finally got my wheels and links on

[stevedel]

so after owning my 220 for about 2.5yrs now, i finally put on some wheels that i had for about a month now. my tires were worn on my factory wheels, so naturally i had to upgrade to plus sized wheels with lowering links to get the stance right. after almost a week of waiting for the tire shop to find the right valve stems, i got the wheels mounted yesterday. (excuse the 4x4 mode) then today, i went to my friend's shop to install the lowering links. we got a lil' ahead of ourselves on the first adjustment and put it just a tad too low. lol it was totally undriveable at this height, but it looked dope. sorry for the crappy, cellphone teaser pics. i'll post some proper pics later. for those that are curious, the wheels are OZ Opera II 20x9.5 et35 wrapped with Falken 452 245/35 all the way around.

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[Arlen777]

Good job!!! looks really good and pretty driveable to me, i drove like that for like 2 months until got upgraded to 20's, now cant wait for my fenders pulled to drop it again. Make some front and rear pics

[stevedel]

Originally Posted by Arlen777

Good job!!! looks really good and pretty driveable to me, i drove like that for like 2 months until got upgraded to 20's, now cant wait for my fenders pulled to drop it again. Make some front and rear pics

it was rubbing like crazy in the rear and would flex my front fenders at full lock, so it wasn't exactly practical. besides, the wife would've killed me since she sometimes drive the car too. we raised so that there is no fender gap at the low position and about 1 finger at the raised position. i call the raised position the "wife friendly" height. we still had to grind the tabs off in the rear to eliminate the rubbing at the final height.

[stevedel]

for the past 2.5yrs i rolled around like like this



since new tires were necessary, i upgraded to these



straight 4x4 style; holy wheel gap batman



i broke my rule of suspension before wheels, but i took care of that the very next day. however, since the car was originally equipped with the gold package, i had to get rid of that. no more grandpa style!



(bonus homage to old school pager codes )



nice and smooth out back now



thanks to the lowering links from adjustableairride, i got my ride height proper.





thank goodness for airmatic, 'cause now my wife won't kill me cause she can drive the car like this





overall, i am fairly happy with the way things came out. however, the more i look at the car, i feel like i can dial in the stance a lil' better if i spaced the rears (flame suit on ) a tiny bit.

[S500 Man]

looks good now get newer style headlights and tail lights and mirror lights and your done!

[ssonss1]

Beautiful! love the white, reminds me of my S. Some 03+ lights an you'll look like this




Perfect stance on your car

[stevedel]

I kinda like the look of the fluted headlight lenses on the non-AMG body and think it might look weird with updated tails and early headlights. I definitely need to get rid of the orange sidemarkers and plan to remove the tint once the weather cools down here and maybe put on a wood wheel.

I remember someone used to sell body colored sidemarkers that still illuminated; does anyone remember where to get those or if they are still being made?

[RedG]

Nothing wrong at all with having the wheel lips flush with the fenders. Being a good luxury platform it pulls it all off nicely. You should check out what some VIP-style guys have done to these: www.vipstylecars.com

[trudawg]

The wheels look absolutrly PERFECT!! Where did u pick them up and how much (if u don't mind me asking)

[stevedel]

Originally Posted by RedG

Nothing wrong at all with having the wheel lips flush with the fenders. Being a good luxury platform it pulls it all off nicely. You should check out what some VIP-style guys have done to these: www.vipstylecars.com

funny, that I wasn't even gong for or even though about a VIP look. just wanted a nice set of wheels with a god stance. the reason I mentioned putting my "flame suit" on, is because spacers, low offset and stretching is widely frowned upon in this forum. if getting my lips to fit flush makes it VIP, then so be it, that's all good with me.

Originally Posted by trudawg

The wheels look absolutrly PERFECT!! Where did u pick them up and how much (if u don't mind me asking)

i found the wheels on ebay and basically stole them for $1K considering they were never mounted previously and used to sell for nearly that amount per wheel when the first came out. there is another guy from Miami that has a staggered set of the same wheels on a silver S500 (he has a pic in the picture thread).

[suprnate]

Funny, I never thought about sourcing the OZ Operas for my S Class, even though it sits right next to my C Class with Operas! Haha... I might just have to get out there and find me a set of 20s! I love them! Great Job

[cheez80]

Originally Posted by RedG

Nothing wrong at all with having the wheel lips flush with the fenders. Being a good luxury platform it pulls it all off nicely. You should check out what some VIP-style guys have done to these: www.vipstylecars.com

WHAT? a link to VSC on mbworld? what's next, unicorns sprouting out of my exhaust?

(just kidding, i think most members would have a cow if they saw what went on at VSC hahaha)

[S500Miami]

[IMG][/IMG]

Here is my Silver 2002 S500 with the staggered 20" Opera II's in straight up 4X4 mode. I seriously need to look into lowering it a bit after seeing how nice your ride looks.

Your car looks really nice and I love the way you can set it up for the wife to drive.

[Oxygen]

Awesome job on the transformation... the car looks fantastic!

Nice to see a car around here that looks great and not ghetto.

I never even knew they had a "gold package"... must have been something custom? Looks like the stuff is plated or something.

Also please do not change your headlights or tails... it takes a lot to appreciate the first generation W220 and once you do the headlights and tails looks awesome even today in 2009!

[MR.J]

Originally Posted by cheez80

WHAT? a link to VSC on mbworld? what's next, unicorns sprouting out of my exhaust?

(just kidding, i think most members would have a cow if they saw what went on at VSC hahaha)

my heart just stop..




steve your car sits nice pretty flush ..

[stevedel]

I think the stance might benefit with a 5-8mm spacer in the rear, but I would probably have to raise the rear a smidge if I did. I may just adjust the front links 1 full turn to negate the appearance of reverse rake since the rear arches are naturally lower than the fronts.