thewarmachine

That should look great, mike. I love the stock 18" bullitt design.

rford426

i like the stance tho wiht the spacers looks mean

ohnoesaz

You dont think they weigh even a pound? Interesting. If thats true I'd definately get some. I love the slightly wider stance.

NyFordTech

Bigger Tires = Problem solved... same look

thewarmachine

Saying "Get wider rims" or "Get the 24mm offset rims" isn't solving the problem. It's obvious that the OP's rim of choice is the stock 18x8.5 bullitts. There are no other rims that look like those except maybe the 18x9 Euromax 612 here http://www.edgeracing.com/2007/Ford/..._GT/wheels/18/

Aftermarket bullitts look nothing like the stock 18" ones. His only option seems to be to get wheel spacers.

Humboldt Stang

How hard is it to put spacers on?
Is it something recommended for the novice, or should a shop handle it?

ohnoesaz

Its simple. But... There are two options. One option is a spacer that goes onto LONGER wheel studs. In that case, you take out your wheel studs and put the new ones in then just slide the spacer on. I never thought these were safe but these days things have changed, and places like mustangwheelspacers.com have awesome spacers that use this method.

The other method is well known as being the safest option... Its a spacer that you slide onto your stock studs, and you then screw your lug nuts onto the spacer to hold it there. The spacer has its own wheel studs built in, and you then mount the wheel on those.

The last method should not be used... Its a spacer that you just slide on your stock studs, then slide the wheel on. This means the wheel has much less of the stud available to be screwed onto.

Humboldt Stang

Thanks for the info.

I was looking at these:

http://www.mossmustang.com/Shop/View...eIndexID=51413

If I'm understanding their descriptions, the DRS are the ones in your first example, while the DRM are your second, better example.

Do I have this right?

Allstar

im getting spacers i beieve they r ac tually quite light

Legion5

Wow taco bill thanks, i was really surprised that you found the exact mods that I am trying to put together, my car will be like that, your picture is perfect.

You are either really well connected or really lucky.

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I noticed that some one mentioned that the weight of wheel spacers will hurt the car, yes this is true, but the main reason wheel spacers are bad is due to reliability issues, wheel spacers can actually be good which i'll get to in a sec, but for now importantly they increase vehicle wear. Specifically they will increase the load on your bearings and make the car unviable past 100,000 miles. Other than that it is a scarry situation to ride on spacers unless you get a perfectly iron clad backed up wheel spacer that esptially includes extended studs and don't reuse the old ones that our cars have (our studs are pretty short and provide little extra catch for extended wheel spacing, we have 8 threads and need at least 6 so be careful).

I've used wheel spacers before both in solo racing and on my old toyota, so i everything goes right and you know what you are doing they work.

So. the main reason to worry about wheel spacers are quality of manufacture, having the correct kind the car needs, and 100k reliability.

Weight is not one of these worry reasons because it's not weight that matters but rotaional innertia. The further out that a rotating point is, the more effect it has on HP. This is why shaving THIRTY pounds off a driveshaft only increases hp by 5, but going to 20's which weigh the same even but move the brunt of the wheel's weight out 4" decreases HP by 25 (note: the v6 mustang rims are such low quality that the 16s preform as well as the 18s, funny).

Anyway, if you'll notice wheel spacers are both light and have the weight in the right place, only a few inches from the hub, therefor ethe rotational inertia is about as much as adding 6lbs to your driveshaft, or is worth 1 -1.5 hp, big numbers in drag racing but if you are looking for handeling on a car hat doesn't need to be reliable then this is a quick fix.

On the other hand large wheel spacers enable something special on the mustang which outshadows any tradeoffs, they enable you to decrease weight where it matters, at higher points of rotation. Specifically in the brake disks which have a huge effect on a car's preformance. Wheel spacers let you run GT500 brakes ($500, or the same price as the cheepest spacer kit you should be buying), and these brakes shave enough weight where it counts to increase HP by at least 7. I'm in the process of painting my GT500 callipers mineral grey personally.

Anyway, do the math 7 hp -1.5 hp and you can see where you will be at. Obviously handeling is increased too..

Also keep in mind the GT500 rims cause you to loose HP because they are so wide and concentrate the weight on the largest rotational point on the car.. they are machined just as well as an 18" bullit so by using spacers you have the only way of gaining HP from a GT500 brake swap. Think about it this way, it's like making your car look more aggresive and adding the equivalent of another light weight DS if you don't aready have one. That's good.


This may not negate the tradeoffs I listed above and most people won't do gt500 brakes with spacers as spacers are for looks first but think about this!

As a side note wheel spacers are dangerous, they are a loaded gun.. you need to make them work right. My best friend Kevin put some on the rear of his compact car. Driving one day and taking a corner at high speed with me in the car, he broke off a rear wheel and made the car do a 720 in the middle of a busy neighborhood. He slid the car down a hill that was 40 feet tall and after putting on the spare minus a spacer we had to drive it through a woodland path over sticks and mud out into another neighborhood. I consider this an experience which only didn't result in injury due to the luck that we ended up on the path at the bottom of the hill. Any closer to the left or the right and we would have hit a tree head on.

So yeah... and also make sure to get the hub centric ones.. not to scare anyone.