[M_a_t_t]

I am looking at fixing/patching the rust on my mercury tracer. It is a common problem for this car to rust the rear strut towers out. I am thinking about other things I might do while working on that portion of the car.

Sample pic:


I am thinking about welding up a small frame to tie the strut towers into the clean area of the trunk. I also have a hole in the wheel well I would like to do something about.



Which leads me to my questions.

1. What is a good size tire to plan for in the future? I am currently on 165/65 14's (re92's), but I looked at tirerack's website and there doesn't seem to be many options. Different rim size possible if worth it for a good (eco-oriented) set of tires.

2. I am thinking about shrinking the wheel well with the replacement. Most super cars have little to no fender gap. I would assume having a tighter fitting wheel well is better for aero (aka filling in the gap ecomod #39/65+). Of course the other option is just cover the wheels up.

3. I bought some cheap lowering stuff awhile ago (~5/3/2020). It's a "universal" aka really cheap kit. The MOOG stock replacement coil springs are 113 lbs/in rear vs ~130 lbs/in for the cheap kit. Front are MOOG = 156 lbs/in vs ~230 lbs/in. Both MOOG are are also listed as variable rate. It sounds like it might be fine, but the replacement springs are not as long (actually about 1/2 the length of the originals). The only lowering kit I could find for this car uses the same concept, but cost 10x as much. Thoughts? Just cut a coil off the stock springs?
Cheap kit:
https://www.amazon.com/Integra-Alumi...a-6185fb77bc58


Expensive:
https://groundcontrolstore.com/colle...3-91-98-tracer