Supgee

Count me in.
I drove an ML63 a few days ago, and the icing on the cake an SL63.
The owner of the SL was a cool guy and let me do a burnout.

Saaboteur

Went into the grocery store over the lunch hour, and came back to find a bit of a Mercedes history lesson when I came back!

Sharp looking R230 and then two cars down a 2.3-16 190E. Cool.

Saaboteur

My dentist works in a small town (Beaumont), just outside my city (Edmonton). Across the street from his office is a church, on the top of a hill, overlooking the rest of the town and the countryside in the distance. So today I had a dental appointment and afterwards managed to shoot a few photos with the church and the hill as a background!

wawy

Nice black C55
I just love the OEM stock rims as the design suits the car perfectly. Glad I still have mine.

Saaboteur

My home, Edmonton, and its surrounding rural areas, have very large ethnic Ukrainian populations. So much so, that Edmonton is sometimes known as 'Edmonchuk'. There was some unfortunate issues with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Canadian_internment. One notable Ukrainian-Canadian from the Edmonton area currently in the spot light is Boston Bruins' defenceman, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Boychuk
Anyway, today I went to Vegreville for business, about 90 km east of Edmonton. After my meeting, of course I had to check out the world's largest pysanka to snap some photos of the C55!

Later, on the way home, I dropped by the small town of Mundare - where Stawnichy's Meat Processing is located to pick up some sausage. Love their sausage, very yummy. When I was a kid, whenever my parents had to head out this way for work, they'd always stop by on the way home and grab some sausage too! Anyway, Stawnichy's has been such a large part of Mundare's local economy that they have a massive sausage link on display in a park!

The pix:

wawy

Nice pictures. I've driven by the Vegreville egg and I can't help think its always going to fall off..lol

Saaboteur

Look what showed up this evening....



OZ Superleggera IIIs, forged, 3 piece wheel. My first ever set of 3 piece wheels! Got a screaming deal on them, so had to jump on them. The previous owner had just refinished them, so they are basically new. 18x8.5 +32 and 18x9.5 +36.

Probably won't mount them up until next spring, just so busy with everything else at the moment, and the delay will allow me time to get new tires too. Need new lug bolts and locks too.

This is actually my second set of OZ Superleggeras. I have a square set of 17x8s on my Audi winter beater. And funnily enough, they actually look quite similar to the RPF1s on my S2000 too!

Supgee

Nice wheels friend.
Hope all is well on your end of the world.

maverik259

those are sweet. I'm thinking of selling mine at the moment so I can pick up a set with offsets that'll fit my 6/4 pot calipers...I hate running spacers, and I hate the slight vibration you can sometimes get if theyre not perfectly centered

Saaboteur

I think I'll be okay without spacers, but we'll see. I'll stick with stock tire sizes (or close to in the case of the rears - 255s) and I don't think I'll lower it, so that should help with fitment.

Hopefully tonight I can find some time to test fit the wheels themselves so I can see exactly what I'll need for lug bolts.

maverik259

you shouldn't need spacers with those offsets on stock calipers. I didnt need them when i was running them and I had +32 on all 4 rims. I was running 265 in the rear with the 19x9.5 but 255 should be perfect for 18

maverik259

and if you put adjustable coilovers on them you shouldn't have any trouble with fitment if you dial them in correctly. I know the KW ones are adjustable from -4mm to like -23mm or something like that

Saaboteur

Hmm...well, just tried test fitting the wheels only, no rubber, and it looks like I'm going to need spacers. At the front, the inner lip of the wheel is far to close for comfort to the strut, and at the rear it's very close as well. I need hub centric rings too, and of course lug nuts t go with it all. Unless, of course, the suspension drooping because the car was jacked up and that's buggering everything up. Or the offsets aren't actually what they were stated to be (there are no ET markings on the insides).

Saaboteur

Did some really rough calculations and it appears that maybe the fronts are 36mm offset too. I'm thinking 5mm spacers all around.

Saaboteur

Measured again, to be on the safe side - I think my offsets are the same as stock - 30mm front, 34mm rear! Weird. I hate it that the offsets weren't stamped on the wheel per usual. Oh well - I think it's because the Superleggera IIIs are built to order basically, and they use different faces and barrels to get you what you want. These ones were likely built for an Audi. Whatever.

I'm going to double check again, but I think I'll still go with 5mm spacers - this should put me in line with pww's recommendations, per his post in his build thread:

https://mbworld.org/forums/5664748-post104.html

I'm a bit worried about tire bulge - but then again, fitting 225s onto an 8.5 (as opposed to the current 7.5) should reduce bulge. As it stands, the inner lip on the fronts are too close to the strut for my taste, especially compared to stock.

Again per PWW's recommendation, I will commission Motorsports Tech in Nevada to make the spacers. They do them hub and wheel centric, which is important - as I was worried the off the shelf H&R 5mm spacers could lead to vibration, as they are only hub centric. Having the spacers wheel centric too will also eliminate the need for hubcentric rings.

Motorsports Tech:

http://www.motorsport-tech.com/

I'm indebted to pww for his wheel offset advice and comments. Thanks dude!

Saaboteur

Forgot to mention - the wheels clear the calipers no problem, and with spacers should be even better.

Also, I think I will go with RAD wheel bolts. They used to have their own site, but it appears they now have a different distributor in the US - otisincla.com

I had to do some self education re: wheel 'R' numbers, R12 vs. R14. So the R number refers to the ball seat radius on the bolt head. Informative thread here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ll-seat-r.html

Some of the threads with guys putting SL55 wheels (or wheels from the bigger Benzes) onto C-Classes get into this problem. RAD offers hybrid wheel bolts, with 12mm threads and R14 heads. Fortunately, the OZs look to be R12 ball seats, even though with 14mm bolt holes (as this is what Audi uses, and the larger Benzes too). I suppose to be ultra safe one can get steel inserts for the bolt holes to bring them down to 12mm but I don't know if this will be necessary or not, the guys with the hybrid 12mm/R14 bolts don't seem to have any issue with it, so it's hard to imagine why R12 ball seat bolts with 12mm threads should have issues too, especially with hubcentric rings (or spacers, as will be the case with me).

