front wheel gap issue

[fitnessguy08]

I just fitted the body today before sending it to the bodyshop. My frt wheels sit pretty close to the fender lip in the frt. Should the wheel be centered in the fenderwell between the frt and rear ofthe wheel well? Will aligning it move the wheel in the opening? It sits like the wheel is about 1/2 inch too far forward. I only have about 1 finger width between the frt wheel opening and the tire. It barely and I mean barely clears it when turning the wheels.

[Andy@FFR]

Aligning the car should center the wheel better, and also check your ride height to make sure its not too low. What size wheels and tires do you have?

[fitnessguy08]

I'm using 245/40-18's. The ride hieght is at 4 inches in frt and there is room at the top of the tire. Just its very very close in the front. During the bodywork process are the wheel opeings supposed to be trimmed?rolled?cut? at all?

[Andy@FFR]

A 245/40/18 is a little bigger than what most people run, but should still fit. I think with that tire you will need to to have at least 4.5" of ride to drive the on the street. So between aligning the car which can have a big effect on tire clearance especially if you don't have enough caster, and raising the ride height it should get much better. The link below is a picture of a Mk4 with the same size wheel tire combo.

http://www.factoryfive.com/whatsnew/community/reveritt/images/IMG_1360.jpg[/URL]

[fitnessguy08]

The tires I have now are a 25.71 overall tire hieght. I have not had the car aligned yet. A castor adjustment will improve the clearance. If I could move the wheels back about 3/8 to 1/2 inch it'd be perfect and have plenty of clearance them.

As far at trimming the openings, I think all thats needed it to finish the edges to look nice? not remove material?

would I be better going with 255/35-18 tires in frt which decreases the tire hieght to 25.2 inches in hieght?

[Andy@FFR]

The 255/35/18 tires and trimming the opening slightly will help, but depending on how far off the caster is that could have the biggest effect on the clearance. You can eye ball your caster adjustment for now to at least make sure you have positive caster and not negative caster. With the car on jack stands remove the wheel then loosen all the jam nuts and pivot bolts on your front upper control arms so they can be adjusted freely. Next adjust the upper control arm so that the front leg of the arm is roughly 3/4"-1" longer than the rear leg of the arm. The best place to measure this is from center to center on the pivot bolts. This will ensure that you have positive caster and that the wheel will be close to its final position.