This weekend I finally finished a project I’ve been working on for over a year - a new set of wheels and tires for the Z.
The Minilites are from Trans Am Race Engineering in 15x7 with 4” backspacing and 15x8 4.5” bs. They come in a beautiful coat of painted silver but I decided to customize them, working with a local shop to polish the outer lips, media blast and leave raw the centers, then clearcoat.
Tires are BFG T/As in 215/65 and 255/60, modified by Diamond Back Tires to have smooth sidewalls. I then drew up a stencil based on the current Blue Streaks run by historic Trans Am. Thanks to my friend Jason for cutting the stencil with his Cricut. We used manila envelopes for the material. I then added some tape as spacers to keep the stencil slightly off the rubber surface for a clean release. Paint is white Plastidip in a rattle can, which has held up well so far on a test tire I painted a few months ago. One great aspect of Plastidip is it is easy to clean up if you make a mistake or have overspray. It took me several tries experimenting with technique before I was happy with it.
Really happy with the wheel and tire fitment. Thanks to John at TARE for the custom machining for the backspacing as well as the custom lug depths so I could use the factory 7/16” wheel studs. Those studs are approx. 0.800” in rear proud of the drums and 0.900” in front, so with John’s machining I’ve got a good 7 threads engagement for the lug nuts.
More photos to come
