Why no fit?

[vrracing]

Guys, need some advice. I read RETed's wheel and tire advice pages. I ordered a set of TSW Jaramas in black for my son's Christmas present. I was going for a real racecar look, sidewalls flush to the fenders, no stretch, no 4x4 sticking out, no illegitimate camber, etc. Rolling the fender lips would be ok, pulling the fenders not. Like this...



Based mostly on RETed's pages, I ordered:

2 TSW Jarama
18X9.5 5-114.3 20GBL

2 TSW Jarama
17X8 5-114.3 40GBL

and 7/16" (11mm) spacers for the front along with ARP lug studs.

Per RETed's page with Min being flush and Max getting awfully close to the suspension bits...

For the fronts...


Rim width: Minimum offset: Recommended offset: Maximum offset:
8"---------+25-------------+30-----------------+35


Given that, we should have had the recommended offset (+/- 1mm). And yet the front wheels (no tires mounted) stuck out quite a bit - maybe 1/2" (13mm).

We thought it might be because of the unloaded suspension but even with the suspension blocked at ride height and fully loaded they still stuck out.

The rears were worst.


Rim width: Minimum offset: Recommended offset: Maximum offset:
9.5"-------+20-------------+25-----------------+30


In theory our 18X9.5 5-114.3 20GBL should have been nice and flush. But instead we got this (suspension fully compressed)...



As you can see its not even close. RETed obviously put a lot of thought and care into those suggestions and commented at length in the thread about side wall bulge. So, that suggests something is very goofy about our car. Current wheels look symmetrical side-to-side. Car has been aligned and when we bought it 2006 the CarFax was clean. Any thoughts?

We put a straight-edge against the hub (well, brake rotor face) and got the following measurements...

Front
64mm from wheel centerline to outside of fender
170mm from wheel centerline to shock

Rear
90mm from wheel centerline to outside of fender
170mm from wheel centerline to trailing arm

I'm going to use those numbers to try to calculate our the correct widths and offsets. I'm just bummed we were so off.

Thanks for sharing any insights yall might have.