FD wheels & wheel spacers: B/A pics.
07-29-06, 07:35 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
FD wheels & wheel spacers: B/A pics.
Just wanted to make a quick thread on FD wheels and going about fitting a set on an FC. I always see people starting new threads. Feel free to archive this or whatever. First off, the FD wheels will not fit on the front of an FC without spacers, no matter how skinny of a tire you use. The inside of the wheel will hit the strut's spring. The rear however will bolt up just fine, just push the exhaust heat shield in about an inch. The rear wheel won't get close to the spring as compared to the front. To get the fronts to fit you need some sort of spacer, how thick exactly depends on how wide of a tire you are going to use. With 225 tires up front, the bare minimum is 22mm wide spacers, I would recommend one inch however. H&R makes hubcentric wheel spacers for the Mazda 929, which has the same dimensions/numbers as an FC. Therefore you can use it's numbers to have a set of wheel spacers made for yourself (or dish out a lot more for the H&R ones...). The important numbers you'll need for the spacers:
FC Bolt pattern: 5x114.3
FC Centerbore: 59.5 (I rounded to 60mm)
FC Thread type: 12x1.5
Spacer width: 22mm minimum, I had mine made 25mm (close to 1 inch)
H&R's Trak+ DRM type spacer at 25mm wide runs $150 a pair (http://www.hrsprings.com/site/index.html -> applications -> 1980's Mazda 929). You can go an alternate route and have them custom made for less money. This guy ("wheeladapters") on ebay can make you a custom set, I had my front ones mounted for over a year now and they work great. I just recently installed the rear ones. Like I said you don't need to put spacers on the rear hubs, but if you don't the rear wheels will be tucked in some, and the front wheels will stick out... making the car look odd. Here are a couple before pics when I didn't have the rear spacers on:
It's hard to tell in the pictures, but you can see the rear wheels were closer in than the front ones, which you can see that they stick out a little. Actually if you look at my sig (old picture, but good shot of the rear wheel) you can see how far in they are. Here are some after pictures of the rear (and front) with the spacers (the car needs a wash, bite me).
right rear.
left front.
right front (not a perfectly vertical shot).
right rear (not a perfectly vertical shot).
inside the right front wheelwell, you can see how much space is between the spring and the tire.
right rear wheel, even more room after the spacers are put on, wider tires a-ok.
There you have it... rear spacers aren't a necessity but they do make the car look more normal, not to mention you can put wider tires on the rear and stick to 225's in the front.
Like I said I've had the front spacers installed for over a year and they hold up just fine with agressive driving.
FC Bolt pattern: 5x114.3
FC Centerbore: 59.5 (I rounded to 60mm)
FC Thread type: 12x1.5
Spacer width: 22mm minimum, I had mine made 25mm (close to 1 inch)
H&R's Trak+ DRM type spacer at 25mm wide runs $150 a pair (http://www.hrsprings.com/site/index.html -> applications -> 1980's Mazda 929). You can go an alternate route and have them custom made for less money. This guy ("wheeladapters") on ebay can make you a custom set, I had my front ones mounted for over a year now and they work great. I just recently installed the rear ones. Like I said you don't need to put spacers on the rear hubs, but if you don't the rear wheels will be tucked in some, and the front wheels will stick out... making the car look odd. Here are a couple before pics when I didn't have the rear spacers on:
It's hard to tell in the pictures, but you can see the rear wheels were closer in than the front ones, which you can see that they stick out a little. Actually if you look at my sig (old picture, but good shot of the rear wheel) you can see how far in they are. Here are some after pictures of the rear (and front) with the spacers (the car needs a wash, bite me).
right rear.
left front.
right front (not a perfectly vertical shot).
right rear (not a perfectly vertical shot).
inside the right front wheelwell, you can see how much space is between the spring and the tire.
right rear wheel, even more room after the spacers are put on, wider tires a-ok.
There you have it... rear spacers aren't a necessity but they do make the car look more normal, not to mention you can put wider tires on the rear and stick to 225's in the front.
Like I said I've had the front spacers installed for over a year and they hold up just fine with agressive driving.
Last edited by 7th Heaven; 07-29-06 at 07:38 PM.
