Reply to "Group 4 Steel Flare Help Requested"

HockeyDude,

I can't take credit for the double bump rubber idea. Credit for that one goes to Dennis Quella. I had a problem with my 335/30-18's on 18" x 12.5" wheels rubbing on the rear upper frame rail under full suspension compression (stock bodied car). Double bump rubbers completely solved the problem and are totally un-noticeable.

As far as spacers are concerned, they are certainly not the ideal solution to your situation; however, I have to respectfully disagree with PanteraDoug. The DeTomaso factory fitted spacers to GT5's and I've never heard of anyone losing a wheel. The best example of how to use spacers correctly is Porsche. They have been fitting spacers to their cars for decades. People may or may not like Porsches but no one can argue the fact they're professionally executed, from an engineering standpoint. Remember the wide-body 911 Turbo's of the '70's and '80's? They had the same wheel and tire sizes as the narrow body cars, so Porsche filled out the wide fenders by using 1" front and 2" rear spacers. They didn't want to put wide tires on their cars because they expected the owners to drive them in the rain. Porsche's spacers are tightly hub-centric and they all use 14mm wheel studs. If you wanted to put spacers on your Pantera, I suggest you take the same approach. Have custom spacers made, that are tightly hub-centric on both the stub axle and the wheel. Don't use 12mm wheel studs, rather, have your axles machined to use the best 1/2"-20 studs you can find, or bigger. Just make sure they'll go through the holes in your wheels. Also, make sure they're long enough so you have tons of lug nut thread engagement. It should be safe and secure. If you ever encounter a force that's sufficient to shear your wheel studs off, I suspect that same force would have already ripped your control arm mounts from the chassis.