Re: So I bought a bullnose stroker
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:05 pm
Yup, 6061.
I could probably get a few sets made up if people want. I did run into a few design considerations that I had to deal with (read on).
The first is that the wheel hardware is 9/16-12. Nobody makes a 9/16-12 flat head cap screw so I had to use the factory wheel bolts to hold the adapter to the hubs.
This leads to the second design consideration... Because the factory wheel bolts had to be used that meant that I ended up with a rather thick adapter. I started out thicker than I thought would be needed knowing that I could take off some material. The front seems to fit with the thickness I ordered but the rear was too thick (ended up rubbing the tire on the fender). So I removed some material on the lathe at work.
This took a while so I only did it on the rears for now. When the snow clears and I can drive it I'll assess whether the fronts need to be thinned out a bit.
I was working on fitting the adapter to the right rear and ended up having to thin the rear adapters down so much that the bolt head protruded above the adapter face. This means I had to carefully skim a little bit of the top of the head off of each rear wheel bolt. I didn't really want to do this but I figured there are five 9/16 bolts on each side of the rear of an 1800lb car so it shouldn't really matter, especially with the concave heads that these bolts have. When I test fitted things to the left rear of the car there was plenty of room and I wouldn't have had to thin the adapter out as much (meaning no need to skim the wheel bolt heads). Either my axle is slightly off-center or my right rear fender is sitting a little bit inboard. Raising and lowering the rear of the car doesn't cause the axle to shift side-to-side so I'm not too concerned about it rubbing over bumps.
Because of the considerations I ran into with the thickness of the adapters it would be nice if I could fit them to some other cars before I had more made. This way I'd be able to figure out if bolt heads really need to be skimmed down (on a 96) or if they'd even fit on a Sonett. Another thing I'm not sure about: longnose and bullnose rear fenders are different. I don't know if there's a width difference or if it's just because of the gas tank filler placement.
I could probably get a few sets made up if people want. I did run into a few design considerations that I had to deal with (read on).
The first is that the wheel hardware is 9/16-12. Nobody makes a 9/16-12 flat head cap screw so I had to use the factory wheel bolts to hold the adapter to the hubs.
This leads to the second design consideration... Because the factory wheel bolts had to be used that meant that I ended up with a rather thick adapter. I started out thicker than I thought would be needed knowing that I could take off some material. The front seems to fit with the thickness I ordered but the rear was too thick (ended up rubbing the tire on the fender). So I removed some material on the lathe at work.
This took a while so I only did it on the rears for now. When the snow clears and I can drive it I'll assess whether the fronts need to be thinned out a bit.
I was working on fitting the adapter to the right rear and ended up having to thin the rear adapters down so much that the bolt head protruded above the adapter face. This means I had to carefully skim a little bit of the top of the head off of each rear wheel bolt. I didn't really want to do this but I figured there are five 9/16 bolts on each side of the rear of an 1800lb car so it shouldn't really matter, especially with the concave heads that these bolts have. When I test fitted things to the left rear of the car there was plenty of room and I wouldn't have had to thin the adapter out as much (meaning no need to skim the wheel bolt heads). Either my axle is slightly off-center or my right rear fender is sitting a little bit inboard. Raising and lowering the rear of the car doesn't cause the axle to shift side-to-side so I'm not too concerned about it rubbing over bumps.
Because of the considerations I ran into with the thickness of the adapters it would be nice if I could fit them to some other cars before I had more made. This way I'd be able to figure out if bolt heads really need to be skimmed down (on a 96) or if they'd even fit on a Sonett. Another thing I'm not sure about: longnose and bullnose rear fenders are different. I don't know if there's a width difference or if it's just because of the gas tank filler placement.