CCW 505a's on a SIM SS 275 fronts & 315 rears

[robertway]

My CCW wheels showed up yesterday so here are the full specs and initial shots, I moved this write-up from another thread because I realized I may have been hi-jacking 6liter's original thread. The fronts are 20x10s with 275/40/20's and the rears are 20x11.5s with 315/35/20's, these sizes maintain the exact same diameters as the stock tires so there is no messing with the speedometer calculations, and as I mentioned above they mounted and balanced all four wheels and used their metal TPM Sensors and stem valves. I did the install in my garage after it was already dark so hopefully tomorrow I can get some shots outside in the daylight. No rocket science behind the install, made sure to torque all the lugs as per the SS manual to 140 foot pounds. This is my first experience with after-market wheels of any kind so I didn't know what to expect going in, all I can say is these wheels are friggin gorgeous and pictures do not do them justice, the finish is mirror-like and there are no rough or sharp edges anywhere. Some of the other five spoke wheels I was looking at were 3 piece forged and way out of my price range so the CCW's seemed reasonable, had gotten a lot of positive reviews here and especially some of the Vette Forums. After calling and talking with both John and Chip at CCW on separate occasions I felt like I was dealing with a straight up operation and would gladly recommend CCW (www.ccwheel.com) to anyone that asks, that was also the reason why I got the CCW labeled center wheel caps instead of the blank ones, I'm more than happy to get those guys some extra "word of mouth" exposure if someone checks out the wheels while I'm parked at the mall or work. I asked Chip what they use to take care of the finish on the wheels and he said they use Mother's Billet Metal Polish to polish them up and then Rejex Sealant (yes this is a Pilot supply site but the cheapest place I found it). Anyway, onto the pictures...

First here is one of the rears, "Holy meat Batman".... "Robin, keep it in your pants, kids watch this show...." And yes, that is the wife's mini-van next to the meat and yes the meat tried to mount the mini-van, it wasn't something you'd want to watch.... The stock rear is dwarfed, notice its reflection in the mini-van, I clay'd that bitch and put two coats of wax on it, dam it looks good, almost as good as the reflections in the SS... I digress....



The two fronts and the rear as they come packaged from CCW...



Stock front on the left... obviously...



The first thing you may notice is the car is begging to be lowered...



From the front (caption probably not needed but posted for those of you from Rio Linda...)



The gaps above the wheel leave me plenty of room to drop the car about 1.5 inches when my sway bars and coilovers show up (ETA January). I can fit my hand all the way around the inside of the rear wheels so there is nothing that looks like there will be any rubbing issues in the rear as it stands now or after lowing, the fronts have gobs of room on the inside with the only thing "getting close" being near the bottom of the spring, I have no idea what the hell it is called but the round thing the spring sits in, I can get my index finger between it and the inside of the front tire, once my coilovers go in my guess is I will get a lot more clearance. Another clearance note, both front and rear wheels clear the Brembos with plenty of room to spare.




Hefty, Hefty, Hefty.... I mean, just look at the friggin size of that thing.. (that's what she said!!!).



Tried to get a shot from the rear but the flash was not cooperating so I'll get a better shot in the daylight tomorrow or Friday



From the front you can see they just tuck in, the only thing to note here is that they do come out further than the stock wheels by 3/4 inch give or take a little so more crap is going to get thrown up on the rockers but I already have VentureShield Paint Protection Film along the entire length of the rockers, the bottom 4 inches of the doors as well as in front of the rear wheels covering the flare out where the gills are so the potential extra stuff getting thrown is no biggie.



Here is a poor outlining in Photoshop of where I have the VentureShield Film on both sides of the car, as an aside I also have the entire front end of the car "filmed", front 18 inches of the hood and fenders, upper and lower bumpers, headlight, parking lights, fog lights, front 18 inches of the root, A Pillars and side mirrors. I did the install myself and that was definitely an exercise in patience, I give the utmost respect to anyone that does clear bra film installation for a living, I try never to minimize what other folks do for a living and having "walked in the shows" of a film installer those guys earn their keep. I did the install over the course of four or five days (while the car has been garaged since taking delivery two fridays ago waiting on the wheels) when the pros woulda blown it out in a few hours with not a single bubble or lifting edge.



Camaro5 member FEN has posted in another thread (http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54066) about the emergency brake lines possibly rubbing the inside of the wheel or the rim, here is a shot that shows the ebrake line from outside the wheel, I can fit my pinky finger between the line and the rim on both rear wheels but am still going to slide the cables a little further into the mounting sleeve they emerge from and use a Fred Flinstone sized zip tie to hold them in place, another quarter inch or so would make me feel better



And now I have a set of Polished RS Stock wheels with 16 miles on them to put up in the classified section, the tires still have the little knobbies on them and I can use the boxes and materials that the CCW's came in to ship them.



