I've been making some progress on what I want my '89 XJ-S to be. I've decided officially on an LS3 swap and parts are on order.
So that means I have a problem. Well, many problems. One of them being the dust bunnies in my now empty wallet.

Anyway.... my only known unsolved issue is wheels and tires. Previous owner put 215/60R15s on the car which basically means if I put an LS3 in it, I'll actually have a smoke machine instead of a car.

I've also figure out that I want for tires sort of determines what I have to do with the body.
I'd prefer any body work to be as subtle as possible which likely puts me in direct conflict with the tires I'd like to have.

In a perfect world, what I want would look something like this:

• Rear: 285/35R17, 17 x 10 rims
• Front: 245/40R17, 17 x 8.5 rims

Those values are based off a car I owned in the past. I'm not expecting the exact same feel but it seemed like a good place to start.

If I'm careful with offsets, I think I'll be at least very close to being able to get away with those sizes in the front, according to "Ideal Offsets" Thread from 2011 anyway, without any real work.
The poster doesn't say if they're working with a pre or post facelift car though and I've heard that can make a pretty big difference. I've taken rough measurements of my car already but they didn't seem right so I'll get more detail this weekend.

I know the rear is going to be a problem at those sizes.

So I'm looking for advice:

• Will the offset needs of those wheel/tire sizes create issues I'm not thinking about besides just rubbing on stuff if they're wrong? Maybe like excessive wheel bearing issues or axle wear? Messed up steering geometry? Wheel tramming on the road?
• How hard is fender pulling/rolling these cars? I've pulled junkyard fenders before but never something with panels that felt solid like these do.
• Anyone know of roughly how much space I can buy without substantially changing the body lines of the car? I know that's a vague question but I'd love pictures/descriptions of what people have done and how much success they had.
• Is there anything simple-ish I can do to buy more room "behind" the rear wheel so I can do less fender manipulation? I saw some suggesting to grind down the bump stop and/or body seams a little but something about that doesn't sound like a good idea