So I went over to the garage after dinner to put the new wheels on the C5Z. Figured I should start with the rear wheels, because I just wasn't convinced that they were going to go on without issues. And yeah, sure enough. I just put the passenger side on and spun the tire by hand and could hear obvious rubbing of the tire against the brake air duct.
The rubbing is at a different spot on the duct, so my guess is this would be a problem.
So I took a look at the driver's side to see how much trouble it would be to just remove that duct completely. Not too tough. Just a half dozen or so 7mm screws holding the wheelwell liner and the duct in place. So now there is just a hole in the liner instead of the air being directed via the duct.
I don't think it will really affect anything, as I don't take the car to the track and doubt the brakes would ever overheat on me.
So I pulled the passenger side wheel off again, and did the same on that side.
Interestingly enough, when I pulled those liners out, I had what seemed like a couple pounds of sand fall out onto the floor with more remaining below the duct vents.
Oh yeah, I wanted to use my old lugnuts, but come to find out they were too large in diameter for the front wheels. I couldn't get my socket around them to tighten them onto the hubs. Fortunately a new set of lugnuts came with the wheels, and they used a smaller diameter socket that would work OK.
So, the wheels are installed. But will likely be a while before I can take the car out for a test drive. Raining like hell here all day long, and supposed to continue on through Monday or so. No, I don't want to get mud stuffed into all those nooks and crannies that the sand has been getting into.