Skip to main content

One rear wheel is 50mm from the inside of the fender. The other rear wheel is 60mm from the rear fender. I deduce the body is sitting 5mm to one side. Front wheels sit perfectly in relation to the fenders. I want to fit spacers to the wheels because they sit too far inside the body of my narrow bodied Pantera. Have 8 inch wheels with 225/60/15 tires.
Should I straighten the body (how?) or go for different sized spacers to compensate the difference?
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

I'm with Larry on this one, if it were me I would conduct a 4 wheel alignment, set rear toe and if it all lines out call it good.

I don't like spacers, consider getting a set of 10" rear wheels and using the 8" wheels on the front, it will likely better achieve the overall look.

Julian
I fundamentally agree with you all. #3371 was bought so I have a template to rebuild #2417 which will be a bar—no—expense rebuild. Nevertheless, I have made countless improvements on #3371 and I noticed this difference using a ruler. The 10 inchers will go on #2417. #3371 will have to get the 1 inch spacers for the most cost effective visual improvement as it will go up for sale as soon as #2417 is finished.
So the bottom line is the body can‘t be shimmed into alignment, right?
My view of the universe would be something like
1 be sure the wheels are in line with each other
2 hope the frame is in line with the 4 wheels
3 tweak the sheet metal to fit the wheels
I see the sheet metal with respect to the wheels at the very best will be off just from tolerance stacking, however much more so from pure tolerance in symmetry of the sheet metal

I would assume the 10mm you measured is more of a sheet metal thing and maybe something you could tug/push by hand
It really depends if your problem is created by the fenders/body or chassis rails. For the first one if all the wheel alignments are correct I'd leave well alone. The second may be helped with some adjustable chassis braces to pull/push everything back in alignment.

The only shimming is at the lower rear a-arm mountings to correct for wheel alignment (toe and camber) and I've seen Pantera's with an inch or more of spacing on one side. The challenge is the upper a-arm is fixed, so you alter alignment in shimming, but you could purchase some aftermarket adjustable upper a-arms and then between those and the lower shims you should be able to gain a certain amount of adjustment outward and maintain alignment settings.

Whatever you do it has to be done in conjunction with a 4 wheel alignment and for best results combined with corner weighting.

Julian
Corner weighting is putting the car on a set of race scales under each wheel and adjusting the suspension to achieve a balanced weighting, most would conduct that with the driver in the car and half tank of fuel (average).

The Pantera has a 60/40 Rear/Front weight distribution (more specifically 59/412 for a Pre-L), so you will be targeting side to side equivalency in weight and ride height.

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×