Looks great! You'll be surprised how much the wheels sink in once you start lowering the car and getting more negative camber, though...

 

Yep. Those rears might look just about perfect, and the fronts may even need some spacers after the car is lowered.

Don't our spare tire wheels look exactly like that, but in gloss black? And naturally, at half the width.

Actually, mine has a huge, nasty scratch in it when I put the damn thing in the trunk upside down. Lesson learned: face up.

 

Here's to hoping you never have to use it!!!

Sean

 

Looks great! Please let me to suggest to keep the existing finish, think it goes very well with your color car. Black may drowned out some of the wheels details, plus the silver is light enough that gray/gunmetal certainly offers enough contrast.

(Just a thought)

 

IMO the fronts are the perfect fit. I originally thought it would be the reverse and am using my rears for summer tires but I think the fitme t of the fronts is much better. If I had to choose a set to keep it would definitely be the fronts. (Do you think I like the fronts?)

 

Absolutely. I think the point is, if he drops the car and wants to retain the flush look he has right now, he'll either need to approximate that with spacers, or get a front-camber kit and straighten it back up. The rears look like they could and should camber in a little when dropped.

 

Looks good! great job! won't the stock center caps (from your OE wheels fit? not sure if you still have them....)

I'll be getting my g35 Rays done either this week or next...I'm traveling right now so I got time...I was very fortunate to find a seller on Craigslist.... I got my set for $300.... can't complain.... everything worked out good. I was quoted a price for refinishing at $125 per wheel though...still shopping around.

I'll have them installed after the winter.... I'll have a set of Michelin SS being shipped by Christmas ... seems like its cheaper to buy summer tires in the dead of winter....

 

At 300 for the set, how badly messed up are they? I can't find anything even remotely in that price range locally.

 

My last G35 was silver and had dark gray wheels and it looked really good, but I always wondered if it would look better in black. I think these look good in the color they are, but either way they need to be powder coated because the paint is chipping. So what I'm going to do to test it is I ordered some black plasti dip, graphite metalizer, and their high gloss top coat. That should make it a nice glossy metallic black, and I can see if I prefer that over the gray. Once I've decided, I'll get them powder coated.

 

I would most likely get a front and rear camber kit. According to the tire rim calculator on this site, if I remember correctly, by getting these wheels they stick out 17mm more in the front, and 20mm more in the rear than my stock wheels. So with a front and rear camber kit, do you still think I'd need spacers? MAYBE a 5 or 10mm in the front?

I do have the stock center caps from my original wheels, and the Rays came with center caps too. So I was going to paint them dark gray (plasti dip first to see if it looks good) to go with the black wheels. If I do the wheels in gray, I'll leave the center caps silver. But if I do them black, I think the center caps would look better being dark gray.

 

Just from that pic:



...your fronts look perfectly flush at OEM height. Once dropped, the camber kit will allow you to go back to OEM spec on front camber. If that's what you want to do, then it will continue to be flush. However, if you intentionally put some negative camber in the front, then yes... 5mm or 10mm spacers.

AFAIK, you can add up to 5mm of wheel spacer with the OEM lugs. At 10mm, you'll need extended lugs. And at 15+, you can use wheel spacer adapters, which have their own lugs integrated into the spacer. As for the rears... and again, just from this one pic, it looks like you'll be nicely flush if you drop it with -2* camber. I very highly doubt the need for rear spacers.

Either way, and IMO, the car needs to be lowered for a consistent-ish gap around the wheel wells. At least, that's the look I prefer. Everybody is different. Newt likes zero gap to the top-of-tire. And some people like tucking the tire as much as possible. However, my advice is to go for a consistent look, so your profile looks normal.

I think the one thing we can all agree on is that OEM height doesn't look normal unless you have OEM 18" sport rims. And even then, LOL.

 

They r in good shape, just some minor curb rash... The guy was selling his G that had aftermarket wheels already on them and the Rays he had in storage.. He had a newborn and needed to make some money... I was straight with him and pointed out his advertisement of the wheel measurements were incorrect... I had to show him how to find the wheel size and offset stamped on the inner side of each wheel... It was originally listed on CL as 18"s and we agreed on price before I saw them.... To my amazement, they were 19"s....

 

Even the 5mm spacers come with extended lugs (I'm currently running a set in the rear). The lugs go up in size every 10 mm of spacer. So 5 & 10 are the same length lugs, 15 & 20, etc.

 

I definitely plan on lowering it asap, I just need to decide how. There are some swifts that were just posted in the classifieds for $150. Is it worth that to get them with 30k miles on them? If I get Swifts and want to do things right to begin with, will I have to get the full camber kit with front and rear arms, and rear toe bolts?

 

I might not be the right person to ask, because I have a RWD. Just from reading this forum for a few years, and seeing a few cars in person, it looks like AWD Swifts are a great fitment for a consistent and conservative drop, without the need for camber arms.

However, the more you obsess over fitment, the more critical you will become, which leads to camber kits and coilovers.

Personally, I never wanted to drop the car. Then...

• Bought Vossens, felt an overwhelming need to drop the car.
• Bought Swift Springs.
• Camber made the rears pull in, but it was droopy.
• Tried (twice) with poly spacers in the rear. Total fail.
• Bought Tein Basis Coilovers and a SPC rear camber kit.
• Installed the rear kit and coilovers, left the front alone.

Finally content with the setup, two years later.