, not only were the lugnuts there but so were the rear wheels! I was happy.

Bummer that yours are back ordered. I know the feeling, you finally decide which ones to get, then they aren't available.

Stock suspension other than the front coils that I mentioned changing out in my original post. I took the rear coils out to measure them and they spec'd close to stock (no idea what brand they are, but they aren't the originals), so I left them. New UMI 1" rear sway bar, PO had installed a 1 1/8" TA bar in front.

My ride height compared to stock is now about 1/2-3/4" lower in front and about the same as stock in back. I didn't want the factory nose up look and I didn't want it scraping the front end like it was before, so I think I have it dialed in just right. The diameter of the tires are .4" less than a factory G78-14 (which mine came with) and equal to a G70-14 which was my goal.

Gosh the stance looks good.

So essentially, 1" drop in front and stock springs in the rear. I was thinking I needed to drop my front 2" and the rear 1" (with adjustable upper rear control arms ) to get that stance. This would simplify things a great deal and save some $$. Wasn't looking to slam the car to the ground, but wanted to avoid the nose up standard stance that you mentioned .

Was also looking at coilovers, but that seems like overkill now considering. Still plan on doing the front upper/lower tubular control arms (tall ball joints) and maybe new sway arms.

I don't think you'd be happy with 2" dropped coils. Here is a picture of mine with the supposed 2" dropped coils in it with tires that were 1.4" shorter than stock. Way too low for me. Also a picture of the coils I took out and the new 1" dropped ones from coil springs specialties. Now judging by the tape measure, there was a 2 1/2" difference in the free height. Should have only been an inch difference. You can also see the PO had put coil spacers in there to keep it from bottoming out I presume. So those old springs either collapsed or since mine are brand new and would expect them to maybe drop a tad over time might explain the difference

I like your plan of doing the tubular control arms with the tall ball joints, that way you can get a better alignment. I'll probably go that route down the road

Nice ride.