Forgeline Motorsports GA3 – polished lip with brushed centers, and custom center caps. These wheels are a work of art!
Custom wheels look amazing, and these are perfect in fit and finish! Steve and the folks at Forgeline Motorsports are responsible for these masterpieces. The following was my experience of getting custom wheels to work on a modified G-body suspension.
This story starts at the 2013 Columbus Good Guys show. This was my first time attending the show and must say its worth the trip. The number of cars and modifications to these muscle cars is overwhelming. It is great to have this kind of variety and selection to choose from when building a project because one is able to see what works and what doesn’t work.
At first, I had a wheel in mind for my project and they would have looked nice. Fortunately while at the show, I was able to see this wheel in the size and backspacing I would potentially use and decided it was not going to work. The other great thing about attending this show was checking out the products from various vendors including Forgeline Motorsports. The quality of the Forgeline wheels were unmatched by any other wheel at the show in my opinion and my decision was made.
When I contacted Forgeline Motorsports after the GoodGuys show, I spoke with Steve and explained this was the first time ordering custom wheels. Steve is an expert in this area and he walked me through the whole process. Forgeline Motorsports has a form to fill out with the required measurements that must be taken from the car to ensure the wheels will fit perfectly. Brakes also factor into the equation. Baer Brakes has a template for the Baer 6P system I am using, so the template number was included with the measurement form. Other measurements required are the front and backspacing of the wheels. The backspacing is custom to each car when using a modified suspension – stock backspacing will not work. I was fortunate to have a friend and mentor help with this aspect. He has a set of 18″x8″ and 20″x10″ torque thrust 2 wheels with 5″ backspacing on his el-camino. I borrowed his wheels and checked the backspacing on the Regal. 1/8th inch adjustments were required for steering and rear frame clearance.
Lastly, hub diameters and hub heights were required. There were no issues with the rear axle measurements, but I had some changes necessary to the front hubs. Steve explained for the front wheels to look right for my set up, the front wheel hub height could be no more than a total of 2.10 inches for flat center cap clearance. I had approximately 2.50″ of combined axle and hub height from the brake rotor.
This photo shows the Bear Brakes hub and axle assembly with the castle nut and cotter key. The measurement is from the face of the brake rotor to the edge of the axle (approximately 2.5 inch).
The solution we came up with was shorten the axle and flatten the dust cap to obtain the max hub height measurement of 2.1 inches.
As seen here, the excess axle flange was removed while still retaining the functionality of the cotter key and castle nut (“butterfly” or “English style” the bend of the cotter key to work for clearance).
The dust cap was flattened with a hammer and re-installed. The new measurement came in just under 2.10 inches (whew! that was close!)
From this image, it is easy to see why the front wheel hub height is big factor. If the measurement of 2.10 inch was not obtained, I would’ve had to use a button style center cap instead of a flat center cap. The flat center cap is machined on the back side to allow for dust cap clearance internally. (Like I said earlier, THESE GUYS ARE EXPERTS!).
The final product:
FRONT – 18″ x 8″GA3 wheels with 245/40 ZR18 Falken Azenis 453 tires
REAR – 19″ x 10″ GA3 wheels with 285/35/ZR19 Falken Azenis 453 tires
I went with 18’s and 19’s to keep the rake of the car as level as possible. There are zero steering issues, zero frame clearance issues, but I will be rolling the rear fender lips in the future.
This process was approximately 3 weeks from my order to door step! I am very happy with the way these wheels turned out, and my experience with Forgeline Motorsports was a fun one.
Keep checking back for future progress on my HotRodRegal project.
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