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iTrader: (10)

Ok my real day started after I got home from my classes around 2pm. So I pick up the fat book and my phone, and proceeded to call tire/car shops to get some estimates on how much to get new tires mounted on my old 18s. I ended up deciding to go to my favorite local shop anyways, Scott Tire on Trimble ave (Trimble ave. has played a major role in my Civic's life so far; next door to the Scott Tire is the autobody that gave my car a facelift after 2 brutal accidents. I love those guys!)

So I stuff my Civic with 4 humongous tires and 18 rims; 2 of each in the rear bench, a tire & rim in the passenger seat, and a tire & rim in the trunk (my stupid 12 disk changer is fixed along the top of my trunk ceiling so I could not stack the items). I head over to the tire shop, and they proceed with the ceremonies. First the owner of the shop started interrogating me: "Are you sure they'll fit?" "Are the tires..." "Are the rims.." "How much were the tires?" "How about the rims?" (I don't mind. That shop is always hounded by ricers who by rims that don't match their cars' lug pattern. It wastes their time). It's funny cause they were the shop that put them on back in the day when I bought them new. But it pissed me off how I forgot about some things also (you'll find out soon).
Then they unloaded. Old 17s off. Balance wheels. Slap on the rubbers. Balance tires. It's awesome looking how the car sits up on the racks like that! Some day I'm gonna get lifts to make it 3/4 of a foot off the ground.

Ok when the wheels were ready, they went ahead to put them on. Then I realized i forgot to get LUGNUTS!!! doh! The lugnuts on my 17s were special lugnuts too, but what I needed were tuner lugs! Slim *** lug holes. Luckily the owner of the shop had a last set stored away. Owner of the shop. At the same time, a guy who works there, offered to buy my 17s! I was surprised, it was so fast! I told him $400, but caved in at $300 (I bought those used with no tires for $300, and he's getting them usedxused with tires so it was pretty fair). So they got the front ones on... Beautiful!
They check to see any rubbing, but they were perfect. Ok the bad news. They went ahead with the rear. First they did the passengerside rear. It went on but it rubbed on the inside. They tried the driverside rear. There were hoses of the gas tank to the gas hanger covered by plastic in the wheel well, in the way. It would not even sit on the drum flat! The owner rushed up to me and went "I thought you said they fit!!!"
I'm thinking "****. They fit last time... My buddies on 7th gen have 18x7.5s and theirs fit..."
That's when I remember! SPACERS!!! I had quarter-inch spacers for the rears. But I got rid of those (along with my original tuner lugs) that I used 2 years ago. I was like: . The owner's son with a hot hot black Mustang (looked like one of the boxy '02s) suggested that I follow him to this performance shop that might have them. I agreed.

So there we were. All staring at my car with 18s (Konig Monsoon) with 5 spokes on the fronts, and 17s (Konig Wildfire) with 13 spokes on the rear. I had become a reject with mismatching rims. The mechanics decide that I should leave the way it was, get spacers (from a shop they referred me to), and come back tomorrow morning. Then I was off to pay my bill. I coughed up $110 (after the discount, because they know me there). In between my debit card getting verified and signing the receipt, the older guy at the clerk blew his top at the owner of the place. I was like OH ****! He started screaming about his paycheck, and how the manager could possibly get $450 by 5pm from the banks (they close at 5pm). I felt sorry for the manager. He looked sad, and all his replies were subtle like he was just absorbing that clerk guy's anger. A guy keeping tire inventory walked next to me, still checking off his clipboard, and said "as long as you're not in it, don't say nothin." I was thinking no duh. So I'm off with my mismatching tires. I exchanged numbers with that guy who wanted my 17s. And said I would call as soon as I got spacers (if I got the spacers, he would bring my to his godfather's shop, which is open later and Scott Tire was). Then I followed the Mustang kid.

So he showed me where the shop was and pull out of the lot and drove away. I never thought a Ford owner would be so nice to a Honda person! I'm gonna leave his dad a fruit basket. So I go in, and they don't have. There a lot of performance shops along route 46 so I stop in at each one i saw. About the 4th try, they have some at $10 each. I only have $15 in cash so they took it. woohoo! I'm heading back to my town and the guy who wants my 17s calls me up. I was like, yeah man I just hope these spacers are wide enough (I bought two 1/6 of an inch, just for the rears (they are lined up perfectly along the rear side panels and dont stick out!). So he directs me until we saw eachother at an intersection and I followed him. BTW he went to bring his wife to work while I was searching for spacers. So we get to his godfather's shop. w00t w00t

longer story short: they fit his Mistubishi (I think '90 Galant). I got my 18s finally back on, with no more rubbing (stupid gas door&hose placement!). I forgot how high my 7th gen rode with the 18's on (it's been 2 years, plus my sister had them on and then just kept them at her house for a while when she didn't want them anymore)! It's at least 1/2 a foot or more up! Now I miss my 17" Konig Wildfire rims! You can see my small front brakes and ugly *** drum brakes in the rear! I'm back to the common style rim (which is the reason why i went with the 17s), but at least they're 18s. I'm just so ecstatic that I sold the 17s so fast. I was gonna unmount the tires (2 were practically bald, because they came used with 17s and I only put them on now after 2 of my tires got slashed) and then sell them on eBay or something. $300 cash on the spot was good though.

Thanks for reading this. It made my day.




***For Future Reference: You will NEED SPACERS if you buy 18"x7.5" rims with 225/40/18 size tires!!! (I'm not sure about lesser size tires)
I choose 225/40 because I remember they gave a nice smooth ride with less bumps that the 215/35/17 tires gave me on my 17" tires. Both were Z rated, which I can't care any less about because I drive a Civic anyway. Yuck to my 17s, but I do miss they're uniqueness.

hankscorpio

iTrader: (1)

that was alright, a little longer than i would have liked spending on this post, but you shared what you did today, good for you. Good job on the rims