My only "complaint", wouldn't even really call it that, are the lug nuts CCW sent with the wheels, they are a little narrower than the stock lugs and have a little dimple in the middle, not sure if the picture shows this well so I'll get a clearer picture in the daylight, not a big deal as I am looking to get some Gorilla Wheel Locks but not sure if I'll go with the standard ones from Gorilla or the ones with the free spinning sleeve around them that deters from someone hammering a socket onto the nut to try and loosen it. At least there is plenty of room around the lugs to be able to get a small pointed brush in there to clean things out.



I hope this helps folks that are looking for wheels or already considering CCW. Let me know if you have any specific questions or if there are any specific pictures you want me to take to help you make a decision. Only thing left to do is calibrate the TMPS as per the manual and then drive the ass outta the car, it has been sitting in the garage too long and my wife thinks I'm never going to drive it... that will change over the next few days , especially after my Barton Short Throw Shifter gets installed this weekend when my father and I get her up on the lift...

[g-townmach]

Looks great!! Can't wait to see some pics of it outside.

[2010 SSRS]

looking good

[thesnoopster]

That looks nice!!!

[linkwpc]

Do you know your offset??

[2010 2-Tone]

Very nice. I love the size of those wheels and tires!!!!

[speedster]

Originally Posted by robertway

I hope this helps folks that are looking for wheels or already considering CCW. Let me know if you have any specific questions or if there are any specific pictures you want me to take to help you make a decision.

Your car looks incredible !!! Very nice, very nice.
I am going to buy a set of CCW wheels for the street after I get the SST back. I assume you have made NO modifications for clearance in the rear other than pulling the ebrake cable out of the way ? Can you measure the closest distance between the tire/wheel and the upper coilover mount for me? Also, what is the offset of the rear rims ?

Thanks buddy.

Originally Posted by g-townmach

Looks great!! Can't wait to see some pics of it outside.

Damn, gotta link to the full size pic of your avatar ?

[robertway]

Originally Posted by speedster

Your car looks incredible !!! Very nice, very nice.
I am going to buy a set of CCW wheels for the street after I get the SST back. I assume you have made NO modifications for clearance in the rear other than pulling the ebrake cable out of the way ? Can you measure the closest distance between the tire/wheel and the upper coilover mount for me? Also, what is the offset of the rear rims ?

Thanks buddy.

Thanks, I haven't made any modifications and haven't even pulled the ebrake further out of the way yet, I have a pinky fingers clearance on both side but am going to pull it back a bit more for good measure.

When you say the distance between the coilover mount and the wheel/tire, do you mean between the inside edge of the tire and the point where the blue arrow is below or the red arrow, between the tire and red arrow I can fit my index finger in there now and once my coilovers come in which have a coil with a smaller diameter than stock there should be a lot more room. I am no suspension expert so keep that in mind.

As for the offsets, I do not know off the top of my head, John or Chip at CCW would be your best bet for an accurate measurement.

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

Nice looks good now go drive it.

[robertway]

Originally Posted by linkwpc

Do you know your offset??

Unfortunately no, put my faith in the guys at CCW

[Sack Rat 2SS]

I debated between CCW 505's but setteled on 550's with grey centers. Using Pirelli 275's in front and 305's in rear, close to what you did. No rub and they fit inside the fender well's. I did not like the lugs from CCW so I bought the lug/lock kit from www.gmpartsdirect.com for about $90. They are larger and fit the recess of the wheels lugnut pockets much better. They are made by Mcgard. They use a 7/8 inch deep thinwall socket and have large flat face rather than a tapered, thinner face. Hope you can see them clearly enough in the pic.

[Frans96ss]

Looks good. Let me know when your ready to make it faster

[robertway]

Originally Posted by Frans96ss

Looks good. Let me know when your ready to make it faster

As tempting as it is, this is going to be my daily driver so the 5yr/100k power train warranty is very important so with the exception of the CAI I have in the garage waiting to go in I'll be leaving the powertrain alone for a while. The warranty is the reason I went after suspension upgrades first.

[speedster]

Originally Posted by robertway

Thanks, I haven't made any modifications and haven't even pulled the ebrake further out of the way yet, I have a pinky fingers clearance on both side but am going to pull it back a bit more for good measure.

When you say the distance between the coilover mount and the wheel/tire, do you mean between the inside edge of the tire and the point where the blue arrow is below or the red arrow, between the tire and red arrow I can fit my index finger in there now and once my coilovers come in which have a coil with a smaller diameter than stock there should be a lot more room. I am no suspension expert so keep that in mind.

As for the offsets, I do not know off the top of my head, John or Chip at CCW would be your best bet for an accurate measurement.

Hey, sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Actually it's both the red and the blue. It really comes down to what clearance do you have at both points. Could you check specifically in the rear. You are probably like me and are getting the Pfadt Coilovers because that have a 3" overall diameter versus the 5" of the factory ones. My car is a little different in that it is tubbed, but we want to try and keep the stock suspension mounting points so we don't screw up the geometry of the IRS.

Thanks !