gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Imagine the amount of money one can save if you do it yourself. Damn I bet I should have spent a lot already on labor if someone else did all these things for me everything I did on the red mamba. Just like I was saying , I never held a wrench or turned a bolt 3 or 4 years ago on my cars. I always asked someone to do things. The net provides wealth of information you can use. It ain't rocket science. If I can do it , everyone can do it with a little patience and determination.

Okay for the rims Weld RT-S is what I am going into for the Red Mamba.

Weld RT-S 15" -> Rears in 15x11.33 back space 7.5


Weld RT-S 18" -> Fronts in 18x9 +32 offset



This is exactly the stance and look I want for the red mamba. The spokes are in black. I will try to fit the widest and meatiest tire I can fit there. You have better traction when you have wider tires , more patch of rubber in contact to the ground and a bigger sidewall that will kinda absorb the drive train shock. That at least is what I have been told. If some people have installed 315s without any roll or pull... I might be able to install at least 325 or 335.. who knows .. will do more research.



Another picture that shows the stance I want but these wheels have polished spokes. I prefer black spokes..

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Started doing the driver side fender rolling and pulling. Damn , I love this tool .. rolling and pulling is a breeze.. Didn't take me 15 minutes to roll the lip . On a fender roller ... hmmmm... takes a while and the tool is at least twice the price.

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

That stance is going to be aggressive. How many people you think is going to race when they pull next to ya? I imagine all of them. LOL

I think I could have paid the house off, with the money you have spent on this car.

jwin

iTrader: (16)

The reason for bigger sidewalls is to put more rubber contact on the ground. When you have lower tire pressure combined with max tire sidewall as you launch the car the added sidewall makes the weight transfer to the rear better and also it pushes on the sidewall making the rubber contact even bigger than just the car weight itself. Its like taking a ball and pushing it on the ground the contact patch gets better with a harder sidewall its harder to push on the ball to make a bigger contact area.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

thanks Jimmy for the added info ...

Well , people seeing those aggressive wheels / tires combo , they probably won't even think of playing around ... lmaol .. looks can be deceiving . Like when I still had an NA MKIV .. people won't even dare thinking something was inside that engine bay since it was a supra ..lol..

I guess , the wheel and tire combo is one thing I cannot keep stock looking to give the car a sleeper look .

Two things

a) I need to fill the wheel well and I cannot lower the car so low and be kicking myself later for lowering it when my 4" downpipe/midpipe and exhaust is hitting every bumps and dips on the road. If I don't fill up that wheel well , it would look like my freaking 4x4 lifted truck !

b) I am trying to get the most traction I can get otherwise there is no point of having all that power on the engine bay when I can't get it to the ground. All that power will be useless.

I have another option to make it a bit look less aggressive by not using 15" wheels . I will continue to use those deep dish 18x10 and 18x9 I have since they have the right back spacing and offset but still have to use tires with a good side wall but the damn back tire will be huge .. something like 28 to 29 in diameter. We will see.

Man , I have stopped computing how much I have spent on this car but I have put on the breaks on it though. Wheels / tires and suspensions will be my last major updates on this car. I will keep the AEM v2 on this car .. no more proEFI on this car since I have another project on the horizon.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

I am done rolling the lip and pulling the fender for the driver side quarter panel . I just have to let the magic of bondo work to take out all those small creases and shape it well so it will look like a stock flare ..





Once the car is painted , those flares would look like stock flares ...

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

One reason I can't lower the car .. aside from the downpipe/midpipe , that exhaust will be scraped on all road dips or inclines. So I just need to fill those wheel wells with more rubber / meat which will be helpful for traction.

kapetajr

iTrader: (3)

That pull turned out really nice. Great job

Reyke

Wow that simple hydraulic setup did wonders pressing those fenders out, man and we have tons of those telescoping jacks with pneumatic pumps at work, although I think the fact you used a hand pump is smarter, gives you better control over how far you're pushing that metal.

Also just curious did you heat the fenders to help form them or just go straight ambient temp.

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

He did not heat them up. Jerry wasnt too worried about it due to him painting the whole car anyway.

Jerry just another great update and added performance mod. I think you need to do a diy on this. Lmk if you want me to work on this.

Reyke

Well, from my experience with fender rolling, heating the sheet metal as it's done makes the job easier and it also makes the paint a bit more flexible, but then again if you have excess bondo, or poor paint adhesion to begin with then you're going to have to go back and do some more work.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Thank you sir ... I still have to do some rolling and a little pulling of the front fenders.

It was all ambient temp since the car is getting a paint job once I am done with everything I want to do with it. The tool did a marvelous job at a very short period of time . I got around 50mm pull from the original. IF you observe the original photo with the wheel out at least an inch then after it was in at least an inch.

Perferctly right , the car badly needs an exterior makeover anyway . IF you want to do a DIY, that is fine with me Mark, I can provide you the pictures. it is a pretty straight forward task once you have the tool. Heat up the panel , roll the lip, cut the inner liner and push the fender out slowly. Then eventually need to get that inner liner welded together where you cut it.


Correct , heating up the panel helps a lot especially for the paint not to crack or get chipped. With this method , you will have to push the fender slowly over and over again in one spot to get the shape you want. You can't do a one time push on one spot cause as you push on that spot , it pulls the other and creates a dent . Just got to do it slowly .

For me , it is the easiest way to get clearance for those wheels.Getting around 50mm was good enough for me. I didn't have to cut , pull and weld. I was done in an hour for the second quarter panel. It was more time for the first panel since I was learning.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Used the car yesterday to go to my tunning lessons and going to Summit Racing to get some stuff for my Black Mamba project. Heading home , my transmission was sluggish from take off at every stop . Checked the fluid level while it was on neutral and car running (still warm) and it was way way below where it was supposed to be. Found a leak on the fitting to my tranny oil filter. It was bad.

lookEVO

iTrader: (1)

Exhaust is the big reason i hadnt lowered mine either. New setup im going with a 4inch DP/straight pipe so Ill have a bit more room, and im going to lower an inch or 2.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Yes sir , how I wish I can use a straight exhaust pipe. I just want to keep it stock sounding and not noisy all the time and get my neighbors hate me. My neighborhoud at north atlanta is an old neighborhood and a lot of old folks. I hate for them calling the police on me just because I have a very noisy car.

I am just glad , they are not complaining about the number of vehicles I have. Many parts of Atlanta , you can only have an X number of vehicles out of your garage. So making a lot of noise is something I want to avoid and call their attention.