Cutting wheel wells for 18" - any old thread?

[freeclimb]

Hi all,

was on my first TVR meeting & drive with my girl yesterday.
Everything´s fine, she took pictures, did some movies and had fun.

And then, at the end, holy moly, i got her verbal prompting: Upgrade your wheels asap.
That´s like christmas, new years eve, easter and birthday on on day...

Is there a thread related to cutting out the wheel wells for 18" alloys?

Does cutting of wheel wells harm the strength od the body?
What need to be done after cutting?

Who can advice me, before my fortune slips away....

la la la,


I must say, i love her, having the same ideas like me....

Edited by freeclimb on Monday 5th August 21:53

[swisstoni]

There's no need for that. My Chimaera has got 18" spiders without any structural mods and there may well be examples with even larger diameters out there.

[QBee]

I was about to do that, bought the cutter, the Isopon, luckily couldn't find a shop that sold balls of steel.....
.....then I was told to check my ride height first.

Adjusted the ride height to where it should have been front and back. Mine was at 130 mm at the rear - should have been 160mm, measured from the outrigger triangle to the ground.

Bonnet stopped flapping at speed.(it's a Chimaera), car stopped grouning over bumps, and my Toyo 888 tyres on my 18 inch rear SP12s stopped catching on the wheel arches under hard cornering on track days.

[s p a c e m a n]

18's should fit on there no problem. I've got to wait for my new coilovers to turn up so that I can lower it and put my new wheels on, the 17's I've bought with 45 profile tyres leave a comical gap below the arch, I can get my fist in there.

[QBee]

Here's mine on 18 inch SP12s, 235/40 18 Toyo 888s ready for today's track day. No catching.


Look closely and you can see where the tyre used to catch before i adjusted the ride height

[QBee]

I am amazed those are 45's spaceman - they look more like 35s

[freeclimb]

Hi QBee,

i started laughing, when i read about your "special shop search"....

Same with me. That´s why i ask those stupid things.
Any pictures of your car?

QBee said:

I was about to do that, bought the cutter, the Isopon, luckily couldn't find a shop that sold balls of steel.....
.....then I was told to check my ride height first.

Adjusted the ride height to where it should have been front and back. Mine was at 130 mm at the rear - should have been 160mm, measured from the outrigger triangle to the ground.

Bonnet stopped flapping at speed.(it's a Chimaera), car stopped grouning over bumps, and my Toyo 888 tyres on my 18 inch rear SP12s stopped catching on the wheel arches under hard cornering on track days.

[QBee]

freeclimb said:

There's a picture on my profile - but that's before i corrected the ride height. I will take another one and post it for you. My car is difficult to photograph, as it is dark blue, so the wheel arch doesn't show very well.

The problem is people set the ride height with the car sitting on their drive and get it looking just nice, wheels tucked in, no gap between wheel and wheel arch.

Then they take it on a track day, take a long right hand bend at 90 mph (150 kph) and wonder why the left wheel arch is catching on the tyre. I actually got black flagged when I did the damage to my tyre in the pic - I was producing so much black smoke the marshalls thought my brakes were on fire. Strangely I didn't have the same problem with the right hand wheel arch - that's hand built cars for you.

Even with the dampers set really stiff there is still some body roll, which is the undoing of all that careful preparation. Also, frankly with mine set low, I was forever clanging the exhaust and rear anti-roll bar on bumps in the road. That is now a thing of the past.

[freeclimb]

Hi all,

thanks a lot.

The actual ground clearance of my Chim is around 100mm (the lowest point at front).
Everything´s original, but this one is extremely low.

I don´t want to hurt one of you, but the pictures show that, that i don´t want.
The Chim should look like glued on the street, not like 4x4.

I like the different sizes in diameter. That means 17" front, 18" rear.


Some pics out there & some advice, what have to be cutted?
Will i get some temporary instability after cutting?
How much layers should be laminated to close the gaps?

I assume, that laminating overhead in the wheel wells is not really easy & successful.
That means preparing the the new inlays on negative forms of the new wheel well
and laminating them into the wells later?

[QBee]

freeclimb said:

Hi all,

thanks a lot.

The actual ground clearance of my Chim is around 100mm (the lowest point at front).
Everything´s original, but this one is extremely low.

I don´t want to hurt one of you, but the pictures show that, that i don´t want.
The Chim should look like glued on the street, not like 4x4.

I like the different sizes in diameter. That means 17" front, 18" rear.


Some pics out there & some advice, what have to be cutted?
Will i get some temporary instability after cutting?
How much layers should be laminated to close the gaps?

I assume, that laminating overhead in the wheel wells is not really easy & successful.
That means preparing the the new inlays on negative forms of the new wheel well
and laminating them into the wells later?

No offence taken - we each have to set our cars up according to how we want to use them. Where I live, country roads get mended once every 50 years, and I do track days too, so I need plenty of clearance as well as a nose down attitude. The wheels in the pic are 18 inch rears, with 17 inch fronts, as I am about to go on a track evening tomorrow. But i also run it on the standard 15/16 setup in wet weather and for road use. I have my tyre sizes adjusted to give similar rolling diameters on either set.

If you are desperate to cut your wheel arches, use the search facility to find him, and email a guy on here called Phazed. He is on holiday in Spain at the moment, but he will probably answer you. He has already done what you are describing, as he has some very wide wheels (9 or 10J?)on the rear of his Chimaera. He's a great guy and knows how to do this job.

[freeclimb]

QBee said:

Even with the dampers set really stiff there is still some body roll, which is the undoing of all that careful preparation. Also, frankly with mine set low, I was forever clanging the exhaust and rear anti-roll bar on bumps in the road. That is now a thing of the past.

I see,
thanks for your hint.

The car is still fitted with the original dampers and springs.
Short beats are going directly to the passengers, long waves are damped too weak.
That means also rolling is much to heavy at present.

The project is planned for winter 13/14.
I will start with changing the bushes and the suspension.
Then, in Summer 2014 it´s time to change tyres. Time to change the Alloys to 17"&18".

[s p a c e m a n]

QBee said:

I am amazed those are 45's spaceman - they look more like 35s

I was wrong, I just looked and they're 215 40 17, more or less the same rolling radius as the standard 15 I had on the front. Two of the paradas only have 3mm on them so I'll kill them off quickly and throw 45's on the back to get the radius a bit closer to standard.

On the bright side, having a speedo that over exaggerates will hopefully stop me collecting any more points.