DiMora
More Is Better
Last year I raced a nasty ZO6 'Vette at a charity drag race at a local 1/8 mile track....I took him off the line, but then my tires broke loose, I pedaled, got back in it and hooked, then I broke loose again going into second.
I decided my next phase of mods on my whip was to try to get more traction. This is a multi-faceted approach; I decided to do three things: Re-locate my battery to the trunk (done; see battery relocation thread), add some wider rubber on the back (this thread) and add a BMR K-member and A Arms (future mod). That plan should lighten the front, add weight to the rear, and improve the overall balance of the car.
The specs on the factory Roush rims for my 2006 were as follows:
18" diameter
10" wide (254 MM)
6.77" backspace (172MM)
I sent them to James at WeldCraft Wheels in Michigan. They then cut your wheel, add width to your specification, TIG weld it all back together both inside and out, then true it up and balance it to better than OEM specification.
I decided I wanted to go from 10" to 11.5", which would allow the addition of 335 wide rubber on the back of my car.
You lose 1/16" due to the cutting, so my actual tire-mounting width would be 11 7/16", or 290.5MM.
Post-widening, my specs are as follows:
18" diameter, unchanged
62.25 MM offset
11 7/16" wide (290.5MM)
8.2" backspace (208.5 MM)
All my widening was done to the INSIDE of the rim, and I am using NO SPACERS. I will have to drive the car to insure there is no rubbing, but so far it looks good.
I want to add special thanks to two individuals: Justin Starkey at VMP tuning who did this mod on his GT500 and wrote about it; his tips and pictures were very helpful. I also want to thank Zombeast from the Modular Ford forums who made and sold me some bump-stop re-location brackets.
Enough talk, let's get on with it. Stand clear! Steamrolllleeeerrrr coming through!
I pulled the wheels off the car and had Discount Tire dismount the rubber, then I cleaned them up:
Here is the wheel well as it sits with no steamroller mods. Those are Tokico D-Spec shocks:
First I scraped away the undercoating that covers the spot-welds on the bump-stop bracket, and then I used two Harbor Freight spot-weld cutting bits to drill out the welds. This process is a bit tricky, as you don't want to go too deep and drill a hole completely through the wheel well, you only want to go deep enough to get through layer one and pry off the bump-stop bracket.
The bump-stop bracket has to be removed and the bump-stops re-located, as they stick out into the wheel well and would hit my new steamrollers.
There are some on the underside of the bracket as well. I own a 90 degree angle drill; this task would be impossible without it:
TIP if you do this mod: Some guys, I learned in retrospect, simply cut the bottom of the bump-stop bracket flush with the wheel well opening, leaving he bottom spot-welds and very bottom of the bracket intact. This would be much easier. My guidance was based on Justin Starkey's method, and he removed the whole thing, so that is what I did before learning of the other option on another forum.
9 welds later (on each side of the car) and these bump-stop brackets were discarded (For those guys who are full of Mustang lore, yes, these are also used to hold the car on the assembly line during production at Ford, but they aren't needed once it is built and off the line other than to hold your bump-stops).
With the bracket gone, I MIG welded the circles where the cutter had removed excess metal, then ground them smooth with my air grinder (totally un-necessary, but I'm detail-oriented):
Then I sprayed all the bare metal with Rust-Oleum primer and 3M heavy duty undercoating:
Time for shock mods:
Stock:
Cut off the inboard spacer (I used an air-saw) and move it to the outside, and add a washer to take up the space from the missing metal you cut away. I put the washer on the outside, but inside would add a couple MM more clearance as well. This mod moves the shock inboard just enough to buy you a quarter inch clearance once the steamrollers are installed.
After (Driver's side):
Next, I painted my axle and my new bump-stop brackets. I prepped with Rut-Oleum "Reformer" then painted with Rust-Oleum gloss enamel with a foam brush. Gloss wasn;t my number one choice, I would prefer matte, but it was all Home Depot had and I don't care, you can't see it anyway, I just wanted the rust gone:
New Zombeast bump-stop relo brackets, primed and painted (they come plain):
Mount bump-stops to brackets with one bolt...
Then mount to car. I replaced the factory self-tapping Torx bolts with some Metric M8x1.25x25MM bolts, as the factory ones were too short:
LASTLY, THE DUST-BOOTS ON THE SHOCKS NEED REMOVED. Oops, caps lock. An air-saw worked great; I cut around the top periphery, then did a long vertical cut, and cut off the last little top ring with an X-acto knife:
Wheel well mods done and ready for some 'rollers:
Wait...what is this that the big brown truck has brought me? Could it be?
