Rudy Guardado, a technician at the Firestone Auto Care Center in Reseda, California, assisted us with mounting and high-speed balancing our coupe's new rolling stock. Tape-on weights are affixed to the back of each wheel to ensure there won't be any abnormal vibration or ill handling coming from the tires when we're rolling down the boulevard at a nice clip.
Once the tires are mounted and balanced, installing everything is an afternoon project that requires only a few tools. Critical tools include a 4-pound (long-head and handle) and 3-pound (short-head and handle) sledgehammer; a bright marking crayon; and Snap-on Tools' 18-volt, 1/2-inch-drive cordless impact gun (PN CT4850; $449.96).
The outer lips of our coupe's rear wheelwells were trimmed and rolled in a pit-side thrash at PINKS All-Out: Las Vegas ("Lights, Cameras...Action!" Mar. '08, p. 128), but having Eastwood's fender roller (PN 31158; $249.99) handy is a good idea, as the outer areas may require some attention if your 'Stang is lowered. We also had a cutoff wheel and a pair of snips on standby, but the job didn't require using either of those tools.
For a non-mini-tubbed Fox 'Stang, 6.5 inches of backspace offers the best fitment of 10-inch-wide rear wheels. Mavromont's Pony Rs' backspace checks in just below that maximum. We verified this by laying a wheel face down, then placed a straightedge diagonally across the inboard flange of the wheel. Using a tape measure, we measured the distance from the intersection of the straightedge and the wheel's inboard flange to the wheel's hub-mounting pad. That distance equals the amount of backspace.
For street purposes, the coupe was equipped with 17x9-inch replicas of '07 Shelby GT 500 wheels, with 275/40R-17 Nittos in the back and 235/45ZR-17 555s in the front.
The project car's AlumaStealth fuel tank doesn't leave adequate clearance for a standard floor jack, which can make things challenging when both rear wheels must be elevated. OTC's lightweight aluminum, 2-ton racing jack (PN 1532; $324.95) features a low-profile design that makes lifting our coupe's back end much easier. The OTC adjustable jackstands are there for additional safety, of course.
For grins, we measured the replica Shelby wheel's backspace and calculated 6.25 inches.