[theastronaut]

The next step was to get rid of the stock 12's and nosebleed stance. I've had slower cars (36 and 40 hp early VW Bugs) but none with such low levels of grip. I'd previously had an '87 Conquest TSi which handled great, and I've done a little suspension work to my '64 VW so that it's not half bad around corners. This thing would squeal the tires around corners at my normal driving pace, it was pretty pathetic.

The first thing I did was to upgrade to 14x5.5's from an Escort. They're actually steel wheels with a molded plastic face and separate metal trim rings around the lip. It was surprisingly difficult to find a set in good shape, most have cracks in the plastic by now. They're. 4x108 so I used 1" adapters to fit them, which made the wheels stick out about an inch up front. The tires are 165/55 Achilles ATR-K's. The wheels I found came with the plain painted center caps, it took a little while to find the other version that has a brushed metal face and black background.








To get them to fit I used a hammer and dolly to gradually flatten the fender lip flat, and pulled the opening out as much as I could without distorting the body lines. I also heated the stock springs for a slight drop and slotted the strut mounts to gain a little negative camber. They fit without rubbing but it wasn't sitting as low as I wanted it yet.