Let's see what's inside:
I decided my next phase of mods on my whip was to try to get more traction. This is a multi-faceted approach; I decided to do three things: Re-locate my battery to the trunk (done; see battery relocation thread), add some wider rubber on the back (this thread) and add a BMR K-member and A Arms (future mod). That plan should lighten the front, add weight to the rear, and improve the overall balance of the car.
The specs on the factory Roush rims for my 2006 were as follows:
18" diameter
10" wide (254 MM)
6.77" backspace (172MM)
I sent them to James at WeldCraft Wheels in Michigan. They then cut your wheel, add width to your specification, TIG weld it all back together both inside and out, then true it up and balance it to better than OEM specification.
I decided I wanted to go from 10" to 11.5", which would allow the addition of 335 wide rubber on the back of my car.
You lose 1/16" due to the cutting, so my actual tire-mounting width would be 11 7/16", or 290.5MM.
Post-widening, my specs are as follows:
18" diameter, unchanged
62.25 MM offset
11 7/16" wide (290.5MM)
8.2" backspace (208.5 MM)
All my widening was done to the INSIDE of the rim, and I am using NO SPACERS. I will have to drive the car to insure there is no rubbing, but so far it looks good.
I want to add special thanks to two individuals: Justin Starkey at VMP tuning who did this mod on his GT500 and wrote about it; his tips and pictures were very helpful. I also want to thank Zombeast from the Modular Ford forums who made and sold me some bump-stop re-location brackets.
Enough talk, let's get on with it. Stand clear! Steamrolllleeeerrrr coming through!
I pulled the wheels off the car and had Discount Tire dismount the rubber, then I cleaned them up:
Here is the wheel well as it sits with no steamroller mods. Those are Tokico D-Spec shocks:
First I scraped away the undercoating that covers the spot-welds on the bump-stop bracket, and then I used two Harbor Freight spot-weld cutting bits to drill out the welds. This process is a bit tricky, as you don't want to go too deep and drill a hole completely through the wheel well, you only want to go deep enough to get through layer one and pry off the bump-stop bracket.
The bump-stop bracket has to be removed and the bump-stops re-located, as they stick out into the wheel well and would hit my new steamrollers.
There are some on the underside of the bracket as well. I own a 90 degree angle drill; this task would be impossible without it:
TIP if you do this mod: Some guys, I learned in retrospect, simply cut the bottom of the bump-stop bracket flush with the wheel well opening, leaving he bottom spot-welds and very bottom of the bracket intact. This would be much easier. My guidance was based on Justin Starkey's method, and he removed the whole thing, so that is what I did before learning of the other option on another forum.
9 welds later (on each side of the car) and these bump-stop brackets were discarded (For those guys who are full of Mustang lore, yes, these are also used to hold the car on the assembly line during production at Ford, but they aren't needed once it is built and off the line other than to hold your bump-stops).
With the bracket gone, I MIG welded the circles where the cutter had removed excess metal, then ground them smooth with my air grinder (totally un-necessary, but I'm detail-oriented):
Then I sprayed all the bare metal with Rust-Oleum primer and 3M heavy duty undercoating:
Time for shock mods:
Stock:
Cut off the inboard spacer (I used an air-saw) and move it to the outside, and add a washer to take up the space from the missing metal you cut away. I put the washer on the outside, but inside would add a couple MM more clearance as well. This mod moves the shock inboard just enough to buy you a quarter inch clearance once the steamrollers are installed.
After (Driver's side):
Next, I painted my axle and my new bump-stop brackets. I prepped with Rut-Oleum "Reformer" then painted with Rust-Oleum gloss enamel with a foam brush. Gloss wasn;t my number one choice, I would prefer matte, but it was all Home Depot had and I don't care, you can't see it anyway, I just wanted the rust gone:
New Zombeast bump-stop relo brackets, primed and painted (they come plain):
Mount bump-stops to brackets with one bolt...
Then mount to car. I replaced the factory self-tapping Torx bolts with some Metric M8x1.25x25MM bolts, as the factory ones were too short:
LASTLY, THE DUST-BOOTS ON THE SHOCKS NEED REMOVED. Oops, caps lock. An air-saw worked great; I cut around the top periphery, then did a long vertical cut, and cut off the last little top ring with an X-acto knife:
Wheel well mods done and ready for some 'rollers:
Wait...what is this that the big brown truck has brought me? Could it be?
Let's see what's inside:
