walton99

Hey guys, I looked but didn't find much. I just purchased my first Zx, a bone stock 1980 NA 2 seater, and am looking to put a little wider tires on the old girl, what's the widest I could go on the stock 14" wheels without running into problems with rubbing. Thanks for your help

WildmaN

Welcome to Zdriver. I know this has been asked in the past many times. But I am not sure where to look either. lol Anyway what I remember with our Z's. I believe it is 10" wide max in the rear, and 8" wide in the front. Other than that, I am not sure. All aside, I think that if you want to go wider than that. You have to invest in spacers, adapters, or fender flares if too wide. Mainly because it wouldn't look right.

Good luck, and hopefully somebody else on here. Can help you out more. I'm not real knowledgeable, on this particular subject.

walton99

Thank you Sir, much obliged, I'm pretty sure that it's been covered but I didn't uncover anything in the searches, I'll end up keeping the stock wheels for a little while, I'm just looking to replace the rubber for now until I find something I really like. Thanks though

PurePontiacKid

He meant tires, not wheels.

Anyways, do you have the iron crosses or the six spoke wheels? I believe the crosses are 5.5" wide (please correct me if I'm wrong) so I would think a 225 would be the widest you could go.

On my six spoke wheels, they had 235/60-14's on them when I bought them. They must have been close because they cleaned all the dust off on my strut tubes lol

Personally, I think getting a set of sticky smaller tires would benefit you greater than just fitting some huge tires just for that reason. I'm running 195/65-14 Falken ZE912's on them now, and they stick WAY better than the old 235's I had.

WildmaN

^ Well excuse me. lol I'm sorry if I have other crazy things on my mind at the moment. To not quite read correctly, what he was asking. Besides, I was mainly introducing him to the site. Anyway yeah, I think 60 series tires are the widest you can put on stock 14" wheels. I don't think the 50 series would quite fit. And thus, be a little too wide. And speaking of that, I don't think they make them any wider than 60 series for 14's anyway.

FricFrac

I ran 235's on all four corners back in the day on my white 280ZX on my 6 spoke stocks....

235/60/14s will keep you under 1% smaller than stock but 225s are almost 3% smaller than stock and at the very edge of what's recomended for changes in diameter from stock.

Save your money and get some aftermarket - totaly changes the look of the car.....

Before - 14x6 - 205/70/14s


After - 17x9.5 - 235/45/17 and 255/40/17s

FubarI33t

That gray Z is just beautiful. I got the 15 snowflakes. I was going to try to get some 55's on them

walton99

Thanks for all of the intel guys, I appreciate it, I'm currently running the iron crosses. FricFrac, that's a gorgeous Z Sir, what are the specs on your wheels? After seeing your car I'm pretty sure that's the size I'll end up going with

SHADY280

i have 225/60r14 in front and 235/60r14 in rear. they were on iron cross rims and the front was really really close to the strut

FricFrac

I'm runing the Rota RB-R 17x9.5 in hyper black on all four corners. You have to roll the fenders (get a fender roller - not a baseball bat!). Yasin managed to squeeze 255/40/17 and 275/35/17 but when I got them on I wasn't comfortable with lack of clearance between the wheels and the fenders so I'm running 235/45/17 and 255/40/17 although I do have a set of 255/275 taunting me to put them on hybridz.org has a group buy on the Rotas...



Here you can see how much the stock wheel is inset after a drop with the Tokico HP255 spring/strut set.

PurePontiacKid

FricFrac, you need to lower your car to make those look good. fender gap+17's=horrible.

FricFrac

It's already as low as its going until I have the camber adjustment set up properly.

PurePontiacKid

on the front or the rear?

The camber you'll gain up front is minimal, I have my car slammed and I think I have about -3* The camber will just let you fit those huge tires you have on those wheels better :P

The rear is where I'd be moar worried about, but that takes arot of fab work to fix... I've got a plan to get it similar to where my front is currently...

SpeciallySpiked

That looks fine and functional. I wouldn't go lower and make your Z non-usable.

walton99

What offset and backspacing are you running Sir?

PurePontiacKid

My Z is perfectly usable, what are you talking about? Oh I forgot, most of the Z community doesn't have a pair.

Anyways, the 17x9.5" Rota RB-R's have -19 offset, or 4.5" backspacing.

hoov100

Usable in what way? If he goes lower, he won't have hardly any usable suspensions travel and will have to have such stiff *** spring to keep from bottoming out, that the car will push like a dump truck and you won't have any weight transfer.

walton99

Thanks!

SHADY280

with my 17's i have 255/40r17 all the way round, but it is stock ride height. my rims have the same fitment as the rotas. one day i may get a set of rotas too. they look very nice on s130's. not so much on s30's tho imo

cellamax

How did you make the gas cap dissappear by changing the wheels...

FricFrac

Same way I spelled 280ZX backwards.....

BlueKitsune

^^^ lol

WildmaN

Dude.....the gas cap is on the passenger side rear panel.

joeldavidlauver

These are real tight.

Bunn YT

are you running coilovers?