The only issue is that with 5mm spacers, I will require 45mm long bolts - okay, that's no problem, off the shelf from RAD. But I do want wheel locks too, and it appears that RAD only has wheel locks with R12 ball seats and 12mm threads in 50mm or 55mm lengths. I guess that will mean a visit to my engine builder / machinist to cut the wheel locks down 5mm.

I remember doing this years ago, actually, with my Saab. I had to use spacers to properly fit the OZ Cronos I had (they were built for Ford Focus friendly offsets). The only wheel bolts that worked were spec'd for a Benz, and I had to have them cut down. I remember thinking "who in the world tunes Benzes?". LOL, how far I have come!

Saaboteur

Another evening and more measurements!

I mounted the wheels up again, and I will definitely go with 5mm spacers. The inner lip clearance on the front is only about 4-5mm. The tire bulges about 8-9mm. I can easily swipe a gloved finger in between the stock wheel/tire combo and the front strut, but there's no way that could happen with the OZs.

Rears the fitment is tight, but still there's clearance - but the likelihood is that the tire would rub against the fabric fender liner, so 5mm spacer there for peace of mind.

Interestingly, the stock wheel bolts protrude about 18mm from the back of the stock wheels. But they protrude about 22-23mm from the back of the OZs - meaning I should be okay with stock bolts with the 5mm spacers!

I'm gonna order up the spacers today. Took the wheels and a single OZ centering ring that came with the wheels (the other three weren't present) to my engine builder for measurement. Centre bore is 79mm. Need that measurement for the custom wheel and hubcentric spacers.

ghiaguy

BIBLICAL!!

sorry couldn't resist

Saaboteur

Spacers ordered from Motorsports Tech! Very helpful and friendly. I caught them in the midst of a production run of other spacers, in that their machines are set up for making spacers, so hopefully mine will be produced in the next day or so, and then shipped out ASAP. With any luck, I should have them in my hands next week.

maverik259

wow $200 for spacers is a bit extreme if you ask me but let us know how it goes!

Saaboteur

Yeah, a bit more than I really wanted to shell out for spacers, but nothing off the shelf is both hub and wheel centric. Seems the only 5mm spacers are flat and only hubcentric. The shipping is costing me a bit more at any rate, it would be cheaper if shipped in the US. Bonus is that I don't think I'm going to need new bolts, which helps me cut down on cost too. Did you mention that you were getting some vibration with your spacers? Are they hubcentric only?

In my view, hub and wheel centric spacers are as if you had built a wheel with reduced offset - everything will fit together as if one piece.

For preventative maintenance, I am also looking to get new engine and trans mounts, and also finish my brake job with new rear rotors and Akebonos, plus Stoptech stainless lines.

After that I want to find a COMAND unit and then I'll probably be done. LOL, I keep saying that, but I really really really want a 911 so I have to stop spending on my other cars and start putting money away instead!

maverik259

Well i just picked up some new spacers that fit our hubs perfectly. The last ones I had, had to be giggled around to ensure they center up on the rotor! So im hoping that fixed it...cuz I never had vibration before but I've done some swapping around on some things and after moving I found that 2 of my plastic hub centric rings that fit on my TSW were missing. Never really knew what they were for, or to be honest why in the world they were necessary. I mean the hub on the TSW rims matches perfectly to my hub. and its like they shaved about 2 mm out at the point where they rims touch the hub which required the small rings to be inserted into this shaved out ring to make that portion flush with the hub. but like i said, its only about 1-2 mm long.

Well let me know when you're looking for that command unit. i've got an extra that I've just got to fix the volume knob on and then its good to go...

and ya the brake lines are clutch! and

Saaboteur

Spacers arrived! Lovely pieces.







The last pic shows the nice radiused inner diameter for easier fitment onto the hub. And with the wheel centric lip on the outside, it will eliminate any need for hub centric rings.

Maverick, I'd wager that some of your vibration could be down to missing hub centric rings! I'll keep in touch with you re: COMAND too.

maverik259

i just cant see how thats giving me the vibration. the rings only go like a mm or 2 deep and then the inner diamter of the rim fits snug on the hub! its only that first little bit of the inner part of the rim is missing! wtf is the point of that!

Saaboteur

Well, I'd say that 1-2mm is huge when you consider that your wheels and tires are basically the most important part of your car - they are the only part that touch the ground! It won't take much. Even a bit of mud caked onto your wheel barrels will put it off balance sufficiently for noticeable effects.

I test fit the wheels with the spacers last night - perfect fit, vis a vis wheel and hub centricity. Good penetration (that sounds dirty) with the wheel bolts too. My only worry is that there will still be too much tire bulge - but that worry is probably too much worry, as I'm going with the same size tires as now, and they will all be on a 1" wider wheel (225s and 255s). I suppose I could have gone to 10mm spacers, but I didn't want to run into any issues with fender clearance on the outside. I guess, if necessary, I can go down that route later. I'll probably only buy tires next spring though, unless there's a screaming fall deal on summer rubber with Tirerack.

Also ordered a few things from Reverse Logic - jack pad with AMG specific spacer (to clear the AMG side skirts); jack stand blocks (now I'm just waiting for the aluminum jack stands to go on sale at Canadian Tire); and a lug bolt guide.

http://www.reverselogic.us/