[grossebarbe]

Had serious rubbing between upper control arm and the inner wheel barrel of my aluminum GTA wheel. Found a lot of aluminum shaving on my brake and in my driveway. I notched the control arm and the interference is now solved.



My wheel is severly grooved. Tire is still holding pressure. Do you guys believe it is safe to use that wheel?

[BogiesAnnex1]

Since you have 3 undamaged wheels you can compare how much material was removed. Wheels are usually well over designed so if it isn't much material lost you're probably OK.

You're situation brings back an interesting point where opposite sides of suspension systems are not always the same clearances which can catch you when changing rim types.

Bogie

[CaptMike]

wheel, difficult to tell from a small photo.

Me, I'd take it to a pro shop that repairs broken wheels.

But, your better off just replacing the wheel.

Notching a Control Arm, I'm not at all comfortable with that.

If you must run these wheels, replace the wheel and control arm and get a pair of wheel spacers.

[techinspector1]

Not a fan of grooved wheels.
Not a fan of notched control arms.
Not a fan of wheel spacers because they increase the scrub radius, altering front suspension and steering characteristics.

[CaptMike]

ALL TRUE,

But wheel spacers aren't generally dangerous if properly manufactured. And Odd and it sounds accepted in the NHRA Rule Book. I was very surprised.

Ya, I know, there's a great number of manufactured Junk being sold.

Yes, wheel spacers do change the suspension geometry, as does most all suspension changes. But seemingly all the thousands of Alloys Wheels many with offset changes don't cause much concern.

Even GM wheels options for the same suspension, the wheels have different offsets.

Grinding on moving suspension components and wheels, My opinion is that's dangerous !!

[jaw22w]

I think Bogie is right on the wheel. Compare it to the others. We ran aluminum wheels on our sprint cars that were a lot thinner than yours. Believe me, they were grooved after a few races. I'd bet your wheel is OK. Heck, I bet that flange is really thick right there. Probably at least 3/4".
As far as grinding on your A Arm, I think some INTELLIGENT grinding will not hurt anything. I don't know what A arms we are talking about but I can think of a lot of places on a stock A arm that could be trimmed without ill effect. For the stock cars I have cut and welded, moved ball joints, etc. a lot of A arms. This is a hot rod site. Everything gets modified! They let me weld on nuclear reactor vessels, though. So I am pretty sure of my welding.

[matt167]

One of our good customers has an original '87 GTA. Front and rear are supposed to be different wheels according to GM/ Pontiac but his car has 2 sets of rear wheels according to the part number. Not sure why but the car was pretty much untouched as he bought it. Front runs a 1/4" spacer. Without that it would have the same contact with the wheel.

I would verify you have the right wheels on the car, because it's a possibility that Pontiac sent it down the line with the wrong wheels, or it was a fix later on. As far as safety. dismount the tire and mic the bead.. Keep in mind, clamp on wheel weights may no longer clamp correctly. It's probably safe