Sorry for the late reply, been busy here. I'll get everyone up to speed.
We had to drive down to NC and pick up the wheels I was suppose to have had the nephew installed the brake pads and wheels for us, but the family was quarantined.. So we just picked up everything from his shop and headed to south Carolina. Once IN SC, we stopped off at a salvage yard and bought a used 2005 Thunderbird balloon spare which has the same bolt pattern & center bore as the TC wheels.
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We're doing the 2005 t-bird spare instead of the factory spare which is located under the rear of the van and is extremely hard to remove. We'll drop the factory spare and mount the t0bird spare inside the van. But before this, we're having the crappy Maxxis tire removed as these have been known to explode while in or on the vehicle. once the tire has bene removed we're sending the rim to the powder coaters for a good cleaning.
Then it was off to Greensboro NC where that was a big disappointment. So we continued to our next stop. Goldsboro, NC. Met up with a buddy of mine who's now an owner of his own restoration shop who specializes in Ford Mustangs. We wanted to talk with him about several things, one being installing the Powerstop brake pads, then while the old wheels are off the van, he test fit the custom made wheel rings 73.1 - 63.4 fit like a glove. Good work to my uncle Eddie. Next to mount up those wheels.
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Couple of things here, I hated the supplied socket style tuner lugs so avoid these as they aren't very durable and I've ordered a new (differant) set from DPA. which should arrive any minute. Although the Voxx 17'' x 7.5 ET:38 mounted up. I'm not pleased at how CariD handled this whole order. The valve stims don't match the van so these have to be replaced. The CariD didn't send the wheel rings and I had a hard time finding and getting a set so I had the uncle mill me a set. then if that wasn't enough, The socket style tuner lugs are shaped like a socket without any budge/acorn to them and they aren't holding very well on these Voxx wheels. Several times I've had to keep the lugs in check because while driving home from NC, I kept hearing a clunk sound. Turns out that some of the tuner lugs had worked themselves loose and was making the brake rotor move from side to side.
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Ford doesn't use any retaining clips on the rotors so make sure you tighten the lugs on your wheels. Lastly once home I ordered a set of the DPA budge acorn style tuner lugs. But according to Amazon and even DPA's site I needed the M12 1.5 and when they arrived.. they were too small. In fact doing more research. I found out that if you're driving the Passenger van, you get the M12 lugs. While the cargo Van gets the M14 lugs. So don't make the same mistake we did.
After all was said and done, but I'm still waiting on the DPA tuners, the 17'' x 7.5 Voxx Capo wheels w/ 215/50/17 Nitto tires will fit on the van. Whether or not you like it is up to you. if I had to do it over, I would have went 18 x 8 & 225/50/18 tires as I feel there's still plenty of room in the wheel wells for larger wheels and low profile tires. Although the van looks slammed with smaller tires but larger wheels, the van handled extremely better than the factory 215/55/16 wheels/tires. These low profile Nitto tires grip the road and turn on a dime. As for the factory 16's these tended to stick tot he road causing over steer. The van would dive left or right according to the diction one was turning.
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Oh and as for the new brake pads on the van, love the stopping power and how much clear these are as compared to the stock Ford versions.
Just moments ago, Fedex dropped off the correct M14 x 1.5 budge acorn tuner lugs. Just so everyone knows, That if you own the Passenger van (SWB or LWB) these require the M12 x 1.5 lugs while those who own the Cargo van (SWB or LWB) They require the M14 x 1.5 lugs.
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