Pulling guards is hard work, i must have had the car up and down 50 times. Spent the last few days doing this. Still got 3 to go. I set my toe and camber up with strings. I dont know what the figures are. Im running close to 0 toe. Camber is fairly high. I kept lowering the fuel tank when pulling the guards. Clearance is a bit low with no shocks in place Actually the clearance is fairly good, it clears to about half way down the tyre any more and the sidewall rubs. i will see how it goes with my new shocks, dampening set to max. Anyway. Looks perfect in person, im happy how it turned out. The way it should have come from factory. 18x10 +15 285x30 Ku19's. The rims are by Rota. I might get the other side done tomorrow, I recon you could fit 315 on the back with an 11" or 11.5 inch rim.
The rims themself i dont mind, but the finish is awful i admit. Its brown, and its all i could get at the time. It was advertised bronze. I might powercoat them another colour later on.
I agree sorry mate, I dont like quarter of my wheel or if it goes lower even half of it being covered inside the guards, suppose to fill the guards not look like that
my understanding was more that he was doing this to assess clearance allowing him to drop the car as low as he wants, or to allow the suspension to fully compress without scrubbing, not necessarily the height it will be when he's finished...
It'd have to be, you would be way past the bump stops on the shocks. I just don't see the point, your suspension geometry will be all over the shop.
what are you using to pull the guards? are you doing the newspaper method? I'll be doing this on mine with 10.5 +22
i just went through the same on mine with a 19 x 9.5 + 15 ( using spacers) . must have taken the wheels on and off 20 times your realy can just flip the angle on those rear gaurds to fit some big wheels and the fronts are already massive. those rota wheels you got are ok , the look almost identical to the real ones and dont weight to much more either .
All the weight is in the tyre. The rim is only 3-4 kg heavier than the real deal. The weight on the hip pocket is pretty good. First i rolled/pulled the guards with a roller, there is only so much you will get with this. I then bashed the lips flat with a hammer, i was using the roller to pull more than roll. The nylon roller was set a a fairly horizontal angle, so it rolled better than it lipped. At this point it the guards look stock and were reasonable smooth. Not oem but still passable. The paint did crack a little but i wasnt being to carful in this regard. I then cut and folded back where it met the rear bumper. I then hammered the crap out of it as much as it would come without looking ovbious. The right side came out good, mostly because of what i learnt from the left side. I proceded to jack up the car, placed a floor mat on the wheel and slowly droped it down. Checking for anyplace where it would grab. After i checked it was clear and nothing was going to poke into the tyre i jacked it back up and dropped it down. Again this still resulted in a fairly good pull. I then added more towles until it wouldnt pull anymore. I still needed some more clearance so i ripped into it with a big hammer. And a steel pipe. The rear half is the hardest to get clearance. If you wanted to get more you could go NUTS with a grinder and grind back the rear fender support material, so you could pull it more. But i think cutting and folding is enough. I didnt want to go that extreme. Actually i went to far on the right side, so i hamered it back in using a flat bit of timber to stop any of the paint marking. The car was on the gound at this point, so you were hammering against the tyre. Works perfect. I would say this is at the reasonale limit, any more and it gets real messy. But with the right combo i reckin 315 could be done under stock guards. If your lucky. I dont know what my toe is but it needs to be set at zero for max clearance. Its not hard, but its far from perfect. Noting some bog couldnt fix anyway. Im sure i could get it far neater next time if i was running a little less rubber.
awesome, looks great man, i wish i had put this much effort into mine running 17x10.5 with +20 offset, but i just made the car sit a little higher so i didnt have any problems, also on the front i had 17x9 with +20, i rolled the lips and pumped the guard about 50mm to make them sit flushish
hey... from your first pic i was thinking "ah crap a DIY guard job....this wont end well" VERY impressed with your result mate. My rears need the same but I'll probably get a body shop to do it. However you have made me think twice.....maybe it is DIYable. I've just seen too many BAD jobs lol.
It took a lot of work. The second time was a lot easier. Keep in mind this isn't a 10 minute job. It took a lot of work on the first fender. but once you figure it out its fairly easy. I was getting frustrated at the end, because i couldn't get the guard to move, so i got a bit rough. If you do it properly it would be as rough near the bumper. I would recommend a +30 instead of a +15. It would save you a lot of hassle.
yeah the guy I saw that had buggered his 180sx said the same. Hence the side i was looking at looked fine. He took me round the other side...the side he did first..... not a pretty sight lol.
Nothing a panel beater couldn't fix anyway. On that note, do not attempt doing this without factoring in some bodywork. Im getting a respray, so im not to fussed. The fronts were a lot more picky. Where the backs you could roll them as much as you wanted to, the front were less forgiving, i almost ended up with the famous duck bill. I saved it but its not pretty. I guess it would also help if i didn't have a few vodkas before starting. This is hard work. I wish i had a pneumatic jack. OR a hoist. Also the guard got pulled away from the body near the door. Tomorrow i will do the fronts if im upto it.
I put a bit more camber on. I think i will add a fraction more. Im happy with the overall look, this pic hides my mistakes, but again, they are easily fixed. I might even make some custom bump stops if need be, but i dont think i will need it. I got them to pull a fair amount. I cant wait to see it with all 4 wheels on the gound.
