Whos gonna be the guinea pig and find out whats the widest wheel us stock suspension guys can fit?
everyone so far with nice offsets are the guys on coils....
No one has to be a test subject to figure out how wide you can go on stock strut with drop springs, you just have to do some measuring and some math. Lets take a stock 4 cylinder SE trim and go from there. I will deal in inches and millimeters here because that is how wheels and offset is measured and it makes it easier.
The stock SE wheels measure 7" wide and have an offset of +45. Keep in mind that some of the following numbers are theoretical but directly relate to real world. Lets take the back wheels for instance. There is about a 35 mm gap between the fender and the wheel. And lets say there is a 25 mm gap between the inside of the wheel and the spring. You want to keep the tire about 8 mm away from the spring just to be on the safe side. So with that you have about 17 mm of space between the spring and the wheel, 25 mm - 8 mm = 17 mm.
Now you take your measurements and convert, there is 25 mm in an inch, 35 mm + 17 mm is 52 mm so you can fit about 2 more inches of wheel in there without hitting the spring or the fender. But you cant just buy a 9" wheel with +45 offset and call it a day. Remember, by your measurements you have less space in the rear and more in the front so you have to center the wheel in the space by adjusting the offset.
So to figure out the best offset for a flush look you will have to look at your measurements. You figured out a 9" wheel would be the largest so that adds 1", 25 mm, of wheel to both sides over stock. Remember that you only can go about 17 mm toward the spring to be safe and you have about 35 mm of space between the fender and the wheel. You just added 25 mm to both sides of the wheel. So you need to subtract 10 mm of wheel from strut side and add 10 mm of wheel to the fender side to make it sit right. That will tell you that the wheel needs to move toward the fender 10 mm so you take your stock +45 mm and minus 10 mm and it gives you +35 mm.
So by this example the best setup for SE 4 cylinder on stock struts and drop springs would be a 9" +35 offset wheel in the rear. Remember, when you have a higher number offset you are pushing the wheel inward toward the spring. When you have a lower number offset you are pushing the wheel outward toward the fender.
A note: The numbers that I mentioned above for the space between the wheel and spring and the space between the fender and the wheel are theoretical. All you have to do is measure the space and replace with the actual numbers and you can proceed with the calculations.